Dec 3, 2004 4 min read

NEW YORK (AP) – Dale Earnhardt Jr. thought about the future and knew he needed a change. That’s why NASCAR’s most popular driver will go into next season with an new crew for his No. 8 Chevrolet despite winning a career-best six races and finishing fifth in the points in 2004.

“I guess, it’s a big gamble in a way,” Earnhardt said Thursday during one of the many press events leading up to Friday night’s postseason awards ceremony.

Dale Earnhardt Inc., announced a day earlier that Junior’s longtime crew chief, Tony Eury, has been promoted to director of competition, and car chief Tony Eury Jr. will become the crew chief for the No. 15 DEI entry driven by Michael Waltrip.

Waltrip’s crew is moving en mass to Earnhardt’s car, and the younger Eury, who is Earnhardt’s cousin, will take the rest of the crew from the No. 8 Monte Carlo with him.

That’s a big move for Earnhardt, who won Busch Series titles with the Eurys in 1998 and ’99 and brought them with him to the Cup series in 2000.

He said that moving his uncle, known as Pops, into a new position was important to the growth of DEI, the team founded by Earnhardt’s late father.

“There’s a lot of things that needed to happen within the company to make it better and people are stubborn about making changes,” Junior said. “One of those changes was moving Pops to the head of competition.

“He’s been a crew chief for so long, he doesn’t realize how valuable … his depth of knowledge and his past experience in the sport can be. He doesn’t realize what a vital piece of the organization he can be to all the teams, not just mine.”

The other important part of the change was separating Earnhardt and Eury Jr., who clashed at times.

“I really like working with Tony Jr., but, at the same time, the bad times were really, really bad,” Earnhardt said. “I told him, ‘I don’t want to lose you as a cousin and lose the family and friendship side of it. I don’t care if we every talk about race cars again as long as you come over to the house and we visit each other all the time.’

“I think he can have a lot more success with another race car driver than he could with me because we were so stubborn and disrespectful to each other.”

Earnhardt said he knew something needed to be done after he and Eury Jr. barely communicated with each other at Homestead-Miami Speedway during the final weekend of the season.

“We didn’t say five words to each other during “Happy Hour’ (practice) at Homestead,” Earnhardt said. “We had a real bad day. It can’t be like that. We both were responsible. It’s because we’re cousins and we fight like brothers.”

Earnhardt’s new crew chief will be Pete Rondeau, who finished 2004 as Waltrip’s crew chief and was crew chief for Earnhardt in a victory at a Busch race in August at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“I’m looking forward to working with Pete,” Earnhardt said. “He’s a good guy and a real professional. Me and him get along real good.”

As for switching crews with Waltrip, Earnhardt said he equates it to moving to a different country.

“The culture in one is so different from the culture and atmosphere in the other,” Junior said. “But that will probably be real good for me, a little refreshing change.

“The guys in the 15 shop are just racers. They’re a lot older crowd and they’re really, really just about doing their jobs, kind of quiet. It’s just a different atmosphere than our shop. It may be good for me in the long run.”