March 24, 2009
By Allen Madding
Dale Earnhardt Jr. took time this week to defend his crew chief and cousin, Tony Eury Jr. Who has recently been the subject of a considerable amount of finger pointing as the cause of the Hendrick Motorsports National Guard/Amp Energy No. 88 Chevrolet’s poor performance.
“He is a good mechanic and a solid crew chief. He just wanted to do this for a living, like I do”, said Earnhardt.
While he may be a good mechanic and a solid crew chief, Eury Jr. simply cannot get the new chassis adjusted. Many have noted that when adjustments are made during the course of a race, both last season and so far this season, the car’s handling has gotten worse instead of better. Hendrick Motorsports and the sponsors who are laying out significant amounts of money cannot afford to have a team that is not in contention for wins and run the risk of not being in the Chase for the Cup.
While it is touching that Dale Jr. wants his cousin to continue in the role because “he just wanted to do this for a living”, the reality is that there are a lot of people that have had lofty career goals but simply could not perform the required job duties all over this country. If that was all it took, everyone in the United States would be the CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation. And we have been witnessing the downfall of many companies that had leadership that could not handle the job.
Can Dale Jr. afford to continue giving Eury Jr. the rope to hang himself while watching his chance for a run at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship wither on the vine?
Dale Jr. has been competing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series full-time for ten years. The last two years he has finished outside the top ten in the points standings. Meantime stable mate Jimmie Johnson has won three titles in row, and Jeff Gordon has finished runner-up and seventh. Obviously, there is some really good chassis setup information available between the teams that Eury Jr. is either refusing to utilize or struggling to understand, and the Hendrick organization has several guys capable of making the car competitive and adjusting it properly.
“There are two different arguments. You have the professional side where the National Guard and AMP want you to go out there and win races. You are in this business to succeed and should do everything you need to do to get there”, Earnhardt Jr. explains, “The other side of it is that you think you are still driving late models and just want to go to the track with your buddies. That side of me still wants to have fun.”
Perhaps Earnhardt Jr. and Eury Jr. need to run some late model races together and have fun to address that side of things, but Dale Jr. is going to have to stop and take a cold hard look at how much Hendrick Motorsports, the National Guard, and AMP are investing and what their return on investment is. Rick Hendrick has been gracious in allowing more than ample time for the team to gel. How much longer will the sponsors accept the Dream Team’s lackadaisical performance?
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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