Freshrubber Blog

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s pole for Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout may have just been credited to the luck of a draw, but he hit Daytona International Speedway on Sunday and turned in the fastest lap in Daytona 500 qualifying to claim his first pole at Daytona in a points-paying race.

“Obviously, it gives you good ideas that you have a great car,” Earnhardt Jr. said of his pole-winning run. “Anybody can win the race. I mean there are guys that qualified outside the top-20 that have winning cars, so it is going to be a tough race to win.” Full Story

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Thursday that NASCAR’s “Car of Tomorrow” needs a tune-up. Earnhardt, who was in Atlanta to promote the Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Labor Day weekend, said the car, which is now the exclusive vehicle on the Sprint Cup circuit, is safer than the previous car, but it’s not providing the close, competitive racing that fans have come to expect. But he said the problem can be fixed. “I feel like we can take this race car and make it provide [exciting] races,” he said. “If I can be honest, I feel like NASCAR has seemingly been reluctant to let this car evolve more freely.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Dale Earnhardt is still adjusting to working with new Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Lance McGrew, who replaced his longtime crew chief, Tony Eury Jr. “The weekends and the races really can’t come fast enough for me because I just want to work with him more and more and learn more and progress more,” Earnhardt said. “We are seeing some signs of improvement. The team’s mentality and everybody’s personality, including myself, has turned around for the better. We just still have a little ways to go. “I kind of like the way we’re able to communicate. Right now we can talk to each other without taking things personally or letting things become too personal. He came into a deal that wasn’t doing very well, and he’s helped turn it around.” — KC Star

Dale Earnhardt Jr. asked if he has ever questioned his decision to be a racecar driver: “Never a moment, never happens?That’s what being a racecar driver so cool is you know what you want to do, you know where you want to be, you know where you have to be and it’s easier. I had to work at a real job and I know what that’s like. Being a racecar driver is where it’s at? The business part of it is not a real pain. It’s not what I got into the sport for. Parts of it is pretty interesting, parts of it aren’t, parts of it are boring. I don’t like meetings any more than the next guy. The driving part is what you get into it for. There’s other things that come along with it, good and bad. You just take it.” — WDNE (Indy) / Sports Radio Interviews

His race day results with Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a steady decline, crew chief Tony Eury Jr. lost confidence in his setups and strategies. He quit talking with Earnhardt on the radio because every brief conversation was dissected by critical fans and media. Earnhardt can feel the weight of NASCAR and its fans on him at times as the sport’s most popular driver. And when he failed, it was his cousin and loyal crew chief who often took the often unfair hit. When team owner Rick Hendrick pulled the plug on the unproductive relationship in late May, Eury was ready to move on.  Sportsillustrated

Dale Earnhardt Jr. asked if his team can legitimately win: “Yes. A couple more moves in the right direction, I don’t know what that is. We ran pretty good this weekend. We’re a different team than we were two weeks ago. It just seems like each week we step it up a little bit more, little bit more, and I think we can get it to where we can legitimately win a race within a year.” — Orlando Sentinel

Car owner Rick Hendrick defends the job Dale Earnhardt Jr. is doing this season even as Earnhardt struggles on the track. Earnhardt is 20th in the season standings. Last month, the team replaced Earnhardt’s crew chief, Tony Eury Jr., with Lance McGrew. “He’s had all his racing career doing things one way,” Hendrick said of Earnhardt. “Talking to the crew chief and communicating. Now, all of a sudden we’re saying with a new crew chief and working more hands-on with the engineers, this is the way they’d like for you to break it down. “If you heard him on the radio, he’s doing a heck of a job. He’s trying to change to give them better information so they can do a better job. “I couldn’t ask him to work any harder than he’s working. I don’t care what anybody says. He’s committed. He’s dedicated. And he’s showing up and he’s trying.” — Virginian-Pilot

While in Detroit late last month to promote the Michigan race, Dale Earnhardt said he’d love to kick start his season in the Irish Hills. “Maybe Michigan will be the confidence-booster we need,” said Earnhardt, who finished 27th in the Pocono 500 on Sunday. “Winning for Chevrolet at MIS would be a real good motivator.” Add to Earnhardt’s struggles some sharp comments from Kyle Busch about Earnhardt blaming crew chiefs for his lack of success and the son of a legend’s life doesn’t get any easier. “I would be lying if I said I didn’t lose confidence at times,” said Earnhardt, who has 18 Cup victories compared to his father’s career 76, and just three in the last five years. “You definitely lose confidence when you don’t run good. You’re only human, so you’re definitely going to question some of your abilities when you’re not getting it done.– Detroit News

Kyle Busch had some things to say about Earnhardt’s recent crew chief change and Junior responded

The much-scrutinized era of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Eury Jr. is over.

Hendrick Motorsports announced on Thursday that NASCAR’s most popular driver would have a new crew chief beginning with this weekend’s Sprint Cup race at Dover.

Eury Jr., who has been the car chief or crew chief for his cousin for all but part of one season since Earnhardt began the Sprint Cup series in 1999, will be replaced by Lance McGrew on an interim basis beginning with the June 7 race at Pocono.

Team manager Brian Whitesell will serve as the crew chief at Dover. Whitesell and Rex Stump, Hendrick’s lead chassis engineer, will support McGrew on a fulltime basis in hopes of turning around a team that is 19th in points.

“Our performance hasn’t been where it should be,” team owner Rick Hendrick said in a 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.” ESPN