Eury Jr. Out, McGrew In

Hendrick Motorsports announced today that Tony Eury Jr. will be replaced as crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Lance McGrew will step in as acting crew chief effective with the June 7 Pocono 500.  Eury will move on to a research and development position within Hendrick Motorsports.

McGrew has one Sprint Cup win, the 2006 Talladega 500 with Brian Vickers.

"Our performance hasn't been where it should be," said Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. "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."

This change has been a long time coming.  Earnhardt Jr. is mired back in 19th in the points standings and since moving to Hendrick Motorsports has only a single win on a fuel mileage run at last year's Michigan 400.  Meanwhile teammates Jeff Gordon (points leader), Jimmie Johnson (4th) and Mark Martin (12th) have experienced wins in 2009.

See the full press release from Hendrick Motorsports.

Town Hall Meeting?

Did anyone else get a little queasy when they heard that NASCAR held a "town hall"-style meeting on Tuesday?  The purpose of the meeting was to examine some of the difficulties facing the sport in recent times (read: declining interest / TV ratings).  I mean at first it sounded like a great idea... until I heard that it was going to be for car owners and drivers only.

I applaud NASCAR for acknowledging that there are problems and looking to address them before it's too late.  Ostrich-like behavior, after all, is rarely ever rewarded.  But NASCAR needs to stop listening to car owners and drivers and start listening to THE FANS.

Most of the tumultuous change heaped on the sport in recent years -- often pushed by the car owners and drivers through NASCAR -- has been met with much opposition by the fan base.  The "Car of Tomorrow".  The schedule "Re-Alignment".  All the crazy rules they have now.  Fans didn't want any of this stuff... they complained when it was proposed... they complained when it was implemented... and now they're voicing their complaints with their feet and remote controls.

Hopefully NASCAR will listen to the right people before it's too late.

Was Carl Long in Attendance?

Carl Long is both an owner and a driver... I wonder if he was invited to the town hall meeting?  His mere presence would have been enough to point out what's wrong with the new NASCAR.

Long is a throwback to old-school NASCAR: an average guy with not a lot of money running an independent team -- all for the thrill of racing.  He attempted to enter the non-points paying Sprint All-Star event through the Sprint Showdown qualifier.  Before the race he blew his motor and sent it to NASCAR for tech inspection where they found it to be oversized by 0.17 cubic inches.  Yeah, that's right -- 0.17.

His crew chief, Charles Swing -- another average guy --, was fined $200,000 (!) and both he and Long were placed on a 12-race suspension.  Long was also penalized 200 championship points, which is interesting since he currently has ZERO because he hasn't qualified for any 2009 events.

Now where the hell is this guy going to get $200,000?

It's clear: NASCAR's intention is to simply ruin the guy, plain and simple.