MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Talk about a culture clash.

The folks at JR Motorsports worked late into the night recently, trying to get the seat set just right for driver Danica Patrick in her ARCA car before she headed off to give it a test run. First they had to retrieve the special seat from Hendrick Motorsports in Concord, N.C., and then get it back to the JR Motorsports shop in Mooresville and attempt to install it.

Before they knew it, the day was pretty much gone. It was pushing 8 p.m. and no one had eaten dinner.

Tony Eury Jr., Patrick's new crew chief for her limited Nationwide Series schedule, got with some of his colleagues and decided to order out for pizza. When it arrived, Eury waved it in front of Patrick and asked if she wanted some.

"No, no," she replied, waving him off.

No problem, thought Eury. He quickly ordered out for "salad and some other healthy stuff."

Patrick's husband, Paul Hospenthal, stood nearby shaking his head.

"She won't eat that, either," he told Eury.

“

I was really sitting down and thinking about some other offers when this deal came up. I talked to Pops several times about it and he said, 'Just make sure this is what you want to do -- because if you leave that Cup garage, you might not ever want to go back.

”

- TONY EURY JR.

By this time, Eury was thoroughly confused. He asked Patrick's husband what the diminutive driver actually would consider consuming -- and was appalled to discover that Patrick not only would not eat a donut, but admitted she had never even tasted one of the Krispy Kreme variety.

"What's the deal with that? You're missing one of the best things in life," Eury told her.

"Well, I can't eat one right now. I've got a swimsuit shoot coming up," Patrick replied.

My, how times have changed at JR Motorsports. But in his new role as not only Patrick's part-time crew chief but as part-owner of the operation along with his cousins -- founder Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt -- Eury knew just what executive decision to make.

"When is the photo shoot?" he asked.

Told by Patrick it was scheduled for the following Tuesday, Eury added: "After that photo shoot is over, I'm going to send you a dozen of 'em."

This time, Patrick bit. Or at least said she would be willing to bite when the time was right.

"If you do that," she told Eury, "I'll send you a picture of me eating one."

A different challenge

Eury gleefully told the media this story in great detail recently at the JR Motorsports shop. Just shy of seven months removed from his removal as the high-profile Sprint Cup crew chief of his famous cousin, Earnhardt Jr., Eury has never seemed happier.

Earnhardt came to him with the offer of ownership and other expanded duties within the day-to-day operations of the JR Motorsports shop after first talking it over with Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. The two operations are closely connected, and Earnhardt drives for Hendrick in the Cup Series.

Earnhardt said the motivation was part selfish and part personal. He thought Eury Jr. had much to offer his racing company. But he also wanted to see his cousin -- who emerged from years of close scrutiny working in the Cup garage feeling more than a little worn down and beaten up emotionally -- happy working again.

In agreeing to come on board at JR Motorsports, Eury Jr. was reunited with his father, Tony Eury Sr., more affectionately known as Pops. That was by Earnhardt's hopeful design as well.

"Our company needed him. We've got the [Nationwide Series version of] the COT to build and develop," Earnhardt said. "But there were a lot of other things that went into it, too. ... I thought it would be great for him and Pops to be able to work together again and build their relationship -- which always has been a great relationship, but it's great working with your dad. Plus I love working with him.

"So it was his for the taking. He didn't have to do it. It wouldn't have made any difference [personally] meant being crew chief for someone else, for another Cup car, that would have been fine, too."

So they had a heart-to-heart conversation about it.

"I've got this idea," Earnhardt told Eury Jr. "Kelley has kind of earned this position [as part-owner]. I want to bring you in also, and give you that opportunity to grow, to take on a little different challenge."

Don't worry, be happy

Eury Jr. didn't accept his cousin's offer immediately, or before doing some serious soul-searching. He talked it over with his father first and often, of course, and then spent a month thinking it all out from every angle he could conceive.

Although there are those who felt some sort of reconnection with Earnhardt was inevitable because the two are so close -- and because Earnhardt said he intended to "make it up to" Eury Jr. when they split at Hendrick -- both parties denied it necessarily was so.

"We didn't have this in mind. I was just enjoying my time, being with my wife and being at home. We had some other offers," Eury Jr. said.

But then the other Junior came knocking with the deal he ultimately could not refuse.

"I was really sitting down and thinking about some other offers when this deal came up," Eury Jr. said. "I talked to Pops several times about it and he said, 'Just make sure this is what you want to do -- because if you leave that Cup garage, you might not ever want to go back. And if there is something else you want to do over there, stay over there and do it.' But the biggest thing he said was, 'Do whatever it is that makes you happy.' "

Don't worry, be happy. (Continued)