JR

[harvey lee]

I guess I thought it was Jr and his crew for the poor finishes but if Jr cannot get his head in the game and quit messing up with his pit stops, he will never do any better.

I don't understand as he was better with DEI and now he has everything he needs with HMS.

Must be the driver to blame.

[Sifty]

It looks as if he is going to have one of those years.

It happens to them all.

Sifty

[HOF#13]

I do understand what you are saying Harvey, as when Jr. slid the few extra feet through his pit stall I was thinking same old, same old.

However...There was also a stop where a tire got away from one of the crew men and he had to go to the end of the longest line.

Anyhow...I was listening to the team communications during the race and I thought Jr. was giving fairly good feedback on what the car was doing. Early in the race the car was crazy tight and the adjustments were not really helping it out at all. Finally, they made a big adjustment (put in a spring rubber I believe with some other adjustments) and the car started to come around. The car was getting to the point of being fairly decent and just when I begin to get optimistic Tony Jr. makes a call that makes the car as tight or if not tighter than it has been the entire night?!?!?!? There were a few times Tony Jr. would tell Dale Jr. what he was going to do for adjustments and Dale Jr. would ask why would we do that and that is just going to make the car do this or that and not really help the problem...but in the end Tony Jr. would make the adjustment he wanted and more times than not, it would not help or a few times the car got even worse. It is something I have listened to for the second half of last season and all of this season. That team appears to be lost in trying to figure out what to do to make the car drive better. I am sure some of it is driver feedback, but I really think Tony Jr. is in way over his head with the COT and knowing what to do. Hendrick needs to make a change there. I know Jr. can drive a car, and yes he needs to do a better job of it....but he has a crew chief that cannot with any degree of certainty make the changes that make the car better during the race. I know that none of them, including Dale Jr., are doing everything they can but I firmly believe Dale Jr. is getting little or no help from his crew chief.

[BK19]

ihave been listening to jr on the radio on sprint cup mobile,and yeah he tells tony jr what is wrong with the car but he also tells him what to do with the car everytime tony never has a chance to do what he wants jr needs to let the crew chief do his job and not run the show ll the time isnt that the crew chiefs job to make the calls? and if he cant then he should be fired!!!!!

[CPRJoe]

Saw a show today and the opinion on the show was, Junior needs to spend time in the garage. Get to know his guys in the shop, and spend time with his teammates. His schedule is too crazy and the guys doing the grunt work feel outta touch with the "TEAM"

[HOF#13]

I agree Jr. does do a lot of second guessing Tony Jr.'s calls, but they still make the changes Tony Jr. wants (at least 95% of the time anyhow). Personally, I do think Jr. could do a little bit better job of communicating what the car is doing to Tony Jr. and the team, but I also have not listened to other driver's communications so I can't compare the information Jr. gives to that of any other driver.

I like Tony Jr. but I do think he needs some more help up there, at a minimum, to help diagnose what is causing the mishandling of the car, and to help figure out the best way to fix it. This whole team is in a funk right now. Even the tracks they have been consistently good at, they have looked bad. I know they are putting in a lot of extra time and effort into getting better, I guess time will tell.

[HOF#13]

Saw a show today and the opinion on the show was, Junior needs to spend time in the garage. Get to know his guys in the shop, and spend time with his teammates. His schedule is too crazy and the guys doing the grunt work feel outta touch with the "TEAM"

I agree Joe that that could be one piece of the puzzle. If you bond and become a close knit group, it is a lot easier, and you are more willing, to put in the extra effort to go out of your way to do the littlest of things to make the team better. Now, I have no idea what Jr.'s schedule is like, and I do not know how often he is at the shop, but I certainly would hope that he is there in the shop with the guys and working actively with all of the team members to help build comraderie and a "team" spirit and work to get this team to where it should be running every week. I don't think Rick Hendrick would be the least bit shy about telling Jr. if he thought there was something he thought Jr. should or shouldn't be doing.

[spearchucker]

Listen to Jimmy Johnson and Knaas on the radio. That is how it is supposed to work. Jimmy calmly tells him in detail what the car is doing and Knaas calmly tells him "OK, we'll work on it". By the end of the race the car is close to the front. The driver has to give good feedback and the crew chief has to know what to do to fix what the driver is describing. Bottom line, the driver drives the car and gives feedback to the crew chief, and the crew chief works on the car and manages the race. If one of the 2 isn't on the same page it doesn't work.

[SledNeck]

maybe he just cant drive a poor handling car as well as the other drivers can.

[spearchucker]

maybe he just cant drive a poor handling car as well as the other drivers can.

You may be right. Look at Martin and Jimmmy Johnson again... If they have a car capable of winning they win, if it is a 5th place car they get 5th or better and generally don't put it into the wall. They don't do more than the car is capable of.

[gregg52]

ya i just think jr's head is else where

even if you watch dw interveiws with him i get the impression that even dw thinks he needs to quit the night life and get INTO racin mode

it aint just this yyr being bad he wasnt real good last

when you are with team like hendricks theres not many excuses other that you dont have what it takes plain and simple weather it be toni jr or jr himself even when the 24 48 5 are runnin bad they dont miss the pit and contsantly spin out i believe jrs days are numbered if he cant pick it up even if he is the most popular another yr not in the chase

he cant even keep up with an ole man lol!!!!!!!

i'm wondering how good the 5 will be the 2nd half!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[harvey lee]

I agree. He is very busy with his commercial, party life and everything else he has going on and I do believe his head is not in the game.

[BK19]

yup he needs to do something i mean with ONLY 1 win while with tony eury jr its time to get down to bidness

[Longline]

I would like to see eury jr. and knaus switch teams for 1 race. Then we would be able to know if it is the driver or the crew chief that is the problem on the 88 team. our luck would be that both teams would suck that weekend and we still wouldn't have an answer.

[spearchucker]

Its not all Eury. Junior doesn't give the greatest feedback on the car in my opinion. They are usually general vague rants instead of calm detailed explanations of what it is doing in different parts of the corner. It is hard to fix when all you hear is "this thing drives like carp."

[gregg52]

ya there is some serious problems in that who knows whos to blame when you are doing bad with what you have provided by hendricks again proven by the 5 even kyle won there

i guess you have to start changing things one at a time

starting where i dont know but i think rick h will step in soon

speaking of him any body heard if hes sick again hasnt been at the track for awhile now

[SledNeck]

How about try another driver with Eury Jr?

[harvey lee]

Thats exactly what Rick H. was talking about a few weeks ago. A swap between Jr and MM.

[SledNeck]

Thats exactly what Rick H. was talking about a few weeks ago. A swap between Jr and MM.

I wouldnt think that would be fair to Mark Martin since hes having a good season.

I was talking about a different driver in the #88 for a few races.

[harvey lee]

Thats what the talk was before MM won 2 races as he wasn't that hot either and HMS thought the swap would work.

Rick H figured a crew chief change would help Jr. Smart money has it that Jr will get a new crew chief.

[SledNeck]

If Jr is sill underperforming with a new crew chief how long do you think Hendrick will keep him on? Lets face it, JR is a marketing dream (as of now)...would Hendrick keep him on forever no matter what his performance is just because he's good for business?

[harvey lee]

He makes big money and draws sponsors. He is still better than many in NASCAR.

[SledNeck]

So in essence NASCAR today is more about making money than performing well and winning races?

[harvey lee]

If a team does not make money, then they are out of business. Winning races does not or never will pay all the team bills. One needs good sponsors.

[gregg52]

ya but if your not runnin up front that sponser ship will slow and the jr nation will shrink

mark m was very popular back in the day but he fell on bad yrs vavlvoline pulled up stakes nascar is about money sad to say but jr needs to be at least competitive 22nd finishs arnt going to cut the mustad