Tony Eury Jr., crew chief for #8-Dale Earnhardt Jr at DEI was on “Dialed In with Claire B. Lang”, XM Satellite Radio Thursday, some comments: “I´m not one way or another on the deal. I know how our situation stands as far as the company right now, but also I´ve got a big piece of my heart because I felt like I helped Pops and Dale Sr. build a big part of it.” Q) So will you have a decision to make and how will you make that decision? A) “Is it like deciding between two children? It´s kinda like that. Dale Jr., when he started the deal, I told him, “Do what´s best for Dale Jr. Look down your road and whatever´s best for you, that´s what you need to do. You know, my biggest concern is with my team, honestly. I mean, I want to do whatever´s best for them. I´ve expressed interest, you know, if he went somewhere and I could take my guys with me, or take a few of them, then that would be a possibility. When Dale Jr. left in 2004 we all bonded together and stayed together, and when he come back we done the same thing. So there´s a lot of camaraderie between all of us that work there. We´re racers, we work as hard as we can with what we have and just try to make the best of it week in and week out, and I think we do a real good job. The biggest thing is, I think my whole group, that we´re happy to work with one another, you know, we´ll do whatever it takes.” “I haven´t really sat down and talked to Max or Dale Jr about it. You know, I told Dale Jr I really want to be his crew chief. That´s one of the reasons I stayed at DEI, and you know, if I can do it somewhere else, I´m all for it. But my biggest thing is, I want to make sure my guys is took care of, or maybe I can take `em with me, maybe I can´t, but the biggest thing is where those guys stand. They mean the world to me, and they´ve done a lot for me in general. They stuck by my side when we took on Michael´s deal, they right beside me and said “We´re wiling to take on a challenge”, and those guys mean the world to me. I´ve worked at DEI 14 years, so I know every one of them. We´ve been together for 8 years, so….You know, I´ve got a decision to make, too. But I also want to do the right thing. I want to make sure Dale Jr´s kosher with it. I want to make sure Teresa´s kosher with it. Q) Are you under a contract? Are you bound to do something for a certain amount of time? A) “Well, I mean…my contract, when I signed up with DEI, I made it real clear that if Dale Jr wasn´t my driver, I wanted to have an open contract to whether, you know…not saying that if Dale Jr. leaves, I´m outta here, you know? I just wanted to have it open where I could weigh my options, you know? The worst thing you can do is be standing there with a driver like Dale Earnhardt Jr…everybody knows he´s one of the best…then they come and they stick somebody in that´s just gonna be a ride-around. You know, you don´t want to be stuck in one of those situations. So I tried to make it real clear that that´s what I didn´t want to do. And you know, my heart….I want to be with Dale Jr, but I also want to take care of the guys that have took care of me so long.”(5-11-2007)
