NASCAR.com
At first, I thought Dale Earnhardt Jr. was kidding during Tuesday’s teleconference. The guy isn’t naïve enough to be at a complete loss as to why, despite sitting third in the Cup standings, crew chief Tony Eury Jr. has been characterized as shakier than Barney Fife, right?
But he was dead serious.
“He has just as many critics as he does people that want to praise him. So I feel that it’s happening more this year than it ever had before, and I really don’t know,” Junior said. “I can’t put my finger on why he’s taken just as much heat as he’s taken this season.”
Doesn’t seem that hard to me, though. Although Junior has never intentionally tried to undercut Eury through their now-infamous radio banter, this season it was bound to have an effect like never before. At DEI, Junior Nation had plenty to stay angry about thanks to the lack of top-fight equipment. So the soap opera between the cousins the last two years was little more than an amusing sideshow.
But these days, Eury has no cover. Junior is never going to be blamed for much of anything because he is NASCAR’s version of the Pope. The No. 88 is housed at the sport’s Mecca, Hendrick Motorsports, so it wants for nothing in preparing to go to battle.
So everything is going to be Eury’s fault, and I’m sure he was prepared for that. But if Junior is throwing up his hands, despondent that he can’t do anything to make Eury’s life easier, he needs to understand that he can do something about it.
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