Earnhardt, Eury bicker, but remain close cousins

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Listening to a typical radio exchange between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his car chief, Tony Eury Jr., you'd swear neither held the other in very high regard.

And that's being conservative.

AUDIO CLIPS Dale Jr. and Tony Jr. have a discussion over the radio at Kansas. 75 bytes / 20 seconds Listen

But deep beneath the barrage of obscenities, inquisitions and insults lies an impenetrable bond that will forever link them: blood.

They're first cousins.

"It's egos and attitudes, mainly. It's just really hard working with family," Earnhardt Jr. said with a sly grin last week at North Carolina Speedway.

Clad in an oversized yellow hooded sweatshirt and matching backwards hat, Junior attempted to explain his oft-volatile relationship with Eury Jr., his first cousin, and crew chief Tony Eury Sr., his uncle.

"It's really hard. But we want to succeed at it more than anybody else," he continued. "There's nobody in the garage that wants to win more than Tony Jr. and Tony Sr. And that's a lot of the reason why we bang heads so much, because a lot of times when I do poorly, I don't want to take it home.

	Credit: Autostock

"I don't want to go home all upset and piss away a whole weekend because I'm upset. I want to go and say, 'Man, had bad luck. Alright? It's done.' They want to get all upset and beat on that drum, and I don't like that. So, you know, they sometimes misconstrue that for not giving a damn, but that's not the case."

It's always been that way. At times, the family feud gets so intense that the faint of heart duck and run.

"When me and Tony Jr., first started working together, we brought in all these guys from different teams -- one guy came from this area and this guy came from a Late Model (team) and all these people," Earnhardt said. "And we got them all together and we're racing and a couple weeks later me and him just get into one helluva screaming match on the radio.

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"Everybody on the team's like, 'Man, it's over. This whole team's falling apart.' Then, we get done and the race is over and we say, 'Alright man, tough race. I'll see ya. Alright.' And everything's alright. That's just how we've been."

The reason? A shared, indomitable passion for winning, and a common refusal to accept complacency.

"I want him to want it more and he wants me to want it more. And we expect more out of the each other than we should probably ask," Earnhardt said. "I'll be out there driving the car at Charlotte and I'll say, 'You ain't helping me, man. You've got to make some changes. You've got to get this car better. You've got to help me. Help me, man, come on. We can do better than this.'

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"And he'll be in there doing all he can do, but I'm not seeing that because I'm in the car. I don't know what he's doing. I'll be on his ass, like, 'Man, get off the damn box and start looking at these tires. Figure out what's making this thing so loose.' And he'll be like, 'I'm doing all I can do.' But I don't know that. I don't see that.

"When we're out there practicing, I'll be like, 'Yeah, the car's pretty good.' And he'll be like, 'Well we're a half-second off. You gotta pick it up! You gotta find out why you can't run them laps. I need you to run as fast as the leader.' They always want to be on the board, up top. So we're constantly, even when things are fine and everything's good, we're always like, 'Come on man, give me some more. Work harder.'"

Though quirky and unorthodox, the relationship is works. So well, in fact, Earnhardt Jr., foresees championship bliss in the future.

VIDEO CLIPS Dale Jr. and his crew celebrate in Victory Lane after winning the EA SPORTS 500 at Talladega. Play video

"I think it drives us to stay competitive, and sooner or later that's going to succeed for us," Earnhardt said. "Because when we challenge each other to be better, that's just going to continue to help us stay up with the times and up with the technology and everything.

"We did so well in the Busch Series and I expected to come into the Winston Cup Series and do as well. And we can. And we should. And we will one day. Honestly, I can't think of a better crew chief.

"There's not a better crew chief in the garage than Tony Sr. Tony Jr's just as good as him, labeled a car chief. And I don't think there's a better driver. So that combination's going to work out one day."