Motorsports

Earnhardt team dumps crew chief

In a bid to get back to winning, Pete Rondeau is out and Steve Hmiel in.

By BRANT JAMES
Published May 27, 2005

CONCORD, N.C. - Dale Earnhardt Jr. rubber-stamped a bold change within his No. 8 Chevrolet program during the offseason when he sensed it stagnating under the direction of his uncle, crew chief Tony Eury Sr., and car chief and cousin Tony Eury Jr.

Only months into the relationship and with no loyalty to the man who replaced his family and brain trust, Earnhardt endorsed the sacking of crew chief Pete Rondeau this week.

"Me and Tony Jr. and Tony Sr. are family," Earnhardt said. "And they've been there from the very beginning and they're still there at Dale Earnhardt Inc. It's just hard to leave those guys because my dad put me with them. And Tony Sr. told me on several occasions that him and Dad had conversations about us winning championships together and all those things. So, it was a totally different situation for me, personally, than it is now."

Anything is an option in the name of progress at this point in the 30-year-old's Nextel Cup career, and his team had "kind of flatlined there a little bit," he said Thursday at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Though DEI turned to another familiar person in longtime employee Steve Hmiel to replace Rondeau on at least an interim basis, the question remains: Can a program set in its ways and used to winning steady itself in time to prevent a lost season?

Fifth in the final points standings and a six-time winner last season, Earnhardt has just four top 10s in 10 races since finishing third in the Daytona 500. Eleventh in the standings, Earnhardt is within the points boundary for the Chase for the Championship, but his winless campaign has been painted as a disappointment with three finishes of 24 or worse.

DEI director of motorsports Richie Gilmore said the decision was made in conjunction with team owner Teresa Earnhardt and Earnhardt after feeling like "it wasn't there, and that we had to make a decision."

Asked if he had input, Earnhardt responded: "Yeah, lots."

Though Earnhardt insists that he and Rondeau remain friends, he expressed frustration over their communication at the track. The same problem - specifically the emotional dialogue between Earnhardt and Eury Jr. - was cited as a reason for the original switch, but he and his cousin apparently managed to work better on races days.

"We found ourselves, I guess a lot of times, just kind of out of touch in the middle part of the race. There was a lot of things," Earnhardt said of his relationship with Rondeau. "I didn't feel like personally I was getting a lot of information about what changes were being done on the car and I'm sure that I wasn't giving him enough information about what those changes were doing. I've driven Cup cars for a couple of years now and he's been a crew chief for a year, and if we'd have came in as rookies together, or with that type of experience together, it might have worked out."

Hmiel, a former technical director at DEI, has 30 wins as a crew chief for Mark Martin and Richard Petty. Hmiel and Martin combined for 18 victories, 30 poles, 111 top-five finishes and 160 top 10s in 228 starts from 1989-96.

Though careful not to blame on Rondeau, Hmiel suggested that he will make better use of technology and team resources like the series' dominant Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Racing teams.

"It's kind of a different methodology the way I would do things," he said. "It'll be more similar to what the teams that are winning all the races are doing. That's talking amongst themselves and using all the assets that are available to them to become a better race team. Pete wasn't against that. We just weren't at that point in our company's history."

Rondeau was in the garage area at Lowe's Motor Speedway before qualifying on Thursday, but has no official title any longer at DEI. His brief responses to questions suggested unhappiness.

Just three races ago at Talladega Superspeedway, with Earnhardt coming off consecutive top 10s and a fourth-place finish at Phoenix, Rondeau expressed hope the team was finding a rhythm, but knew the blame would be his as soon as the team hit another inevitable slump.

"It's a no-win situation for me," he told the Times. "If we did well, Junior's supposed to; if we did (poorly), well, then it's my fault. That's okay. I'm fine with it."

And now he's another casualty of DEI's grope for stability.

[Last modified May 27, 2005, 00:40:18]