Eury Jr. talks openly about split with Earnhardt Jr. (cont'd)

Eury was back at the track Thursday at Chicagoland Speedway, where he spoke publicly for the first time since his split with Earnhardt. Eury is serving as crew chief for the No. 25 Chevrolet entry driven by rookie Brad Keselowski and maintained that was his focus this weekend -- but he spoke at length and with great passion about his recent past, blaming mostly the media for placing high expectations on the No. 88 team that simply could not be met.

Asked what his thoughts and feeling were when he learned of the decision that removed him as Earnhardt's crew chief, Eury grimaced and replied: "I think it was mixed. In one shape and form it was like, 'Cool, I'm glad this is over with.' And the next one felt like I let my cousin down. I've done a lot for him, he's done a lot for me, but we enjoy racing together.

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I think, my personal opinion, is that [the media] put so much pressure on [Dale Jr.] after Daytona that [he] just basically had had enough.

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-- TONY EURY JR.

"I think a lot of people put him on a pedestal that he doesn't need to be on. They put a lot of pressure on him to be somebody he's not going to be. Dale Jr. is a great race car driver, but I just think he's got so much pressure on him that he doesn't enjoy it right now."

It got to be that Eury wasn't enjoying being Junior's crew chief any longer, either.

"You get blasted in the media and you have to go home, where my wife wouldn't even watch the race," he said. "I would come home and she would ask where we finished -- because she didn't want to sit there and hear the negativity on it. I fought it for a long time -- and at some point in time, you have to weigh it and ask if it's worth it."

Eury said he and Earnhardt didn't even communicate in the immediate aftermath of their Hendrick-induced split. But eventually, they talked.

"We just let everything ease up," Eury said. "We sent a couple texts that first weekend. We talked on the phone and it was kind of emotional for both of us.

"In no way, shape or form am I going to let this sport get in between me and Dale Jr. ... He's family and we go deeper than this racing deal."

Eury said he did not begrudge Hendrick's decision to order up the split.

"I think it had just kind of run its course," Eury said. "There were definitely some things that happened and evolved that brought us to this point. In general, it was time. There is no other way to put it.

"We just needed to try something different. Dale Jr. is not getting any younger, so let's give him the opportunity to work with somebody else and try something else. Definitely the road we were going down, it wasn't a bed of roses, so let's try something different. That's where it was at."

So far, the switch from Eury Jr. to Lance McGrew as Earnhardt's crew chief has not had much of an impact on the No. 88 team. Earnhardt enters Saturday's LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland ranked 21st in points. He was 19th in points when the change was made May 28.

Eury said this season went downhill fast after Earnhardt encountered difficulty finding his pit stall during this year's season-opening Daytona 500, relegating him to a 27th-place finish in a race the cousins believed they could win. For the spiral that followed, Eury insisted the media mostly was to blame.

"I think, my personal opinion, is that you guys put so much pressure on him after Daytona that Dale Jr. just basically had had enough," Eury said. "We went to Daytona and had a shot at winning that race, had some problems on pit road, but we ain't going to slam Dale Jr. We're going to pick him up and say, 'Let's go to Vegas.' That was after we went to California and blew up, so there's two negative weeks. (Continued)