CUP: JR Motorsports Remains Home, Sweet Home For Eury Jr.

Sprint Cup

CUP: JR Motorsports Remains Home, Sweet Home For Eury Jr.

The connection between JR Motorsports co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. and crew chief Tony Eury Jr. remains strong...

Lee Montgomery | http://www.scenedaily.com | Posted December 24, 2009 Charlotte, NC

Tony Eury Jr. (Left) was crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Right) for two seasons at Dale Earnhardt Incorporated and one full season at Hendrick Motorsports and was replaced this past May. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

The connection between JR Motorsports co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. and crew chief Tony Eury Jr. remains strong. Yes, they are cousins who have worked together for many, many years.

But the bond goes deeper than that. After Hendrick Motorsports removed Eury Jr. as Earnhardt Jr.’s crew chief for the No. 88 NASCAR Sprint Cup team in May, the two remained close.

And when Eury Jr. was contemplating his future in the sport, an offer from Earnhardt Jr. to join JRM’s Nationwide Series team came to the forefront.

“It was his for the taking,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “He didn’t have to do it. It wouldn’t have made any difference had he gone somewhere else. We would’ve kept a good relationship. I wanted him to be happy. If he wanted to go crew chief another Cup car for someone else – whatever it took for him to be happy.”

What did it take for Eury Jr. to be happy? That was the million-dollar question for the man who guided Earnhardt Jr. to 18 Cup wins in his career and suffered through some of the darkest times in Earnhardt Jr.’s life, from the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. to the on-track struggles of Earnhardt Jr.

Did Eury Jr. have unfinished business in the Cup series? No one could blame him for holding such a sentiment, especially after the way his tenure with Earnhardt Jr. ended. Fairly or unfairly, the hordes of Junior Nation fans blamed Eury Jr. for their favorite driver’s struggles.

As Earnhardt Jr. went week after week without top finishes, the spotlight on Eury Jr. got brighter. Eury Jr. tried his best to keep from being dragged down to the mud, keeping his cheerful country disposition about him.

Eury Jr. continued to work for Hendrick, leading Brad Keselowski’s part-time team and research-and- development efforts for the organization.

Eury Jr. talked to his father, Tony Eury Sr., the man known as “Pops” who worked as competition director and crew chief at JRM.

“Look, you make sure it’s what you want to do,” Eury Sr. told him. “If you leave the Cup garage, you might not ever want to go back. If there’s something over there you want to do, stay over there and do it.”

There were offers on the table from Cup teams, but Eury Jr. said he held them at arm’s length while he took four weeks to think about his future.

“I’ll be honest with you,” Eury Jr. said. “I’ve done that stuff for 16 years straight. To get off the road, I was wondering, ‘How’s that first weekend going to go? Or that second weekend?’”

Turns out Eury Jr. didn’t really miss the Cup garage.

“And then I wanted to make sure,” Eury Jr. said. “I was out for six weeks. Then you’re thinking it’s like a winter break.

“How much would I miss it? There were weekends where I wouldn’t even turn the race on. That was a sign to me, ‘You’ve pretty much had enough of that. Go where you enjoy.’”

That, of course, was JRM. He’d be back working with his dad, with his cousins, with friends.

And he’s back in the fire, agreeing to serve as crew chief for IndyCar star Danica Patrick in her part-time Nationwide effort next year. Does that make him a glutton for punishment?

Nah, he says. Patrick’s schedule is only 13 races, and even with Earnhardt Jr.’s two Nationwide races, it’s still fewer than the 38 events in Cup.

“It’s going to be a good time,” Eury Jr. said. “That’s why I told them I really didn’t have a problem doing it. We were definitely in a high-profile situation, and a lot of [the media] was focusing on us every week. That’s going to be no different. I know what that limelight’s like.”

This time will be different, though. No one knows for sure what Patrick’s expectations are in her move to NASCAR, so Eury Jr., whose experience with her so far consists of testing in the Automobile Racing Club of America and elsewhere, can’t exactly be blamed for poor performance.

“I don’t know if it’s throwing him back into the fire,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “It depends on how you look at it. I guess you could look at it as a difficult situation or a challenging experience in the next several months for him.

“Our company needed him. We’ve got the [new Nationwide car] to build and develop. … Pops had had that [car] accident, and I thought it’d be great for them to be together, to work together again.”

Eury Jr. has “already made a great impact around here,” Earnhardt Jr. said.

“He’s worked with his father and his uncles and Danny Earnhardt and all the people that he knows so well,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “It’s just a great opportunity for him to sort of change directions and see if he can’t find a job that he enjoys. I’m happy he’s here.”

Eury Jr. is happy, too. He jokes about accidentally calling Patrick “babe” at the end of one of their phone calls. He talks about working on race cars with a gleam in his eye.

“It’s been like the old days,” Eury Jr. said. “I’ve been building ARCA cars, I’m setting up cars. I’m doing everything I used to do that I love – instead of just sitting around in front of a computer.”

Some people just aren’t meant to do that, and Eury Jr. clearly is one of them.

No, Eury Jr. is meant to be … home. And now he is home again.

SceneDaily.com•Racing roots run deep for Nationwide owner Todd Braun

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lee Montgomery

SceneDaily.com

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