A pivotal weekend ahead for Earnhardt family
Dale Earnhardt Jr is in the hub of perhaps the worst season in Sprint Cup competition. He is the center of criticism, not only from the media, but also fans, even his own. Based on recent performance, it was discernible that something needed to change on the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 team. Finally, Rick Hendrick pulled the plug on the Earnhardt Jr/Tony Eury Jr combination.
Lance McGrew will replace Eury Jr as the interim crew chief. McGrew was overseeing the part-time No. 25 effort driven by Brad Keselowski. McGrew has won races in all three major divisions.
Eury Jr will remain with Hendrick Motorsports in a R&D role. The last time Earnhardt Jr had another crew chief other than his cousin was in 2005 when Pete Rondeau led the No. 8 crew for DEI.
Earnhardt Jr hopes that this is the turning point in what has turned out to be dreadful 2009 campaign.
Earnhardt Jr is supportive of Hendrick’s decision to make a change.
“I told Rick when me and Tony Jr were quite aware how delicate our situation was over the last several weeks and we knew we needed to step up our performance somehow, some way to be able to keep out situation intact…me and Tony Jr both told Rick to make the decisions they need to make as a company and we would support them, whichever decisions they made, so that’s what’s happening,” he said.
Other drivers shared their opinions on the crew chief switch, but former Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Busch pulled no punches.
“If Junior doesn’t run well, then he’s (Lance McGrew) going to be the problem. It’s never Junior. It’s always the crew chief,” Busch said. He sarcastically stated that Hendrick has to “make the most popular driver in the sport competitive.”
Uh, that is his job, to make all of his drivers competitive, even the most popular one.
While Dale Earnhardt Jr is about to begin a tenure with a new crew chief, his nephew Jeffrey Earnhardt is hoping to make his Nationwide Series debut this weekend. He will attempt to qualify for Saturday’s race for Rick Ware Racing.
Earnhardt will drive the No. 31 Chevrolet. The team has no guaranteed a spot in the starting lineup, so the fourth generation driver must qualify on speed.
“I’ve got a good car going there and a good group of guys going with us. Hopefully, we’ll stay out of trouble a have a good race,” he said.
Earnhardt is only nineteen years of age, and it appears as if there is no rush to move him into the Sprint Cup Series, even with the possible opening with the No. 1 team is Martin Truex Jr does indeed leave Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.
Earlier in the week, the Sporting News reported that Dale Earnhardt, Inc. has plans to honor the late Dale Earnhardt with a series of events at the DEI headquarters.
Many are under the misconception that DEI is no more, but it is still a company employing some fifty-plus employees. The NASCAR operation merged with Chip Ganassi’s team in order to enhance the performance of the program.
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A pivotal weekend ahead for Earnhardt family
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