Bob Pockrass: Tony Eury Sr. glad to work side-by-side with son again
JR Motorsports crew chief Tony Eury Jr. talks to driver Danica Patrick during ARCA testing at Daytona International Speedway. // LaDon George, NASCAR Scene
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COMMENTARY
Tony Eury Sr. just laughed at the question.
If Eury Sr. is competition director at JR Motorsports and Tony Eury Jr. is crew chief for the No. 7 car of Danica Patrick, is dad the boss of son? Or is it the son who’s the boss, considering that Eury Jr. recently became a part-owner of the organization?
It’s a question that apparently doesn’t need answering. Dad probably will at least heavily suggest to son what he should do. That’s been the way they’ve worked for years.
But it’s obvious that dad is happy to be working with son again, just as they did at Dale Earnhardt Inc.
Eury Jr. was car chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr. when Eury Sr. was crew chief for Earnhardt Jr.’s first five seasons in Cup, where Earnhardt Jr. won 15 times and finished as high as third in points.
“Most of the time, we work good together,” Eury Sr. said. “We had a lot of success together. He’s got his strong points, and I’ve got my strong points.”
Eury Jr. went to Hendrick Motorsports with Earnhardt Jr. and had a solid first five months before Earnhardt Jr.’s performance took a nosedive, leaving Eury Jr. out of a crew chief job and at the Hendrick research and development department by last May.
With Rick Hendrick a co-owner at JR Motorspots, Eury Jr. has stayed in the Hendrick family but, more importantly it seems, is back with his own family. He gets to work for his cousin (Earnhardt Jr.) and for/with his father (Eury Sr.).
“He went into Hendrick thinking that he was going to magnify what we did at DEI,” Eury Sr. said. “It didn’t happen and it just kind of took his feet out from under him. He was pretty beat up when they took him off that car.
“He was not going to get any better. He was down on himself. Dale Jr. was down on himself. Something had to happen and that’s what Rick saw. He gave him every chance in the world to try and fix it. But when you get down like that, it’s hard to get back.”
Eury Jr. was sought by at least three Cup teams that wanted him to be a crew chief, Eury Sr. said.
“He had to make a decision whether he wanted to go there or whether he wanted to come to JR Motorsports,” Eury Sr. said. “That’s why he stayed in R&D as long as he did. He sat there and tried to make up his mind of what he wanted to do.
“He’s been doing it just as long as I have. You get burned out running up and down the road and flying everywhere and never home with your family. I think he wanted to slow down a little bit and I think that’s why he made the decision he made.”
As of today, the No. 7 JRM car won’t be full time. But with Patrick at the wheel, there will be full-time pressure.
That’s OK for anyone in the Eury family, Eury Sr. said.
“We were hero or zero,” Eury Sr. said. “If we don’t run good, we’re the problem and if he runs good, he’s the good guy. … It just comes with the territory. Some of the people we brought into our shops, even at DEI, had problem handling that. They can’t take the press when they’re down on the team or the crew chief. It’s always been in our lives, so we don’t know anything different.”
