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Posted on 05/19/2009 4:20:54 PM PDT by glock rocks
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Yep. And the thing is...Tony Jr. may do well working as a crew chief for another team. But the combination of Dale Jr. and Tony Jr. has been given three years, and hasn’t amounted to much...it seems to be getting worse instead of better.
Well that’s a beginning anyway.
I saw a Corsair in Midway tonight during a battle over the Japanese carriers.
I may have moved up 3 or 4 spots today. Just want you to know it’s nothing personal...
Sure, just leave me behind.
I moved up one!
Jayski, Sports Illustrated and a couple other NASCAR sites now reporting Eury Jr. is out as Jr’s crew chief. No announcement or anything from Hendrick about it yet.
Interesting. Thanks for the heads up.
Big news & thanks for the heads up.
SOMETHING had to be done after yesterday’s poor showing...
tubebender,
Dude! Put away the cap! Your score is making us mortals look worse then we are!
I feel sorry for WCG but if Eury Jr. is indeed gone I think it will be for the best in the long run. You can’t have JJ/Gordon/Martin using superior equipment/shop running well most weeks while the ‘88’ is consistently cleaning up after the parade.
If Eury Jr. is gone, who will be the new CC? An earlier poster mentioned Eury Sr. but that change is beyond my realm of knowledge.
PS Who are you gonna run this week? I won’t tell a soul...
no “official decision” yet, but per this ESPN article, the writing is on the wall.
CONCORD, N.C. — Team owner Rick Hendrick, who has previously said he doesn’t plan to make changes to Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team, wasn’t as definitive on Tuesday.
“Could it change?” Hendrick said Tuesday 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 Jr. finished 40th in Monday’s rain-delayed Coca-Cola 600.
Hendrick did not specifically address breaking up Earnhardt and crew chief Tony Eury Jr. But in the past when discussing changes he made it clear that wasn’t a consideration. He wasn’t so clear on Tuesday with Earnhardt 19th in points, 203 behind Mark Martin for the 12th and final Chase spot.
“We’re always concerned when we have a car not run well,” Hendrick 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.”
http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/news/story?id=4206656
Pops has NO experience with the COT, would be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
Rick should NEVER have let Darien Grubb go. There are a couple of other people at HMS that may work out. McGrew, Malec. Also, mentioned by Jenna Fryer today there could be problems with the engineering in that second shop. Also, the rear tire changer screwed up twice yesterday on first two stops. He has been with the crew three weeks, from the old 8 team.
Rick says this......”Could it change?” Hendrick said Tuesday 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.”
I say Mr H why don’t you give Jr’s car he drove yesterday to Jeff or JJ or even MM at Dover and then let’s talk. He said during the very first news conference when Jr joined HMS that if he didn’t win races it would be his [Rick] fault. Well, cr@p we don’t want to necessarily win every race but running 40th just isn’t gonna cut it!!!!
You’ve been talking and meeting since Phoenix and things have gotten worse instead of better.
RE?
Eury Jr. is out. Brian Whitesell will CC at Dover, the Lance McGRew will take over as interim Crew chief.
McGrew is a heck of a CC, if he and Jr. Gell I see him remaining as fulltime CC.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/9620728/Eury-Jr.-out-as-Earnhardt’s-crew-chief
As the story notes, two wins out of 120 races speaks for itself.
Now we'll see what a new crew chief in Whitesell and chassis engineer Rex Stump will do for America's favorite NASCAR driver.
According to the FOX report: Lance McGrew will take over in two weeks on an interim basis...
I’m just getting caught up - figures I would be at work when all hell breaks loose.
We also get Rex Stump - Lead engineer in the COT program at HMS and “creator” of Jeff’s T-Rex car.
My post above was pretty accurate on McGrew - :)
More info on Stump and I wonder out loud why Rick didn’t put these people on with TEJ before even if he didn’t want help? And they wait to announce this when Jr Mike and TJ are in Michigan where they are supposed to be promoting his appearance there for the Michigan race. You can guess that they didn’t cover any of that today.
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The team has assigned Whitesell and Rex Stump, Hendrick’s lead chassis engineer to the No. 88 team on a full-time basis.
As team manager, Whitesell was the architect of melding the crews of four-time champion Jeff Gordon’s No. 24 and three-time champion Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 under one roof. Whitesell also won his first two races as an interim crew chief for Gordon in 1999 when Ray Evernham left the team. Whitesell, also an engineer, has been overseeing the teams of Earnhardt and Mark Martin but now will focus solely on Earnhardt.
Stump is regarded as the linchpin behind the design and building of cars that have won eight championships and 179 races on NASCAR’s premier series. Hendrick says Stump’s devotion to Earnhardt Jr.’s team won’t detract from Hendrick’s other cars, all of which are ranked in the top 12 in points and have four wins this season.
“Rex will still be at shop during the week and can answer questions if needed,” Hendrick said. “His focus is to help us get the 88 car going. Rex is a guy who’s a very, very bright individual, understands cars and has tremendous respect. Most of the stuff we come up with, he’s the guy who does it.
“We have got one boat with a hole in it, and we have to fix it. His effort is going to be there.”
Hendrick said the team had given the No. 88 “as much as we’d wanted or needed.
“Tony Eury Jr. has been open minded and will try anything and listen to anyone,” Hendrick said. “He’s got tremendous talent. He has not been stonewalled on any assets we have. This is pure and simple a situation that if everyone’s down and looking for the same results, maybe if I shake it up, everyone will stand up a little bit.”
That assessment, though, appeared to be contradicted by comments that McGrew made in an ESPN.com story.
“I just believe there were some theories that they were using to (be) making decisions by that weren’t necessarily the same theory that’s on the rest of the complex,” McGrew told the website. “The idea of having a multiple-car team is you lean on your teammates, and you have to be on the same page to get any information. A lot of times they were not on the same page.”
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/nascar/2009-05-28-eury-earnhardt-crew-chief_N.htm
Hendrick: “I thought pressure would be managing Dale Jr, superstar. I never thought it would be unable-to-run-good pressure.”
Hendrick: “(Dale Jr.) could have gone anywhere, and he picked our place. I’ll do whatever it takes to get him where he needs to be.”
Hendrick: “McGrew could become Junior’s permanent crew chief. “Lance and Junior may be magic. We’ll keep all options open.”
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I hope they changed the car chief as well. David Bryant - He was the tire changer / window specialist for the 48 team. ???????????
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