"I have often talked about the over hyping of Dale Earnhardt Jr., and how that is bad for this sport. This is not to say that he is not a talented race car driver, because he is. However his loyalty to his cousin, Tony Eury Jr., while commendable is a key factor why Dale Jr. does not have a Sprint Cup title to his name, and ultimately why he will struggle to win more then one race a year. This is the great things about numbers, they do not lie. When we look at Dale Jr.’s numbers since Eury Jr. became his crew chief we can start to see why this combination just isn’t working. Eury Jr. Came to the #8 DEI team as crew chief in September of 2005. Since that time they have only won two points races and a Bud Shootout.
For a lot of guys that would be all right, but when we look at Dale Jr.’s stats for the 3, 5 season directly before his cousin came to be his crew chief we can see a fantastic career squandered away. In those 3.5 years Dale won 9 races including the Daytona 500.
Many will argue that since Eury came to be Dale’s crew chief much has changed, the new car, the decline of DEI as a top tier team, but we must also remember he now drives for the best team in NASCAR, and yet success remains out of their reach.
When we take into account this year’s Daytona 500, wreck aside, we see that Eury Jr. is just not up to this job. Think about it, the reason Dale was in the position he was in was due to a few miscalculations on pit road. A large part of that blame has to go on the shoulders of Eury.
The first instance where Dale missed his pit box is directly Eury’s fault. It is the crew chiefs job to get his driver on and off pit road. Dale missed his pit box as Eury was counting done 5,4,3,2,and 1. The problem there is by the time Eury said 5 Dale was already past his pit box.
The second incident where Dale’s tires were on the pit box line is also Eury’s fault. The moment that NASCAR officials hand went in the air and he pointed to the line, it is Eury’s job to stop the pit work get the car repositioned and loose some time but not take a penalty. Regardless of who we think caused the big wreck between Dale jr. and Brian Vickers the reason Dale was in that spot was because of his crew chief.
Unfortunately it gets a lot worse when we think about who could have been atop Dale’s pit box this season. Had Hendrick made a move earlier to replace Eury he could have given Junior Darian Grubb. Say what you will about Grubb but he has won a Daytona 500 as a crew chief and his team, #14 Tony Stewart, finished this year’s 500 in 8th.
With all these facts in mind I think it becomes clear that Junior is never going to win a championship with Eury Jr. as his crew chief. Rick Hendrick is smart enough to know this and at some point is going to have to make this move. "
~examiner.com~
