Posted on 11/30/2004 2:43:17 PM PST by Wolfstar
A restructuring of Dale Earnhardt Inc. is underway, the immediate result of which will include a new crew chief next season for Nextel Cup Series driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., ThatsRacin.com has learned.
Tony Eury Sr., 50, who has served as Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief since his debut in the series in the 2000 season, will step down and take a less prominent role at DEI, likely overseeing next year's part-time Cup program of 2004 Busch Series championship Martin Truex Jr., multiple sources confirmed Tuesday.
[SNIP]
The most likely [replacement] is Pete Rondeau, most recently crew chief for DEI teammate Michael Waltrip, taking the same role with Earnhardt Jr.'s team, sources said.
[SNIP]
If the moves go as expected, next season would mark the first Earnhardt Jr. has competed full-time in NASCAR without Eury Sr. and Eury Jr. -- his uncle and cousin -- running his team.
[SNIP]
Earnhardt Jr.'s verbal feuds with the Eurys over the team's radio each weekend have become legendary. Earnhardt Jr. has always been quick to point, however, that whatever the disagreement, it ends when the race is over.
[SNIP
In an unrelated move, Richard "Slugger" Labbe -- who served as Waltrip's crew chief earlier this season and also worked with Earnhardt Jr's Truex teams, has left DEI and joined Evernham Motorsports.
[SNIP]
(Excerpt) Read more at thatsracin.com ...
This news might be worth pinging the NASCAR group.
Hopefully this will help Junior have a more competetive car on the 1.5 mile tracks.
The biggest lesson Dale Earnhardt Jr. got from the inaugural Chase for the Championship is that from now on, "You don't have to take the first 26 races (of a season) as seriously."
If America's favorite NASCAR driver feels that way, then how is the public to perceive regular-season races henceforth? Especially after tasting the intensity and suspense of playoffs for the first time?
All in all, the Chase "kind of turned the sport a little bit in my favor," Earnhardt Jr. said, "as far as not having to take it so seriously every time, not having to live and die by the sword, just going out there and having fun and racing. At least that's the way for the first 26 races."
Don't fret about making the playoffs: "If you're a good-enough team, you'll make the top 10," Earnhardt Jr. said.
Jimmie Johnson, runner-up for the championship -- and the driver who won the most races, eight -- sensed the same thing.
"You didn't have that yearlong stress to worry about," Johnson said. "I look at that, and I think that's going to be good for years to come."
All this fun and relaxation could cut both ways.
It could return NASCAR to the wild old days of Fireball Roberts and Curtis Turner and rollicking racing all-out to win before Winston money made the season championship the overriding goal.
Then again, it could sink NASCAR's first 26 races into the humdrum of the regular seasons of major-league baseball and the NBA where each year, for months, the question until just before playoff time is this: Who cares?
It will be the first time in his career when someone other than a family member is his crew chief and manages his team. It's going to take some time for Junior and whoever becomes his new crew chief to get the old mojo going.
Hope this works out for Jr. He's made some mistakes, but he's generally contributed more than his rides have. He's a top 5 driver (or better) in top ten cars.
Posting DEI thread link at the
NASCAR OFF SEASON WITHDRAWAL THERAPY THREAD (post news updates here)
You're welecome, Norm. And thanks to you as well. I didn't think of searching for the "withdrawal" thread and posting this on it.
I guess we will have to wait and see. All I know is Tony was not giving him a competetive car at the 1.5 mile tracks. The car would usually improve as the day went along, but by then he was fighting for the "Lucky Dog".
Well, for most folks anyway. ;-)
Does The "Search" Function Still Work? No One Seems To Use It. ^
Personally, I think it's smart for a team to bring in new blood and new ideas every few years. As a Jeff Gordon fan, although I like Robbie Loomis as a person, I really wish they'd replace him with one of the younger, more aggressive crew chiefs. Robbie, himself, said after Homestead that the reason the cars during the chase were not as good as they could have been was because he was too conservative.
From my viewpoint Jeff's problems this year were in his pit stops. If he had the same team as Kurt Bush had he'd have been a runaway winner for the Chase. He usually qualified in the first five rows and the crew was adept at tweaking the chassis/tire combo to get him slightly loose (oversteer) so he could dive low and power through the turns while climbing the banking. As it was if he didn't have to pit for a cut LR tire under green or if Bush's lost RF wheel had rolled down pit road instead of down the track bringing out the yellow and Bush had had to pit under the green I think Jeff/Jimmy would have won the Chase. Next year will be intersting since he lost his engine builder in the Hendrick plane crash...we all know that nothing stays still in racing and innovation wins races. And Jack Roush and Roy Everham will be very busy this winter. Can't wait for Daytona!!
Well, there's something wrong with a sport that holds it Super Bowl as the first race of the season, and then ends with the playoffs.
The Playoffs were a joke.... This sport is suppose to be about consistency and it turned into who can avoid crashing or engine failure for 10 races.. They sold out to sponsors....This race would have been close even if they didn't change the system.
When the champ is decided by August, I didn't watch much NASCAR when it competed with football. Maybe flip to it during commercials, but the attention level really dropped off. The playoff system kept viewers like me tuned in, and that made NASCAR big bucks.
The system will undoubtedly be tweaked, but it's added a new dimension to a season that often seems to get tired before it's over.
but if you looked at it this year.... the difference was 47 points if they didn't change a thing. And i still can't understand why now they are goign to keep using the same Statisics, when everything now has changed.... oh well...
Thanks for the ping.
I think Norm pinged the Nascar group.
I can't believe someone scooped me on a Jr story.
lol
;)
Pretty much everyone in NASCARland except the fans and the rare racing commentator (and the occasional comment by a driver like JJ) stuffed this chase down our throats. Despite the fact that there are some absolutely valid criticisms that can be made about the chase format, we were told, in essence: STFU and "like it or lump it."
There is no longer any reason for fans or teams to care that much about the first 26 races. Talk a look at the excerpts from an Ed Hinton article I posted in #4 above. So I'm not planning on watching or attending any NASCAR races this year other than the two road course races (I like road racing), and maybe Bristol. Otherwise, Daytona, Indianapolis, Talladega, and all the cookie-cutter 1.5-mile tracks are just a bunch of meaningless races. And once I get out of the habit of planning my Sundays around the races, I may very well ignore the last 10 races next year also.
On his show the other night, Dave Despain (sp) asked Dick Berggren (sp), "What about the alienated fans." Berggren said one of the most insulting things I ever heard a sports commentator say. Can't quote it vertatim, but this is pretty much what he said:
There are around 6 million people who watch the races, plus maybe 100,000 people in the stands each week. But the population of the U.S. is much bigger, and the chase is draw them in. He essentially said NASCAR doesn't care about any alienation it's current fan base might be feeling, because they believe the potential market is unlimited. In a nutshell: They can replace their current fans with new ones, so screw the current ones. Then, later in the interview, Berggren must have realized (or been told off air) that his comments were pretty harsh. So he said NASCAR has always made decisions with the welfare of the fans in mind first. Hah!
There's something wrong with a so-called sport that holds its Super Bowl as the first race of the season, and then feels the need to end with a hybrid: a "playoff" scheme overlaid onto the tail end of the regular season. While it's regular season is still going on, NASCAR arbitrarily designates the last 10 races as a "playoff." It locks out competitors from improving their regular season position in the last 10 races of the regular season.
On top of that, in a sport that supposedly prizes consistency over the entire 36-race regular season above all other qualities, NASCAR proceeds to arbitrarily penalize the teams that showed the most consistency over the first 26 races of the regular season. Equally arbitrarily, it also rewards teams whose lack of consistency left them as much as 400 points out of first, by wiping away their deficit for no reason other than to manufacture a tight points battle.
Then, just to make sure cup racing is now WWF with wheels, and to drive home the point that winning races in NASCAR means nothing, the team that won three times more races than any other during the precious chase still didn't win the championship. And the team that won the most points -- meaning it was most consistent -- over the entire 36 races didn't win the championship.
So NASCAR's championship is no longer about consistency. It was never about winning the most races. Now it's about being the most consistent and lucky over a 10-race span.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.