The goodwill is gone, just as the holidays are. NASCAR's season-opening race is more than three weeks away but bickering competitors are in midseason form.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Teresa Earnhardt don't get along. Kevin Harvick calls out Teresa Earnhardt for her management style. Jack Roush intensifies his rants against Toyota. Jeremy Mayfield blisters former boss Ray Evernham. Tony Stewart says he's ready to fight Carl Edwards.

Can't you just see Jerry Springer pitching a special edition of his show with this cast?

Harvick and Roush have each raised NASCAR's anger level from orange to red in the last few days.

Harvick called Teresa Earnhardt, who owns Dale Earnhardt Inc., a "deadbeat owner'' for rarely going to races.

"You always see Richard Childress,'' Harvick said of his boss at the track. "You always see all these other guys.

"It's not just a money pit that somebody says,

"Well, I can make money off Dale Jr. I can make money off Dale Earnhardt this and that. You can't run his race team away from the race track. You have to be at the race track, and you have to play the politics of the sport. You have to be a part of your team. And, you have to understand what's going on.

"To me, from the outside looking in, it doesn't look like its happening.''

Earnhardt Jr. called Harvick's comments "ridiculous.''

"I don't think there's a comment for Kevin's remarks,'' Earnhardt Jr. said.

"With everything that has happened, not just to the company but to the family in the last five years, [Teresa] has had a full plate. I think that she's been responsible for, willingly and unwillingly, a lot to battle with. She's taken care of things most important for family.''

Earnhardt Jr.'s comments came a couple of weeks after he admitted his relationship with Teresa Earnhardt, his boss and stepmother, "ain't a bed of roses.''

Earnhardt Jr., who is in the final year of his contract, said he was not happy with comments Teresa Earnhardt made in December questioning his commitment.

Earnhardt Jr. said his relationship with Teresa Earnhardt would play a factor in contract talks.

Talk is what Roush has done for several months about Toyota entering the Cup series.

He says Toyota will outspend teams and that Toyota's technology will create an imbalance.

Wednesday, Roush ratcheted the rhetoric.

"We're going to go to war with them and they should give us their best shot,'' he said.

Later, Roush said of Toyota's entrance: "I'm definitely preparing myself for a siege.''

When asked why he was so scared of Toyota, which has spent millions in Formula One and had limited success, Roush fired back that he wasn't scared. "I don't back way from a good fight.''

Neither does Mayfield. His departure from Evernham Motorsports last season turned nasty. Mayfield stated in court documents that Evernham's relationship with the team's development driver, Erin Crocker, took Evernham away from his duties as owner.

Evernham countered that Mayfield wrecked intentionally at Indianapolis. Mayfield remains bitter.

"The war ain't over yet,'' Mayfield said.

Fortunately for Mayfield and Roush, the "war'' features only words and maybe money, not what others are going through around the world.