Pops Eury understands pain involved with split (cont'd)

And so it came to this. Within the greater Hendrick Motorsports family, everyone's been hugely supportive of Eury Jr. This week he's doing a critical road course test with three-time defending Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson's team that everyone hopes might provide a missing link to Johnson's otherwise overall threat at dominance.

Pops Eury claimed his son is virtually a self-taught engineer, being unique among Hendrick's crew chiefs in that he can run simulation programs, typically the domain of engineers. Hendrick's vice president of competition, Ken Howes, said Eury Jr. wasn't their only crew chief capable of that, but that there was no debating Tony Jr.'s work ethic or ability.

It's particularly hard for Pops, because virtually his entire racing career has been spent racing with the Earnhardts -- particularly with Earnhardt Jr. at DEI when Junior won most of his 18 Cup victories. But this latest firestorm has overwhelmed bloodlines, and while that's tragic, performance still rules.

"Well, you know, I'm kind of in the middle here," Eury said with a chuckle. "I work for the guy [Earnhardt Jr.] that [Eury Jr.] was working for. I love both of them like a son -- I've got two sons there, Tony and Dale Jr. -- but I'm telling you this business is a cutthroat business.

"You've gotta stay on your game and if you're not on top of your game, they're gonna make a change. That's what makes it harder when you're family or are related in a way, so that's why I honestly think they'll be better off apart. Family is hard to work with in this business [and] if you don't perform, you're gone and the crew chief is always the first one gone.

"[Eury Jr.] will bounce back from it, I guarantee you. He's a strong guy, a smart guy -- somebody in this garage needs him, whether it's Hendrick Motorsports or whoever. He'll be back, he'll be strong and he'll win races."

But in the end, bloodlines or not, personal relationships or not -- the juniors' time as driver and crew chief in Cup is probably gone forever. Whether that's good or bad remains to be seen.

"I don't think that will ever happen," Eury said. "I don't think they have any hard feelings between each other -- they knew something had to be done, and definitely we knew who it had to be. I just don't think Tony Jr. will ever put himself in that situation again and I don't think Dale Jr. would want him in that situation either.

"It's just tough when you work for family. My whole racing career I've been involved in this Earnhardt deal and never had to really work anywhere else. It's a tough deal and when you're not running good, it's hard to fix when it's blood."

"It was no better, no worse," Earnhardt Jr. said of hearing a new voice on his radio during the Dover race. "I'm going to miss working with Tony Jr. that closely, hopefully we get to work together indirectly throughout the rest of our careers, some way, some how."

Virtually everyone at Hendrick Motorsports, including, we've been led to believe Eury Jr., wants and intends for him to stay. Pops isn't so sure, and if the father truly knows his son, one thing will be critical.

"I don't know what's going to happen," Eury said. "He's beat down pretty bad right now. When I brought him along, I had a fire in me -- he saw that fire and I worked him like a dog. That's no lie. But nobody worked harder than he did.

"My advice was to get a breath of air, stay there, but build yourself back up because he's worn out. The media has worn him out, everybody's worn him out. He's beat himself to death. You know, he stood up there for awhile -- took it pretty good -- but then it started getting to him. And when it started getting to him, it really went bad, then. It was getting to Dale Jr.

"I don't see Tony Jr. staying at an R&D team where they just race five, six or seven times a year. He's a racer and he wants to be at the race track every week and he's a winner. I think he fits in good over there, but I'm not sure he wants to be on the R&D team."

Whatever answers appear over the next few months, there's no doubt this family needs to stockpile plenty of emotions.

Busch

Kyle Busch Victory Watch

Dover was probably the low point of Busch's entire season, which suddenly has the look of his 2008 Chase swoon, marked even more by the fact he'd won Dover's spring Cup race last season; and led the most laps in both the Truck and Nationwide races at Dover and failed to win either. Given Busch's stunning 2008 NASCAR record for victories in a season, this was the first weekend that makes me think Busch in '09 won't eclipse his total of 21 wins (eight Cup, 10 Nationwide, three Truck).

As the Shrub continues to battle his post-disappointment emotional issues -- just maddening because the tire troubles that derailed both secondary series' effort were out of his control -- and it would be no less great to get his insight, it's still eight down, 14 to go.

His 2008 win total at this point was 10, so now the crunch intensifies, as three consecutive commuter weekends begin with Busch this weekend flying between Pocono and Nashville, a place where Busch's frustration boiled over last season.