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."

Eury has worked with Earnhardt as either crew chief or car chief in every season but one since the duo broke into NASCAR's highest level with Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2000. They came to Hendrick as a package deal, with Eury preceding his cousin by a few months to lay the groundwork for the No. 88 program. And they got off to an impressive start, running in the top three in points for the first third of last season, and snapping Earnhardt's 76-race winless streak with a victory at Michigan.

But this season has brought a mixture of pit-road mistakes and mediocre finishes that has the big-sponsor, high-profile No. 88 team in critical danger of missing NASCAR's year-end playoff. Earnhardt said he didn't anticipate the breakup -- he and Eury were trying to stay positive and turn their season around, he said, and they didn't want to dwell on a potential split. But when Hendrick delivered his decision, Earnhardt didn't fight it.

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"I didn't really try to persuade Rick one way or the other," Earnhardt said. "I had been in this situation before with Tony Jr., and I had a little bit more of an influence in which direction we ended up going. I didn't think I needed to do that this time. I didn't even want to be in a situation to persuade anybody one way or the other, mainly because Rick and all the people that work at Hendrick ... know more about that team than I do. Know the history of the team, know the employees, know what methods have worked in the past, and I really wanted them to make any kind of decision on a clear head. I thought if I were to interject one way or the other, it wasn't going to help. Me and Tony Jr. both just told Rick, you do whatever you want to do. It's your business, it's your company, and we'll definitely support whichever direction you go."

For Earnhardt, the breakup brings no relief, only disappointment over what he and his cousin were unable to accomplish -- disappointment that he said may take weeks or months to get over. Eury was more like a brother to him than a first cousin, and it showed in both the fiery arguments they had over the radio and the sheer joy they took in being at the race track together. But Eury was also a popular target of derision among the more fanatical citizens of Junior Nation, who blamed the crew chief for most of the No. 88 team's ills.

Now, with Eury out of the picture, Earnhardt knows the onus falls squarely on him.

"Most of the people have always been on Tony Jr.'s case and never really pointed the finger at me throughout the season. Eventually, the only person that will have to answer to my success is me," Earnhardt said.

"Whether that's today and from here on forward, I don't know. But eventually, I'm going to have to be the one that's going to have to answer to the fact of, how much did I live up to my father's name and how much did I live up to his wins and everything he accomplished, how much did I live up to everyone else's expectations and all my fans' and the media's expectations. Obviously, when you put yourself at Hendrick Motorsports, you're in the best equipment and you should win races. If you don't, it sort of makes for a hard argument that you had any business being there in the first place. We've got to work hard over the next six months to try and give ourselves that argument and move forward. And I think we can do that."

Two months ago at Bristol, when the questions over the No. 88 team's direction were beginning to increase in volume, Earnhardt said there were two sides to racing -- the business side, which revolved around teams and sponsors and performance, and the enjoyable side, which centered on going to the track with friends, just as he had in his late model days. Back then, he was searching for some combination of those two worlds. Now, he's beginning to realize such a thing may not be possible.

"I think that other, fun side went out the window a couple of months ago," Earnhardt said with a slight laugh. "My focus right now is strictly on being ridiculously professional, in every approach, toward the car, toward all the people I'm working with. I've taken every serious bone I've got and put them together to try and repair this situation and be a part of the solution to the problem. It definitely is going to require all the focus I have and all the motivation and all the determination I have to get it turning in the right direction."

At least at the race track, that direction won't include Eury. But even in his absence Friday, the former crew chief was still around -- he had set up the cars that the No. 88 team brought to Dover. That work was done before Hendrick reassigned him to the research and development role.

"I'm really glad Tony Jr. chose to stay with Rick, because Rick thinks a lot of Tony Jr. and cares a lot about him," Earnhardt said. "I really feel like Tony Jr. is a great asset to any race team or organization, and he'll do great things. I've always said that about him, and maybe we just ain't meant to do them together."