McGrew will remain with Jr and the 88
Hendrick Motorsports said Friday at Talladega, Ala., that McGrew will remain with the No. 88 team in 2010. – Associated Press file
Hendrick Motorsports promoted Lance McGrew, who had been Earnhardt’s interim crew chief since May, to the full-time position, effective immediately.
The move brought some much-needed clarity to the future of Earnhardt’s No. 88 Chevrolet team. On Friday, Earnhardt was 17th fastest in final practice. Qualifying is scheduled for 12:15 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday for Sunday’s Amp Energy 500.
As recently as two weeks ago at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Earnhardt expressed frustration and disappointment with his performance and said he had no idea who the leader of his team would be in 2010.
“This is kind of the time of the year where everybody is looking for direction and hoping you can get a lot of momentum at the end of the season,” said McGrew.
“That is kind of what we are trying to do by setting the record down that I am going to be with the team next year and getting everybody pulling in the same direction.”
Since joining the powerhouse Hendrick organization at the beginning of the 2008 season, Earnhardt has seen a few highs and many lows.
He won the season-opening Budweiser Shootout in 2008, the June Cup race at Michigan and made the Chase. But he struggled down the stretch and finished 12th in the series standings.
Earnhardt’s performance took a dive this year. He had seven finishes of 27th or worse in the first 15 races.
The former crew chief, Tony Eury Jr., was reassigned in May when McGrew was brought in on an interim basis. Earnhardt said McGrew didn’t need any coaxing to take the job full time.
“I didn’t convince Lance. I think Lance sees a good race team in front of him. He tells me sincerely that he believes in my talent as a driver and feels like that with the right situation, that we can have a lot of success,” Earnhardt said.
“Being a crew chief is a very, very tough job and very thankless. Lance understands that as well as anyone. I feel confident that he can handle the pressures of the job and I feel confident with him on the box.”
Since McGrew took over, Earnhardt’s on-track performance has improved, but he has been plagued by late-race incidents – not all of his doing – and other issues, such as a broken transmission at Charlotte and multiple tire failures at Martinsville.
“I was really surprised when I first started working with Dale and his confidence was beat down as much as it was; I expected him to be a lot more positive and a lot more understanding of the situation, I guess you’d say,” McGrew said.
“Since then, I’ve definitely seen a light in his eye and a strut in his step as he comes to the car. Like I said, we don’t have the bottom-line finishes to back up what I feel like we’ve started to achieve, but the steps are in place to get there.”
