(By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service)
Posted: Saturday,March 27th, 2010
MARTINSVILLE, Va.—The relationship between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and crew chief Lance McGrew may be an acquired taste for both parties, but Earnhardt quickly has learned to appreciate the way McGrew defends him.
Less than a week removed from a pithy radio exchange between Earnhardt and McGrew at Bristol—after Earnhardt incurred a penalty for speeding on pit road—the driver talked about the evolving dynamic with McGrew, who replaced Earnhardt’s cousin, Tony Eury Jr., on the pit box last year.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the #88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet speaks with crew chief Lance McGrew (Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)
“I was counting and I think I have worked with about six different crew chiefs,” Earnhardt said Friday at Martinsville. “Lance—we aren’t kin or related. We have to respect each other more, I think, because of our different backgrounds and upbringing, whatever, what have you. The longer we work together, the more respect we have for each other.
“He backs me up a little bit more than I’m used to, I guess. He sort of has my back in a lot of situations.”
Earnhardt was grousing last Sunday about the speeding penalty that forced him to the back of the field when McGrew told him, “Don’t you lay down on me, bud.” That prompted a testy retort from Earnhardt, who on Friday acknowledged that McGrew was right to push him.
“The thing about a really good crew chief is he will know exactly what to say for each situation,” Earnhardt said. “Lance knew to cheer me back to my game and steer me in that direction with a little pep talk, and he did it, and that’s what I needed. Maybe at times it’s his job, maybe it ain’t. Maybe it is my job to keep my head together.
“If he sees me going off on the wrong path, he cares enough to want to fix it and helped me out a lot at that moment. Because I was really, really upset about how that (speeding penalty) went down, regardless of who was right or wrong, I wasn’t thinking about what I was supposed to be thinking about—my job.
“He did the right thing.”
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