CUP: Hendrick Says Change Needed

Sprint Cup

CUP: Hendrick Says Change Needed

Rick Hendrick said Dale Earnhardt Jr. will need to work on providing improved feedback to his new crew chief...

Tom Jensen | Posted May 28, 2009 Charlotte, NC

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. will have to work on providing better feedback to his team during the race, something the other three Hendrick Motorsports drivers excel at. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

In the end, splitting up Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Eury Jr. came down to a matter of communication and frustration.

Team owner Rick Hendrick said Thursday that he decided to break up Earnhardt, driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, and his cousin and crew chief Eury because they couldn’t exchange information in a way that would allow them to be consistently successful.

“The stumbling block for all of us is the pressure of being Dale Earnhardt Jr.,” said Hendrick. “ … We’ve just got to go and get it done.”

According to Hendrick, NASCAR’s new-generation race car requires much more exact and detailed in-race communication between the driver and the crew chief.

The driver needs to be able to describe to his crew chief precisely how his car is performing in the entrance, middle and exit of each of the four corners of a race track. The crew chief, in turn, needs to translate the feedback he gets from the driver into multiple in-race adjustments that will improve the car’s handling. It’s a process that must be repeated with every pit stop. And that, for whatever reasons, is where the Earnhardt-Eury pairing struggled.

“I think this car calls for a tremendous amounts of adjustments in a race,” said Hendrick. According to the team owner, even in races the team has won this season, its teams have had to make drastic adjustments in the middle of the race to optimize performance.

“I’ve never listened to a race that the car wasn’t off a pretty good amount because of lack of downforce,” said Hendrick.

As for the No. 88, Hendrick said, “We were just out in left field and we worked around it and got it back.”

Eury will take a position in Hendrick’s R&D department, including serving as crew chief for Brian Keselowski in a handful of a Cup races before the end of the year. Team Manager Brian Whitesell will be on top of Earnhardt’s pit box this weekend at Dover International Speedway, with Lance McGrew taking over for the June 7 weekend at Pocono Raceway. Whitesell and Rex Stump, Hendrick Motorsports' lead chassis engineer, will support McGrew on a full-time basis.

Hendrick said Earnhardt will have to work on providing better feedback during the race, something the other three Hendrick Motorsports drivers excel at. “Fixing the car is communication between the driver and crew chief,” said Hendrick. “ … Junior’s going to have to adapt to a new way of giving information. This is part of this new effort – Dale’s going to have to break the corner down differently for Brian and Lance, because they’re going to be asking for information differently.”

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Tom Jensen

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