Dale Earnhardt Jr.‘s new crew chief said Friday that making the Chase for the championship is still the goal for this season.
NASCAR’s most popular driver, Earnhardt is 19th in points and coming off a season-worst 40th-place finish at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. That finish prompted team owner Rick Hendrick to remove Tony Eury Jr. from his position as Earnhardt’s crew chief to try and salvage this season.
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Earnhardt and Eury spent Tuesday and Wednesday testing on the road course at Virginia International Raceway. Hendrick told them he was splitting them up when they returned Wednesday evening.
Team manager Brian Whitesell will be Earnhardt’s crew chief this weekend at Dover. Lance McGrew will take over next week at Pocono Raceway on an interim basis. The Associated Press
Kyle Busch said it point-blank: “It’s never Junior; it’s always the crew chief.”
Asked about Eury’s replacement, Lance McGrew, with whom Busch worked in the Nationwide Series at Hendrick in 2004, Busch expressed pity for McGrew.
“He’s got his hands full, I guess, having to deal with what’s going on,” Busch said. “And if Junior doesn’t run well, then he [McGrew] is going to be the ‘problem’ again.”
Still, Busch said he understood the move to bolster the driver who replaced him at Hendrick last season, both because of Earnhardt’s star power and Busch’s salary issues.
“You’ve got to make the most popular driver in the sport competitive, so you gotta do what you gotta do, I guess,” Busch said.
But Busch added, “He’s the one who brought that crew chief on; he’s the one who pulled so hard to bring Eury Jr. in [along with Earnhardt in his move from Dale Earnhardt Inc.].
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“It looked like it was working there in the beginning,” Busch continued, “and it just hasn’t worked since the summer of last year, really. So, whatever makes them better, I guess.”
Busch has won 10 Cup races to Earnhardt’s one since the beginning of 2008, when Busch went to Joe Gibbs Racing and Earnhardt went to Hendrick. ESPN
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