CONCORD, N.C. -- Had he wanted to, he could have gotten back into it earlier. Certainly there were opportunities, chances to climb back on the box, shots at instant redemption. Pete Rondeau wasn't interested. He wanted to take a step back, get off the road for a while, spend some time with his son. In short, he was willing to do what so many in NASCAR aren't -- slow down and wait.

And who could blame him? It's been five years now, almost to the week, since Rondeau was cut loose from the highest-profile crew chief job in NASCAR's premier series, calling the shots for Dale Earnhardt Jr. Looking back, he seemed in a no-win situation -- Rondeau was the wedge that Dale Earnhardt Inc. used to separate feuding cousins Earnhardt and Tony Eury Jr., he weathered a complete swap of equipment between DEI's No. 8 and 15 teams, and in the end he lasted only 11 races. It's difficult to jade Rondeau, the personification of an unflappable New Englander, but that situation did it. No wonder he spent the next several years in research and development.

“

This is corporate America, and in corporate America, when people say they're going to take care of you, and when stuff actually goes down and you don't get taken care of, you learn from those people.

”

-- PETE RONDEAU

"It was like, step back, get off the road, take a look at it," Rondeau, a native of Saco, Maine, said Thursday. "But did I say right then that I wouldn't be a crew chief again? No. Down the road, right situation, right people, yeah, I'd try it again. It's been five years. And there have been other occasions where I could have done it. I just didn't feel like it was the right thing to do at the time. Even right now, this is probably earlier than I anticipated anyway. But times change. Things change."

And so he found himself at Charlotte Motor Speedway once again wearing the crew chief's hat, this time for a Furniture Row Racing organization far removed from the pressure and the spotlight that goes with working with NASCAR's most popular driver. Rondeau came aboard at the start of this season as car chief on the No. 78, following competition director Mark McArdle from Richard Petty Motorsports. On Wednesday, the team announced he had replaced Ryan Coniam as crew chief.

"With his experience and his knowledge and his leadership skills, because he's an older guy who's been around the sport for so long, we felt like he'd be good in the crew chief role for us, give us a little more of a veteran feel," driver Regan Smith said. "We definitely want to utilize his abilities. Pete's been around for a while, knows the garage better, knows the tracks better. When you have that kind of knowledge and expertise inside your company, you have to take advantage of it."

Rondeau's immediate goal is to increase the competitiveness of a No. 78 car that's been on the brink of recording some strong results this season, yet hasn't been able to finish. Several times this year the team has flirted with top-10s, yet its best result remains a 14th-place effort at Atlanta. A potential top-10 at California got away because of a pit penalty. At Darlington, it was pit strategy. Last weekend's appearance in the All-Star qualifying event, where Smith drove up to fifth before being knocked out by an accident, effectively sums up the campaign. (Continued)