Johnson Wins Autism Speaks 400

Jimmie Johnson overcame a slow final pit stop, and charged through the field, passing Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart to win the Autism Speaks 400 from Dover International Speedway.

Top 5: Johnson, Stewart, Biffle, Matt Kenseth, and Kurt Busch.

Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman, Casey Mears, and Mark Martin rounded out the top 10.

Notables: Clint Bowyer (11th), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (12th), Jeff Burton (16th), Kevin Harvick (17th), David Reutimann (18th), Kyle Busch (23rd), Jeff Gordon (26th), and Denny Hamlin (36th).

Give a call to Dale Earnhardt Jr, who finished 12th. After Brad Keselowski failed to make the race, Lance McGrew was freed up to serve as Dale Earnhardt Jr’s crew chief. Jr ran in the top 10 for most of the day, and might have finished in the top 5, had the crew overadjusted the car in the closing laps. All in all, all involved were pleased with the performance.

Analysis: Changes At The No. 88

After the ouster of Tony Eury Jr as crew cheif for his cousin, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Junior Nation collectively exclaimed, “Finally!”

For quite a while now, Jr Nation has been calling for Eury Jr’s head — or job as it were. Eury Jr took a lot of the flack for Dale Jr’s lackluster, on-track performance. After all, Jr was in arguably the best equipment, but the wins weren’t coming. There was a lot of speculation that a change was coming. So, Rick Hendrick was forced to make a change, despite seeming reluctant to earlier.

The question that remains to be seen is whether or not this will make a difference.

Whitesell has been part of seven NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship teams in a managerial role. He also won two out of seven races with Jeff Gordon, when he served as interim crew chief for Gordon in 1999 after Ray Evernham’s departure.

Whitesell’s experience and expertise should help turn around the performance of Dale Jr. But, Whitesell last served as crew cheif in 1999, when the COT didn’t exist. Does Whitesell know enough about the COT to help set up Dale Jr’s car? That remains to be seen. But, he should still be able to help improve the team’s performance.

McGrew won the 2003 Busch (now Nationwide) Series championship with Brian Vickers, and was Vickers’ crew chief for his 2006 Talladega victory — Jr Nation surely remembers that victory. He also led Tony Stewart to victory earlier this season at Daytona in the Nationwide car.

Similar to Whitesell, McGrew has winning and championship experience, which should help Dale Jr’s performance.

Add in Rex Stump and Tom Stewart, and the four of them should be able to set up a car suitable for Dale Jr to drive to better-than 40th place finishes.

Don’t expect a night and day switch. Jr isn’t likely to win Dover or Pocono. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him struggle up until the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona in July.

That’s not to say that these moves are not good. I just think that he’ll need time to adjust to his new crew chief, and vice versa.

Dale Jr, over the radio, is not a driver like Mark Martin. Dale Jr doesn’t tell his crew chief to take wedge out or to go up or down on a track bar adjustment. Instead, Jr tells his crew chief that car is pushing in the center of the corner, etc.

This, I don’t think, suits Eury Jr’s style. Eury probably needs more information about the adjustments, not what the car is doing. I think this is why I they couldn’t turn it around.

All in all, I think this is a good move for Dale Jr. But I would also like to see Eury Jr become a crew chief for someone again. I think he could do very well with a different style of driver, maybe Brad Keselowski or Mark Martin.

One last thing, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Alan Gustafson as Dale Jr’s crew cheif next year.

Eury Jr Out As Dale Jr’s Crew Chief

Tony Eury Jr is out as crew cheif for Dale Earnhardt Jr starting this weekend at the Autism Speaks 400 at Dover.

Team manager Brian Whitesell will assume the role for Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Amp/National Guard Chevy this weekend, with Lance McGrew taking over on an interim basis after that.

In a prepared statement, Rick Hendrick said:

Our performance hasn’t been where it should be. 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.

Whitesell and Hendrick’s lead chassis engineer, Rex Stump, will support McGrew when he takes over. Tom Stewart, a team engineer, will also be on the pit box for the No 88.

These moves are an indication that Hendrick is committed to turning around the No. 88. Hendrick continued:

We’re going to put our full resources toward improving the situation and winning races. It’s going to be a collective effort that includes all of our drivers, all of our crew chiefs and all of our engineers. Everyone in our company will be involved on some level.

No word on what will happen to Eury Jr at this point.

UPDATE: Eury Jr will move to an R&D role with Hendrick Motorsports.