Eury missed the garage, working with his father (cont'd)

That has become the mantra of Eury Jr. He could not stop thinking about the advice his father gave him, which obviously was endorsed by Earnhardt as well.

"I took about four weeks, putting people off, and just thought about what it was that I really wanted to do. How was I going to be happy?" Eury Jr. said. "I done that stuff for 16 years straight [on the Cup side]. To get off the road, I was wondering what it would be like that first weekend, and then how it would be the second weekend. I wanted to make sure I stayed off the road for at least six straight weeks -- because then you're thinking, 'OK, now it's like a winter-time break, and how much would I miss it?'

“

I'm 10 times happier now. Everything about this makes me happier.

”

- TONY EURY JR.

"And I'll be honest with you: there were some weekends when I didn't even turn the race on. That was kind of like a sign to me where I said to myself, 'Well, OK, you're pretty much done with that. Go to where it will make you the most happy.' And that's what's going on here. I'm happy and I'm having a blast."

Earnhardt was right on the money about reuniting Tony Jr. with his father in the JR Motorsports shop.

"It's great that they offered this ownership to me, but the biggest thing is I've kind of noticed that I missed being with Pops and a lot of the people who are here that I had been with before," Eury Jr. said. "Being able to work with those guys -- I mean, I've been back there for the last three or four weeks, welding fenders -- it's been like the old days. ... I'm doing all of the things I used to love, instead of just sitting in front of my computer."

He also said he is enjoying his working relationship with Patrick. To outsiders, it looked as if Eury Jr. was jumping from the frying pan of being Earnhardt's closely scrutinized crew chief to the fire of being Patrick's -- but neither Eury Jr. nor Earnhardt think that way.

"I don't know if it's really throwing him back into the fire," Earnhardt said. "It depends on how you look at it. In [the media's] shoes, I can see how people might think it's going to be a challenging experience for him with her over the next several months.

"But I only plan to run two [Nationwide] races. Me and him will work together in those two races. Otherwise, he'll handle the Danica stuff -- which is not a lot. It's a minimal schedule. I hope that it works out for him. I hope that he enjoys it."

Earnhardt said Eury Jr. already is having a positive impact on day-to-day operations at the shop. He said he's hoping perhaps it even has the indirect but not totally unintended ripple-down effect that helps Earnhardt improve his own sagging Cup fortunes by allowing him to focus almost solely on that.

"He's already made a great impact around here," Earnhardt said. "He's getting to work with his dad and his uncles, and his friends, all the people he knows well. It's just a great opportunity for him to change direction and maybe find a job that he enjoys. I'm happy that he's here. I feel really comfortable with the ownership side of it. There is no majority owner in the company, and everybody has a say. It's great to have Tony Junior's opinion involved on the ownership side. He has a lot to offer. And Kelley's taken to it, because she was born to it and she's already been doing it for pretty much the last seven or eight years.

"It takes a lot of pressure off me. There is a lot less for me to worry about. I can relax and not have even the slightest worry -- and focus on my Cup stuff, because Lord knows I need to be focusing on that as much as I can."

Merry Christmas, times 10

Meanwhile, Eury Jr. is having fun getting to know Patrick better -- and pulling pranks on her. He didn't send her just one dozen Krispy Kreme donuts after her recent swimsuit shoot; he sent her eight dozen.

Again, how times have changed. A reporter joked with Eury Jr. that his former driver not only never would have been asked to do a swimsuit shoot, but he also never would have turned down Krispy Kremes in the first place.

Tony Jr. laughed heartily. Then he related what Patrick told him after he exerted his bad influence on her otherwise strict dietary habits. And yes, she sent the picture of her doing her part.

"That's the craziest thing I've ever eaten. There must be drugs in 'em or something, as good as they are," Patrick jokingly told Eury Jr.

How many, exactly, did Patrick devour?

"She said they were so good, she forgot to count," Eury said.

Again, he could not stop laughing as he related the story. Then he turned serious for a moment when he was asked how much merrier he is heading into this Christmas as opposed to last Christmas, when there was enormous pressure on him and Earnhardt to succeed as a Cup team in the approaching 2009 season.

"I'm 10 times happier now," he said without much hesitation at all. "Everything about this makes me happier."