Notes: Eury ready to hand over 8 car reins to Gibson

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Dale Earnhardt Inc. crew chief Tony Eury Jr. is down to his last two races working for the "family team" with cousin Dale Earnhardt Jr.

But Saturday afternoon at Kansas Speedway, Eury said his departure from the No. 8 Chevrolet team after next weekend's UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway would be an opportunity for him and his replacement, the current No. 8 car chief, Tony Gibson.

"We'd basically said if we didn't make the Chase, it might be an opportunity for Gibson to do his deal with our boys and for me to do it with Hendrick," Eury said. "I just felt like I'd be halfway comfortable if I could get to where Dale Jr. would only have to run five or six races until the end of the year.

"And all of them are like [Kansas] -- similar to here, Charlotte, Texas, Atlanta -- and those are like the places where Gibson took over when I was out [in May and June, a six-race suspension for a COT violation at Darlington]. [Gibson] knows what to do there, and it's all laid out for him, so he just needs to go to the racetrack.

"It gives me a big chance to get over there and be with [Hendrick competition director] Ken Howes and Rex [Stump, lead Hendrick engineer] and all those guys and just learn their procedures and go with [Darian] Grubb and the 25 car each week and just kind of analyze guys and see what's happening.

"I'll be [at the racetrack] every week and from what I hear I've got a lot of testing that I'll be doing early in the week and then I'll go to the racetrack. It's a pretty full plate, but that's what I told them: I've got two-and-a-half months until the biggest exam of my life, [the Daytona 500] so I've got to be ready."

Eury said he had no doubt Gibson, who won a Cup championship as Jeff Gordon's car chief at Hendrick Motorsports in 2001 before moving to DEI for the first of his two stints there, will do well -- though it pains Eury to leave a man he's close friends with.

"It's gonna be tough," Eury said. "Gibson's a great person and I really enjoyed working with him, but pretty much the way I looked at it is he came to DEI to be a crew chief, and I'm happy that he's going to get the chance to do it again.

"He kind of got in a bad situation the first time he come [in 2002 with the No. 1 car] and this is going to be a really good one. He's accustomed to all the guys and I think he's going to do great. Hopefully Regan [Smith, Gibson's planned driver] comes in and picks up on it pretty quick."

Stewart drops 'f-bomb' on live TV

Tony Stewart, who's in second place in the Chase for the Nextel Cup standings heading into Sunday's LifeLock 400 at Kansas Speedway, drew attention for a different reason Saturday morning, at the end of morning practice, which was broadcast live on ESPN2.

An ESPN camera operator, capturing general video footage with a live microphone open, caught Stewart uttering a curse word after Stewart finished a private conversation with Robby Gordon.

"It was an unfortunate incident and we apologized to our viewers, on air right after the words were spoken," George McNeilly, senior director of communications for ESPN/ABC, said Saturday afternoon.

"We don't characterize it as a personal issue between Tony and ESPN, no. The matter's now in NASCAR's hands and I think the tape speaks for itself."

McNeilly said ESPN uses tape delays for two-way radio communication on its broadcasts and while "certainly tape delays are appropriate for random radio talk shows, we don't feel the need for a tape delay when working with professional athletes."

Stewart has already been penalized twice this season, first with a $10,000 fine and probation through Dec. 31, 2007 for skipping his post-race media obligation at Phoenix in April; and then with a $25,000 fine and the loss of 25 driver points for cursing during a live TV interview following his victory in the July 29 Allstate 400 at The Brickyard.

McNeilly said the network had shared the video footage with NASCAR, whose spokesman, Ramsey Poston, said "we're looking into it." Poston said the sanctioning body would not have a response until it had reviewed the tape.

Reed slides through

Ganassi Racing driver Reed Sorenson had a bird's eye view of Kansas pole-sitter Jimmie Johnson's crash in the opening moments of Saturday's Happy Hour practice (read more), and later said he'd almost done the same in his No. 41 Dodge, which ended up second to Johnson on the practice's time sheet (complete speeds).

"It was slick, and after five laps you'd get almost a second drop-off on your times because of the tires," Sorenson said. "It was weird. I was in the middle of the backstretch when Jimmie crashed, and I almost did the same thing.

"We ran almost the whole session on old tires, and when you're running around on old tires, it's slippery, but at least you're used to it and it's not so bad. But at first, it's a handful and quite a drop-off."

Sorenson, who's run 18 of the first 30 Busch Series races, was happy to have Saturday off.

"This is good," Sorenson said as the Busch race got ready to start. "I get to relax and watch [the Busch race], and I got to talk to Jimmy [Elledge, his Cup crew chief] a lot more about the setup on the Cup car, so that was good. I think we've got a top-10 car for [Sunday]."

Keller equals mark

South Carolina Busch Series veteran Jason Keller, by starting Saturday's Yellow Transportation 300 at Kansas in the 33rd position, tied Tommy Houston for the most starts, 417, in Busch Series history.

Keller, who spent some time out of the series during the past couple of seasons before returning with CJM Motorsports, is still happy to be in the series, where he's made most of his career.

"I'm very proud of what we've been able to accomplish and I'm looking forward to good things -- it means a lot," Keller said. "It means I've done something right to be here for that long. I'm in a very good place right now. I try to do my very best but do it quietly and it's not going to be done any differently from here on out."

Keller finished 16th (results), which was his career average finish coming into the race.

Risk versus reward

Busch Series leader Carl Edwards experienced what that was all about when he spent some time behind pit road before returning to the racetrack Saturday, only to destroy his No. 60 Roush Racing Ford in a vicious impact with the safer barrier (watch videos).

Earlier, ESPN analyst and former two-time Cup champion crew chief Andy Petree had said there was a great benefit for the eight Chase for the Nextel Cup drivers, including Edwards, who were in the Yellow 300 field.

"Definitely better to be racing, in my opinion," Petree said. "I think it is a little bit of a risk for these guys to be out there in the car, but the gain is so much that I think they have to do it.

"They learn about air pressure, they learn a few things they can try without all the pressure of being out there under the gun of this championship. I think it's a good thing for these guys to be racing."

Edwards was not injured in the crash, which shortened his car almost up to the windshield when it hit the wall head-on.