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Friday, August 13, 2010

So exactly what is the issue for the 88 team?


Three years. 2 crew chiefs. 1 win. Those would be the expected stats of an average driver.

And that driver just might be average, at least that's what some people think.

As far as my opinion goes, I'm not buying it. At least not yet.

Those stats belong to Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Who would've thought that about three years ago?

I bet you the list of people who did is a very short one.

Now, from everything that has been tossed around, from conspiracy theories, to the driver or crew chief being the blame, I still believe that everyone associated with the 88 team is very good at what they do.

So what is the problem?

Just ask Jamie Mcmurray what his problem was at Roush Fenway Racing.

Chemistry.

NASCAR's most popular driver is with a more successful team than he has dealt with in the past, however that doesn't mean anything if there isn't any good chemistry.

When Dale was driving for DEI, he may not have had the best equipment, but he did win a lot of races, 17 to be exact.

That was a result of good chemistry.

An article by ESPN's David Newton helped me realize it.

Tony Eury Jr. told ESPN something that is missing in the 88 team.

"One thing we had that was strong when we were at DEI, it was brother eat brother. I mean, we were there for one another. We would take a shot for one another."


As far as I'm concerned, Rick Hendrick can put as many technology savvy people as he wants as of a member of Dale's team, but as long as there is no chemistry, no "brother eat brother," there will be no success.

Take when Dale Jr. won in the 3 car recently at Daytona. Jr was with some members of the 88 team, but as far as engineers and the crew chief, it was people Dale had surrounded himself with for years at JR Motorsports.

So what does Rick Hendrick do now? Well, he has two choices: He can keep Lance as the crew chief and try to build chemistry, or he can let the whole Dale Jr. experiment go, and have Dale move on to a better place to have the chemistry, possibly at his own team.

Either way, I believe that Dale Jr. will still have more success in his career, because he is not just average. Although, that success may not be at his current team.

2 comments:

  1. Agreed. I think they need to make a change though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm a Junior fan, but I'm not afraid to say that it might be the driver. You can only blame the crew chief and the equipment so many times.

    ReplyDelete

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