Motorsports

DEI teams finally get kinks out

After a rocky start, a switch in crews and equipment seems to be paying off for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip.

By BRANT JAMES
Published May 1, 2005

TALLADEGA, Ala. - Things were looking pretty sunny Saturday morning from Pete Rondeau's vantage point, even as rain dripped from the canopy atop the transporter and down the back of his neck.

Hands thrust deep into his pockets, Budweiser hat pulled low on his brow, Rondeau looked like a man who enjoys weathering a storm. He might have made it through the first tempest of his young career as a crew chief. There certainly will be more. He knows that. That's to be expected when working for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

But at this moment, calm. America's most popular driver is racing well again.

"Right on schedule," Rondeau said of his team's progress. "What I said at the beginning of the season, if things didn't work out well to start the season, we'd work hard at it and get more successful at the tracks he was bad at last year, and I think we've done that. It's been a big steady progression over the last four or five races."

If Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s success had faded after a dramatic shuffling of its programs, then it appears to be coming back after Michael Waltrip finished second - with Earnhardt fourth - at Phoenix last week.

"We were getting a lot of questions about "Are we still going to be able to get into the top 10? Do we still think our season was going downhill,"' said Earnhardt, who is 12th in the points standings. "But I feel like over the last couple of weeks, we've been able to show everybody that we're still capable of making the Chase this season."

The Nextel Cup series schedule reaches the quarter point today at Talladega Superspeedway and gives the team the opportunity to claim more momentum. Earnhardt has won five times and finished at least second in the past seven races here. DEI has won 11 of the past 17 restrictor-plate races at Daytona and Talladega. Neither Earnhardt nor Waltrip has won this season.

There was great uncertainty when DEI announced this offseason that it would swap cars, crew chiefs and crews in an effort to stoke a stagnant atmosphere and quell a personality conflict between Earnhardt and his cousin and car chief, Tony Eury Jr. It increased when Earnhardt complained about his speed-deficient No. 8 Chevrolet through Speedweeks - though he finished third in the Daytona 500 - then finished 32nd at California, 42nd at Las Vegas and 24th at Atlanta.

Waltrip, driving the cars Earnhardt took to six wins and a fifth-place finish in the standings last year, lost an engine and was 37th at Daytona, followed by 38th- and 21st-place finishes. He was 19th at Bristol and 30th at Martinsville.

The prevailing sentiment was that DEI was in trouble, if not turmoil, when Earnhardt began to criticize the team openly.

"I think people maybe put dirt on us and buried us too soon," said Richie Gilmore, team director of competition. "That might have been good for us in some ways. It made everyone jell and focus and bear down."

Under the canopy of Waltrip's No.15 Chevrolet hauler, Eury likes his forecast, too. Admittedly, he gained much from the switch. Eury was elevated to crew chief for the first time and given the personnel and equipment with which he had worked. Earnhardt's crew is much less experienced.

"I'm doing the same thing I was last year," Eury said. "(Father Tony Eury Sr.) was the crew chief before and I always told him I did most of the work then, but I'd let him have all the credit because that was his deal. But it wasn't like I had never been a crew chief and was stepping into something I had never done before."

Waltrip claims he felt no pressure either, though Gilmore has made it clear that Waltrip is expected to make the Chase for the Championship or risks losing his job. The 42-year-old veteran, whose four Cup wins have come in restrictor-plate races, said he just wanted to be wanted.

"When I got in this car, I wanted to be like them," Waltrip said. "I didn't want them to be like me. I wanted to get in there and be part of that group and have them mold me the way they wanted me to run and way they wanted me to do things."

Waltrip's season started promisingly when he led 42 laps and ran in the top five at the Daytona 500 before an engine failure scuttled him with less than 40 laps left. Waltrip led laps at Bristol and had a sixth-place finish two weeks ago at Texas.

"Our team was kind of pumped up and saying, all right, we're right back where we were last year," Eury Jr. said. "But we knew they were going to struggle just a little bit and it was just a matter of when it was going to turn around, but there was no worry on our side of the camp."

Rondeau knew he would feel enough pressure for everyone. It escalated when Earnhardt was slow in preseason testing and preparations for Daytona. Earnhardt's constant defense of his new crew chief didn't alleviate the pressure.

"It was a no-win situation for me," Rondeau said. "If we did well, Junior's supposed to, if we did (poorly), well, then it's my fault. That's okay. I was fine with it."

Clear skies ahead.

[Last modified April 30, 2005, 23:59:18]