Junior's interim crew chief a familiar face at Hendrick

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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• Eury Jr. out as 88 crew chief

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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." (Continued)