Tony Eury Jr. out as Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief, Lance McGrew named replacement
Tony Eury Jr. is being replaced as the crew chief for Hendrick Motorsports driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. // LaDon George, NASCAR Scene
Tony Eury Jr. is being replaced as the crew chief for Hendrick Motorsports driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., the team announced Thursday morning. Eury Jr. will move to a new role in the team’s research and development department.
Lance McGrew will replace Eury Jr. on an interim basis and will begin working with the team next week at Pocono. Team manager Brian Whitesell will guide the team this weekend at Dover.
“Our performance hasn’t been where it should be,” Hendrick Motorsports Rick Hendrick said in a news release. “It’s impossible to pin that on any one factor, but a change is the right decision at this point. We have a plan in place, and we’re going to move forward with it.”
Eury Jr. had been the crew chief for his cousin since September 2005, first at Dale Earnhardt Inc. and since the start of the 2008 season at Hendrick Motorsports. Eury Jr. had been Earnhardt Jr.’s crew chief for 120 races, and they have had two victories together.
The pair showed promise last year with a strong start to the year but finished 12th in points after being among the 12 drivers to make the Chase For The Sprint Cup. This season has been a year of struggles, as Earnhardt Jr. is 19th in the standings, 203 points out of 12th, the final spot in the Chase field.
Earnhardt Jr. has just one top-five and three top-10s in 12 races.
Eury Jr. and Earnhardt Jr. have worked together on the Cup level since Earnhardt Jr. moved to the series full time in 2000. Eury Jr. was Earnhardt Jr.’s car chief for 15 victories before becoming crew chief for Michael Waltrip in 2005. He then became Earnhardt Jr.’s crew chief in fall 2005 at New Hampshire. He remained with Earnhardt Jr. until the final 10 races of the 2007 season, when he left to get a head start at Hendrick Motorsports.
“I have mixed feelings, and that’s just natural,” Eury Jr. said in the release. “But I enjoy working at Hendrick Motorsports, and this is where I want to be. I’ll do whatever I can to help all of our teams and try to be a part of another championship. I think a new challenge will be good.”
The Earnhardt Jr.-Eury Jr. pairing combined for one victory, one pole, 19 top-10 finishes and 11 top-fives in 48 races.
“Tony and I talked through this last night,” Hendrick said. “I want him here, he wants to be here, and he’s going to be a big contributor to our future success. I have an unbelievable amount of respect for the job he’s done and for the caliber of person that he is.”
As a crew chief, McGrew has posted victories in all three of NASCAR’s national touring series. He has won races with drivers Brian Vickers, Jeff Gordon, Ricky Hendrick, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin and most recently Tony Stewart. McGrew, 41, earned the 2003 championship in what is now the NASCAR Nationwide Series with Vickers and won the October 2006 Cup race at Talladega. He most recently has been the crew chief for Brad Keselowski when he has raced for Hendrick Motorsports in Sprint Cup.
Whitesell and Rex Stump, Hendrick Motorsports’ lead chassis engineer, have been assigned to support McGrew on a full-time basis. Whitesell, who won two of seven races as Gordon’s interim crew chief in 1999, will join McGrew and team engineer Tom Stewart will be on the No. 88 pit box to assist with race strategy.
“We’re going to put our full resources toward improving the situation and winning races,” Hendrick said. “It’s going to be a collective effort that includes all of our drivers, all of our crew chiefs and all of our engineers. Everyone in our company will be involved on some level.”
