Earnhardt Jr comments on crew chief change

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a busy Thursday. A day after he spent two days testing at Virginia International Raceway, he headed to Michigan for a media event for Michigan International Speedway. While en-route there, Hendrick Motorsports released a statement that Tony Eury Jr., Earnhardt’s cousin, had been replaced as crew chief on the No. 88 team. 

Starting at next week’s event at Pocono, the team will be led by Lance McGrew. This weekend at Dover team manger Brian Whitesell will be on top of the pit box.

The media event in Michigan Thursday gave Earnhardt his first opportunity to comment on the change.

After a miserable season thus far, the team had only scored one top-five and two top-ten finishes, many felt the change was long overdue and wondered why it took so long for the change to happen.

"It took so long because of mine and Tony Jr.'s relationship, we're cousins, we're a lot like brothers," Earnhardt said. "We've been sort of at odds with each other over the last couple of weeks, but as a whole our relationship is really, really strong, and we've always really had a great enthusiasm to work together.”

"We came to Hendrick, and it was a little bit of risk, we felt a lot of pressure. When we went to there to work we jumped in with both feet and really felt like we were gonna make it happen, and it's really, really disappointing that it didn't work out like we wanted.

"Just the fact that me and Tony Jr. are really close, it would have been such a great story for me and Rick and Tony Jr., with our history and connections. And Tony Jr. is a good crew chief. That's really kind of what's perplexing, is that I can drive a car and he can work on 'em and he knows what he's doing, and we've had success in the past, we ran well last year and this year we're not even mediocre. And in the last two weeks, quite arguably we've been one of the worst teams on the track.

"So it's really confusing, and we don't have an answer as to why it isn't working. I'm sad because of how close I am to Tony Jr., and I wanted it to work. We have been quite aware of our situation, we've been in meetings over the last several weeks, obviously, with Rick and some of the other management, and so we really kind of knew the direction the deal was going. So it's no real surprise sprung on anybody."

Despite being upset that he is losing his cousin as crew chief, Earnhardt said both knew a change was coming.

"Me and Tony Jr. told Rick to do whatever he needs to do . . . whenever you decide that something needs to happen you just make the change you want to make. And I told Rick that whatever he wanted to do, to do it. And that meant . . . that if he thought I wasn't able to get the job done, that I would be fine if he wanted to change who was in the seat. If he wanted to change certain particulars on the team, whatever, but to not necessarily involve me. His race teams, that's their business. They've put together championships, I want 'em to just do whatever it takes, and that's the way Tony Jr. felt too. So we just kind of worked hard to try and make it better, and I guess after the last couple of weeks they've decided we're in a tough situation, and that we have to perform for our sponsors. There are so many expectations out there for us to run well, our fans and our sponsors, we can't . . . continue.”

As for his new crew chief, Earnhardt said he didn’t have any problems with the choice of Lance McGrew.

"I like, I've worked with him in the past, I think I'll be perfectly OK and confident going to the race track with (him) . . . So I feel OK with what Rick has chosen to do in the interim. I'm anticipating and anxious to see what opportunities are out there for this team in the future . . . this combination here could be amazing, I don't really know.

Earnhardt  added that it doesn’t matter who is leading the team to him, he goes out each and every week motivated to win.

"I still feel confident," said Earnhardt. "Days before we go the race track on the weekend, I start getting really antsy to get in the car, cant wait for the first practice to start. Especially when we're running as poorly as we've ran, you just want to get to the next track as soon as you can 'cause you're just ready to find some kind of spark that's gonna turn it around and you know the only way that's gonna happen is by being at the track, and not sittin' at home. Things aren't gonna turn around sittin' at home. Things are gonna turn around the next time you go to the track . . . that tells me that my initiative is still in tact and my willingness and determination is still intact, as beaten down as me and Tony Jr. and the team are, so that's good. I feel good about that because you damn sure don't want to lose your desire to go to work."

One of the biggest question still remains; what happened, and why didn’t the pairing of Earnhardt and Eury work.

"That's really the confusing part . . . I don't know, I have no idea,"  said Earnhardt. "Nothing's different than last year. It's kinda' like lookin' down out of a boat into the lake, and you can only see about a foot and the problem lays about six, seven, eight foot down and you just can't see it. You know it's there.

"The only thing that I can say was a little bit of an issue was that most of last year we ran on the right front bump stop, and we were running good with that, and we had studied and learned that. During the middle of the season Jimmie was trying some different stuff, he started having success with it. We started trying it and trying to make it work, and tried to learn it so we could be ready going into the Chase and not get our butts kicked, and we really got lost trying to develop this other idea in how to set the car up. We got away from what was working, and we never really regained that momentum back.

"When we started this season, we really went back to what worked at the beginning of last year, what every other team had learned had now progressed and passed us. So what was working last year was now a half-second slower compared to what everybody else has done. So we ran that for a few weeks and were struggling to run in the top 10. So in the last three to four weeks we've started working really closely with what Mark (Martin) has been using, and we've seen some sort of glimpses of speed."

Despite all that however, nothing seemed to work.

"We went to Chicago, and we were really, really quick compared to everybody, the car drove great. So we were thinking, man, we're gonna go to the 600 with the same package, and we come off the trailer and we put a time up that was in the top five in the first practice, and then it went downhill from there.

"Every change we made screwed up the car, every change we made started a fight, an argument. Things just got worse and worse. We take what Mark's been using that's working and winning, we go test at Chicago, and it runs good and does what it should and it's really fast. We show up at, we hit the track, we go out and run the fast time, we run a good lap the first practice. I'm excited--and it was a steep, slippery slope from there. And by the end of the weekend, we had totally worked ourselves right out of the ballpark. A change is made to the car and it goes out and has a horrible reaction. That really was the catalyst to our frustration and me and Tony Jr. sort of getting at each other a little bit, which happens a lot between me and him.

"But that's sort of like the horse before the cart, the car giving us problems and us being under a lot of pressure . . . kind of pits us against each other. A lot of people are gonna assume we don't run successful because we fight, but it's really the other way around. It's that when you're unsuccessful, that is when you fight. We tried really, really hard."

NASCAR’s most popular driver pointed out that being part of the legendary Earnhardt family carries with is a lot of strain.

"There's just so much pressure, so much pressure on that team," said Earnhardt. "Those guys on that team don't go the race track and show up under the same environment as anyone else. And especially Tony Jr. and the guy that decides to run that team as a crew chief , he's definitely in a different situation and environment than any other crew chief. So I'll tell you, the guy who takes that job going into 2010 is either confident as hell or crazy. And maybe that's what we need."

Earnhardt finished by accepting blame for his situation.

"I never asked Rick to give a percentage one way or another. In the last practice (for the 600), I was pretty upset and I wasn't really productive so that, you know, that situation was not fun. I think that during our meetings that we've had, we addressed all of our weaknesses, we addressed my weaknesses, we addressed Tony Jr.'s weaknesses, trying to figure out how to fix those.

"I definitely personally take half the responsibility for it not working. I mean, I'm just as responsible for it to work as Tony Jr. is. The thing is, he's really, really, really talented, and I feel a lot of failure for not being able to tap in on that, I feel a lot of disappointment and failure for not being able to take advantage of his strengths, because he's really, really smart. The guy has done great things and he will do great things again."

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