Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief replaced

Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief replaced
ESPN.com

CONCORD, N.C. -- Tony Eury Jr. is out as the crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Team manager Brian Whitesell will be the crew chief this weekend at Dover. Lance McGrew will take over next week on an interim basis for NASCAR's most popular driver.

"Our performance hasn't been where it should be," Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick said in a prepared statement announcing the change. "It's impossible to pin that on any one factor, but a change is the right decision at this point. We have a plan in place, and we're going to move forward with it."

The team said Whitesell, who two of seven races as Jeff Gordon's interim crew chief in 1999, and Rex Stump, the team's lead chassis engineer, will support McGrew on a full-time basis, with team engineer Tom Stewart on the No. 88 pit box to assist with race strategy.

"We're going to put our full resources toward improving the situation and winning races," Hendrick said. "It's going to be a collective effort that includes all of our drivers, all of our crew chiefs and all of our engineers. Everyone in our company will be involved on some level."

Hendrick indicated on Tuesday that a change was being considered when he did not give Eury the vote of confidence he has given him on several other occasions this season.

"Could it change?" Hendrick said following a meeting with NASCAR officials at the Research and Development Center. "We're talking about things. We're going to make decisions as the days go by, but we haven't made any decisions as it stands now."

Earnhardt is 19th in points, 203 behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin for the 12th and final Chase spot, after finishing 40th in Monday's rain-delayed, rain-shortened-Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

That was the third straight race in which NASCAR's most popular driver had finished 27th or worse since a second-place finish at Talladega.

That apparently forced Hendrick's hand.

"We're always concerned when we have a car not run well," he said. "We're always meeting and trying to figure out how to make it better. We've got to come up with a plan and we've got to work toward that.

"We thought we had a pretty good plan coming to Charlotte. I was fairly pleased with the All-Star race and thought we would do better Sunday. We weren't."

Earnhardt, as he has been much of this season, easily had the worst finish of the four Hendrick Motorsports cars on Monday. Jimmie Johnson was 13th, but ran up front most of the day before getting caught back in the field during the final caution for rain. Gordon was 14th, but felt he had a car that was "coming" before rain stopped the race after 227 of 400 laps. Mark Martin was 17th after running up front early.

"We just missed the setup," Hendrick said. "I can't explain why. We basically were the same for all four cars. They all fought a lot of the same problems early on. As probably a group we were off. We've been better at Charlotte than we were.

"Junior, we never could get that car adjusted back."

Hendrick's lack of commitment to the Earnhardt-Eury partnership came two months after he said there were no plans to separate the two.

"I have no intention of making any changes," Hendrick said the Wednesday after the March 22 race at Bristol. "I have all intentions of making it better. These guys are working their butts off ... and I have to believe in the next few weeks we're going to see some real success out of that crowd.

"My philosophy is you tweak it and inch forward before you cut it apart and completely rebuild it. I see a lot of effort from everybody on the team."

Hendrick said then Earnhardt and Eury each told him they would part if he didn't feel they were working well together. Eury told ESPN.com two weeks ago if Earnhardt didn't make the Chase he wouldn't blame Hendrick for making a change.

Earnhardt's relationship with his cousin has come under question many times over the years. It came to a head after a rough start to this season that had NASCAR's most popular driver 35th in points after two races.

Earnhardt came to Eury's rescue at Bristol, saying he felt bad for him.

"He gets criticized so bad," he said. "Everybody in this room ... knows how smart of a guy he is, certainly knows he's a good mechanic and a solid crew chief.

"He just wanted to do this for a living just like I do. I'll take the fall. I'd rather be crucified than him. Every time I read in the paper that people are on his case I feel like I'm sending my brother to jail for a crime I committed."

Three straight poor performances apparently sealed Eury's fate.