What went wrong? Dale Jr. doesn't know for certain

DOVER, Del. -- The question lingers over Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s race team like the heavy, overcast clouds hung over Dover International Speedway on Friday. Why didn't it work? Not even the driver knows for certain.

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Car owner Rick Hendrick separated Earnhardt and crew chief Tony Eury Jr. on Thursday, after a sluggish start to the 2009 season that included a 40th-place run at Charlotte and a 19th-place standing in points. On Friday, Earnhardt came to the Monster Mile with a fill-in crew chief for Sunday, an interim crew chief set to take over at Pocono, and a chassis engineer dedicated solely to reversing the fortunes of his No. 88 car. What he didn't have was an answer for why two tightly knit cousins who got off to a fast start at Hendrick and won a race at Michigan last year couldn't produce sustained results.

"There really isn't one thing you can put your finger on as to why it didn't work," Earnhardt said. "I'm not hiding any blame from anyone. I take full responsibility for making some mistakes along the way, especially this year. We haven't been on our game. I definitely haven't been on my game. I shoulder any amount of responsibility that's necessary and that everybody feels is fair for the fact that we didn't make this work. I don't have the urge to point fingers in any one direction, and I can't put my finger on any particular instance or reason that it didn't work. But we were definitely trying our hardest. We really were. We had a lot of meetings and talked it out and talked it out and tried to get a better approach each weekend. We changed a lot of things about how we set the cars up and everything. We just kept going backward."

Finishing two laps down in Monday's rain-delayed Coca-Cola 600 was the final straw. Eury was moved into a research and development role, while general manager Brian Whitesell will call the shots for the No. 88 at Dover. Former R&D crew chief Lance McGrew will assume the crew chief role on an interim basis next week at Pocono. Effort, teammate Jimmie Johnson said, was never an issue.

"I've been impressed by both Juniors. Dale Jr. is on time to these meetings -- and that's a pretty big statement, on a funny note," said the three-time defending series champion. "One time we came in the truck, and he had food and drinks for us set up. So all that being on the funny side. But on a real note, I've seen a great commitment out of both of them. Before they worked at Hendrick, the rumors were around that maybe there isn't the focus or the commitment, and all that stuff is BS. Both of those guys are extremely committed and extremely focused on what they're doing. And that's what makes this so tough. When the results aren't there and the effort is there, it is a hard world to live in. And they're both doing all that they can, and sometimes you have to shake things up, and that's what's going on right now." (Continued)