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The rumor mill has ratcheted up considerably the last few days, particularly since Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished a disappointing 40th in Monday’s rain-delayed and rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600.
Tony Eury Jr. won’t last the week as Dale Jr.‘s crew chief – that’s what some rumors would have you believe.
Tony Jr. will be temporarily relieved of his duties as team owner Rick Hendrick tries a “fill-in” to see if that changes anything – yet another rumor says.
Frankly, I don’t put much stock in rumors, but I admit they are intriguing and even laughable at times.
That’s why Hendrick should forego any attempt to replace Eury and simply let him and Dale Jr. work things out. Firing a guy when he’s down is the easy way out. But keeping a guy in place to try and work through everything that’s wrong, while a much more difficult approach, oftentimes leads to better dividends down the road.
Sure, the two Juniors are having trouble, something they’ve had now for over two years. In any other instance, I’d say yes, break them up.
But before Tony Eury Jr. had a losing history with Dale Jr. of late, they had a pretty successful winning history in the beginning of their working relationship, particularly when Tony Jr. was car chief, while his father, Tony “Pops” Sr., was Dale Jr.‘s crew chief.
If Hendrick gets rid of Tony Jr. now, he’ll be admitting defeat at an experiment that failed. Frankly, Hendrick is not a man that readily likes to admit defeat.
Rather, he’d much quickly point out down the road how he ignored the rumors and the calls from fans and reporters to split the two Juniors, and how they finally did get their collective act together.
Give Tony Jr. another chance before you get rid of him, Rick, because quite frankly, I’m still not convinced he’s the main cause of the problems between them. And you know what that means – not to mention who else may be the real reason for such mediocrity.
Catch you back here on Thursday.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05/27 at 04:00 AMThe analogue to this situation is managers/coaches. No matter what they have done in the past, if they’re not winning NOW, their jobs are constantly in jeopardy. Which seems to be the situation with TE Jr. right now.
To some degree Jerry you yourself make the case for replacing TE Jr. When you point out that they were successful once before all the losing and mediocrity set in, you can’t help but add that they were successful early on in their relationship and that Tony Eury SR. was the crew chief, not TE Jr., who was a tire changer and car chief.
Not unlike other sports, what’s happening to TE Jr. is that, as the manager (if you will), the results are simply not there. And like other sports, sometimes too much credit and blame is put on the manager when things are going well and not so well. Just like a manager may have won 90 games and made the playoffs 5 years in a row, a couple of bad seasons will almost always ensure that he will shoulder the blame for the subpar results and will be replaced.
What’s striking with Junior and TE Jr. is that every week they go out there, and every week the results are more disheartening. It’s like they simply can’t figure out what’s wrong with the car at any given race and how to improve it.
These guys are not rookies or second year guys. They’ve been together for a number of years, and the bottom line is that they are just not performing. How much longer can you afford to let them “work things out”? Yes Jerry, “firing a guy when he’s down is the easy way out”, but that’s the way it’s ALWAYS been done; after all, if the guy is performing then you certainly don’t fire him when he’s winning, right?
I will say, I agree with you, or at least your implication, that the REAL reason for the mediocrity is most likely Junior and not his crew chief, but, like in other sports, blaming the athlete and firing him is never done (although NASCAR is quite possibly the only sport where it CAN and has been done). But, since Rick Hendrick has so much invested in Dale Jr. and not Tony Jr. then really, who’s the one that’s going to take the blame and (eventual) fall?
Rick doesn’t want to fire Tony Jr. because he knows that when he does and Jr. continues to struggle with a new crew chief then even Jr.‘s fans will start blaming Jr. The only way that Rick can keep the cash cow going is to have a scapegoat for Jr. because once that scapegoat is gone then so is the money. As long as fans think someone else is to blame then they’ll keep rooting for Jr.
Jr. doesn’t know how to drive this new car or what kind of setup he needs in it. Instead of taking the time to get better and learn what kind of setup he needs he would rather go out and shoot commercial after commercial, host his own show, etc. etc. There are athletes like this in every sport. They don’t care about being the best they just care about the money. Jr. fits in that category. He has plenty of money now so he doesn’t care about his on track performance. That’s why he’s well behind his 3 teammates despite equal equipment.
Junior is NASCAR’s version of Anna Kournikova.
AS a NASCAR fan for over 30 years, and a Jr. fan for more than 11, including his late model, Busch and NASCAR career, I am one of the Jr. fans there are. With that said, let me be the first to tell you that I am not a member of the JR. NATION. By that I mean I do not expect him to win every race, nor do I think he is God, nor do I think he is perfect.
There is definetly something wrong with this team. Notice I said team. It isn’t all the fault of the crew chief, crew, driver or owner. It is collectively all of their faults.
Little do you hear from the media the difference in the make of the crew from last year to this year. Changes have been made. The most significant is the loss of Darren Grubb to Tony Stewart. SInce Tony’s team seems to be doing so good, maybe this loss was more significant than anyone wants to admit.
As far as Jr. not being able to drive this COT car, that’s hogwash. How could someone not know how to drive this car, yet stay in the top 5 in points for a lot of last year and make the chase. Didn’t finish it so well, but never the less still finished in the top 12.
What is the fix? I can’t answer that. If I could, and it worked, I’d be on the HMS payroll.
Not every driver goes year in and year out WITHOUT having some kind of difficulty. They are all subject to this kind of year. Most of them have had it during their career, and ALL of them will experience it sometime or another before they hang up the helmet.
I firmly believe that whatever the problem is, will be fixed. Maybe not in time to make the chase, but you can bet your house that this is one huge learning curve that will stick in the back of the thier minds forever.
TO all you so called fans that are getting tired of it and are starting to look for other drivers to pull for since you driver isn’t doing so hot I say….
BE GONE WITH YOU…
who needs fickle fans anyway
It’s a moot point now; TE Jr. is out.
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