INDIANAPOLIS (Aug. 6) - Dale Earnhardt Jr. blames the controversial crew swap with teammate Michael Waltrip on immature and childish behavior.
Now that he realizes he was partly to blame for souring the relationship with former crew chief Tony Eury Jr., who is also his cousin, it appears the two could be reunited as soon as next season.
"Tony Jr. is awesome. I always felt like he was going to be one of the best crew chiefs in the business," Earnhardt said. "I do want to work with him again. I think we should."
Richie Gilmore, vice president of Dale Earnhardt Inc., said Saturday that it would be up to team owner Teresa Earnhardt to move Eury back to crew chief of the No. 8 Chevrolet. But it's clear to everyone involved that separating the two and sending Eury to run Waltrip's team did wonders for their relationship.
"I think that they gained a lot of respect back for each other," Gilmore said.
But Earnhardt insists the switch was a good idea regardless of on-track performance.
"We didn't change the teams because of a performance issue. We changed it because of an attitude issue between me and Tony Jr.," he said. "We changed it, maybe not for the right reasons, but the change did what it was supposed to it. It fixed his attitude and it fixed my attitude.
"It's not always greener on the other side for either one of us. We both look at each other and talk to each other today totally different. I think that gives us that opportunity to work together in the future that we wouldn't of had if we would have run ourselves totally apart."
But no one is ruling out teaming the two in the future. In fact, Waltrip is leaving DEI at the end of the next season because the organization would not guarantee him that he would work with Eury in the future.
However, Waltrip could end up with Eury anyway.
Gilmore said Saturday that Eury has no contract with DEI and admitted Waltrip could take him to his next team. But he said early indications were that he would stay at DEI.
"The Eurys have never had contracts, they've always just been there," Gilmore said. "It's always been an agreement and a year-to-year deal. Tony Jr. has told me he's not going anywhere and we're working on a deal and it would be his first contract - ever.
"That's the only place Tony Jr. has ever worked."
Now, the old adage 'You don't know what you've got until it's gone' has never been more fitting.
"We were driving ourselves apart with our attitudes toward each other," Earnhardt said. "Sometimes we act like children and sometime you need a lesson, and we had to give it to ourselves.
"We're just both really immature for our age, and that's due to the fact that our fathers let us raise ourselves pretty much. The more mature we get, the easier it is for us to work together."
It was Waltrip's decision to leave. DEI wanted to keep him at least for another year.
If DEI can get a quality driver in the #15 car, they will be a much stronger team next year with the addition of Martin Truex Jr.
Let's face it, Waltrip only runs good at 2 tracks.... Daytona and Talladega. It will be interesting to see if he can keep it up with whatever new team he goes to. Yeah he had a few more good runs this year than previous years. That was because of the crew swap. It helped Waltrip and hurt Junior.
Eury Jr. will be re-signed by DEI and will team up again with Jr. next year, that's almost a definate.
