Dale Earnhardt Jr. reads NASCAR coverage, so when a debate about him hits the news cycle, he knows all about it. That's why, without even being asked about it today, Earnhardt launched into a defense of his crew chief Tony Eury Jr., the subject of many of our debates here at NASCAR Nuts and Bolts. I've put some of his more interesting points in bold letters throughout this post.
Update: I've posted the audio
"I’ve said it 100 times, it just doesn’t seem to make a dent. The guy that I feel bad for is Tony Jr. He gets criticized so badly. Everybody in this room, and some of you have criticized him, know how smart a guy he is and that he’s a good mechanic and a solid crew chief and he just wants to do this for a living just like I do. I’ll take the fall; I’d rather be crucified than him. Every time I read in the paper that people are on his case I feel like I’m sending my brother to jail for a crime I committed.
"He just wants to work and have fun. He just wants to race. That’s what everybody in the garage wants to do, we all want to race. I understand that I need to run better. …I understand y’all’s point of view when y’all say what gives? …That’s my goal till nobody will employ me in this sport. That’s my goal, to make it happen. I just wish it was an easier job for him – and the guys on the team take a little bit of it it’s tough working on that team.
I pointed out to Earnhardt that most people aren't saying Eury's a bad crew chief. They're saying the combination of Earnhardt and Eury doesn't work. Earnhardt nodded and voiced his agreement as I said that. Then he replied.
"There are combinations that work really good, but no one personality I think, I don’t think there’s a crew chief in the garage with the best personality. Everybody’s got flaws and things that get under your skin. There’s risks with every driver and crew chief and either you work it out or you don’t. I think me and Tony Jr. do a pretty good job of working it out. Obviously through everything we’ve been through we still love each other to death and we’d do anything for each other. I don’t dread seeing him when I get to the race track, I can’t wait to see him when I get to the race track. We really do enjoy working together.
"It’s a tough deal because you have a lot of sponsors, a lot of people, a lot of fans, you’re in a big sport. You’re supposed to go out there and make it happen. At the same time, I like racing with my cousin whether we are the perfect combination or not. That’s not, that doesn’t mean anything to me. I just like racing with him. That’s what I want to do for the rest of my life. I like racing with him. Whether I get to do that or not I don’t know. I like racing with him. Maybe we’re not the best combination out there but I think if we’re both on our a-game and doing what we should be doing and we get a little bit of luck and a break here, a break there we’d be just as good as anybody.
"Really what it comes down to is, there’s 2 different arguments. You have the professional side where you have the guard and the amp and all the people that support you they want you to go out there and win races. You’re in this business to professionally succeed and win and win championships that’s the ultimate goal you should do whatever you need to do as far as pieces of the puzzle to get there.
"And then there’s the other side of you that thinks like you’re still driving late models and you just want to go to the track with your buddies and you just want to have fun because you did this for fun and people decided to pay you to do it. That’s where I’m at. it’s up to all the professionals and experts to figure out what we need to do to be a winning race team and we’ll make the changes. We have made changes.
"We’ve just got a bond. There’s days when I wish Tony Sr. was still around, but when we moved Tony Jr. into a crew chief role, it was supposed happen with him. he was gonna develop into a crew chief and he was old enough to do it. there’s times whe ni wish tony sr. was over his shoulder. I don’t want to change Tony Jr.’s position and his authority. It was just awesome to have Tony Sr. around chewing our butts sometimes."
And with that he ended. I'll be back with some analysis and audio for you to listen to. Stay tuned.