DOVER, Del. -- Had Mark Martin not signed with Hendrick Motorsports for the 2009 season and needed a crew chief, he very well might have pursued Lance McGrew.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s interim crew chief might not be a familiar face to many spectators, but he's a known quantity inside the NASCAR garages, where he's worked with a number of top drivers across all three national series. Martin has worked with McGrew only once, in a Nationwide event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last year. But the crew chief made enough of an impression that Martin might have hired him away from Hendrick had the veteran driver wound up with a different organization for this season.

Change inevitable

We knew it had to happen. Something needed to be done. Why are we so surprised? Tony Eury Jr. was replaced as Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief. David Caraviello explains the machinations behind the latest driver-crew chief change.

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"I really like Lance, and had considered him a candidate for my crew chief possibly at another position other than Hendrick when I was looking at 2009. I really liked working with him. He's a very capable crew chief, and he's a very strong, take-charge kind of guy. I like that," Martin said Friday at Dover International Speedway.

"He seems to take charge of situations very strongly, and I think that's a very good thing. I think that's a really good thing. That will be good for Junior. I enjoyed that as well working with him. He's an incredibly knowledgeable guy. Don't forget, he ran seventh with Brad [Keselowski] down at Darlington a few weeks ago."

McGrew is working as Keselowski's crew chief again this weekend at Dover, a previous commitment that will preclude him from replacing Tony Eury Jr. on the No. 88 team until next weekend at Pocono Raceway. Brian Whitesell, manager of Hendrick's No. 88 and 5 teams and a former race-winning crew chief on an interim basis with Jeff Gordon, will call the shots at Dover. But beginning Monday, the pressure and expectations that come with working with NASCAR's most popular driver will fall squarely in McGrew's lap.

"I don't know if any crew chief will sit here and tell you it isn't a little daunting, having the most popular driver in your stable," McGrew said. "Yes, I have been very fortunate to work with a lot of different drivers, seen a lot of different personalities. I believe it's going to be extremely challenging, and it's going to require a lot of work, not so much on the equipment side but just on a personal side, because I feel like you have to have a relationship with your driver and you have to have a relationship with your team in order to be successful. For me, I'm not the most outgoing person in the whole world. Obviously, the media blitz is not what I'd prefer to be doing right now. But it's part of the job, and something I'll have to work on as well."

It's a new experience for somebody who broke into NASCAR in the 1990s by sweeping floors and washing the transporter at Jack Sprague's Busch Series shop. By 2000, McGrew was working as a crew chief on the Busch car owned by Gordon, whom he won a race with that year. The native of Baton Rogue, La., was on the box when Ricky Hendrick won a Truck race at Kansas in 2001, was on the box when Brian Vickers won the 2003 Busch championship and the controversial Cup race at Talladega in 2006, and on the box for Nationwide victories by Martin, Tony Stewart, and Kyle Busch.

"Lance did a lot of things," recalled Busch, who was effectively replaced by Earnhardt at Hendrick after the 2007 season. "You're always trying to stay ahead of the curve, and he worked a lot with his team and worked a lot with the cars just trying to stay ahead of the curve with the way everything was going and stuff, just like any other crew chief does. To be honest with you, besides that, he's got his hands full, I guess, having to deal with what's going on. And if Junior doesn't run well, then he's going to be the problem again. It's never Junior, it's always the crew chief."

“

To be honest with you, he's got his hands full, having to deal with what's going on. And if Junior doesn't run well, then he's going to be the problem again. It's never Junior, it's always the crew chief.

”

-- KYLE BUSCH

To Hendrick, McGrew -- who in his most recent research and development role worked with the organization's other crew chiefs and engineers -- was the natural choice to take over on an interim basis. Whether he is the long-term solution remains to be seen. Hendrick hasn't ruled out ultimately bringing in someone from outside his race team, as he did with Eury, who came with Earnhardt from Dale Earnhardt Inc.

"I'm open to talented people," Hendrick said. "Tony came from outside. I'm looking at folks from the outside. But we had to make a decision based on what we know, and the reason we went inside is I think Lance is an excellent guy, and I know that he and Brian working together makes a pretty strong tandem. You can't go out and find that kind of talent. But I'm not opposed to somebody from the outside. We'll just have to see."

McGrew, who said his goal is to get Earnhardt back into the Chase, spoke to his new driver for the first time on Thursday night. He worked with Earnhardt early last year on the Nationwide side, calling signals for a JR Motorsports car after former crew chief Chad Walter was suspended six weeks for a rear spoiler violation.

"I have had communication with him," McGrew said. "I will probably ask different questions, but it's just really hard to say until you get put in the situation. Obviously, there's a lot of pressure here, because it is Dale Jr., because it is such a big deal. Constantly being under the microscope, having millions of people listening to you over the radio, obviously you've got to be aware of that. As we grow together, I believe the communication will become exactly what it needs to be -- very precise and proper."

Compare that to the communication that often flowed between cousins Earnhardt and Eury, who sometimes openly feuded over the radio. And McGrew won't be alone -- Whitesell will still be dedicated to the No. 88 team after this weekend, as will chassis engineer Rex Stump, who will temporarily step away from his organization-wide role and focus solely on improving Earnhardt's cars.

"When you're coupled with Dale Earnhardt Jr., you've got a lot of pressure on you. A lot more than I think most anyone in NASCAR," Martin said. "Lance is a strong fellow. He's got good, strong shoulders. He's been involved at Hendrick Motorsports for a long time. He understands the processes and the program, and he's got Brian going to be sitting right next to him, who was the architect of the 88 and the 5. This is a superteam. Make no mistake, this is a superteam, and having Dale Jr. drive that race car completes the superteam. He is one heck of a race car driver, and as soon as he straps into something that feels right to him, he's going to the front."