 |
| Tony Eury, Jr. |
FOXSports.com’s Lee
Spencer reported earlier today that Eury was told this morning that he will be replaced
by Ryan Pemberton, who joined the team last week after working for Tommy
Baldwin Racing. “They’re trying to fix the competition of the cars,” said Eury.
“They thought they could do better without me there. They hired Ryan and Ryan’s
their guy.”
Eury remains a part owner of
the team – at least for now – but said, “We’re still in discussions about that.”
Asked about the personal relationships involved, Eury told Spencer, “Me and
Dale Jr. are perfect. We’re fine.”
Earnhardt issued a statement
on the move earlier this hour, saying, “Unfortunately, Tony Jr. is no longer
with the company. I had hoped he would be here for a long time, but as we’ve
discussed the direction of JR Motorsports moving forward, it was clear our
differences in ideas were too vast to overcome. I love him like a brother, and
you’ll never hear me say a bad thing about him.
I know he’ll have much success in anything he does going forward. As for
our No. 7 team, no decision has been made on who will crew chief that team this
weekend at Kentucky Speedway. We will
discuss our options and make a decision very soon.”
Photo: AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh
The problem couldn't possibly be Princess Sparkle Pony, could it?
ReplyDeleteI've got news for you "anonymous " Danica has more talent in her little finger than you could ever hope to have. By the way, my nine year old loves to watch "princess sparkle pony", and so do I!!!
DeletePlease keep the conversation civil, people.
DeleteC'mon, Moody, I'm liking this revival of "boys, have at it."
DeleteWhen you let the the best of your friends go its got to be a bad situation there. Can't imagine some crew won,t also say goodby and get new jobs.
ReplyDeleteNot when Cole greate 88 is only a couple spots ahead of Danica in pts. If 88 was in top 5 in pts and the 7 was like 15-20 I would agree but neither car is running great.
ReplyDeleteDanica is just not a great stock car driver, that is all. She wasn't even a great open wheel driver.. she was okay, but not great. She has already been given way more chances than someone else would have. Put a talented driver in the car for a week and see how it does....
ReplyDeleteIt takes more than talent and she is not without talent, but what she lacks in talent she makes up for with a HUGE$$$ sponsorship. People love to make this arguement that some other person with more talent would do better. The problem is that person with more talent doesn't have the money to be in as competitive equipment. Few drivers have it all. Danika has more marketing appeal and lacks experience and skill. That's the case for most drivers these days. You hear it all the time. It used to be that a team went out and found a talented driver and put him in a fully funded car and then decided if he was good enough to resign. Now a driver needs to find the funding and then go to a team with an open seat. Instead of decided if the driver is good enough to resign now the owner needs to decide if he's making enough money from the sponsor to repair/rebuild the cars.
DeleteI think this year in cup has taught Jr. that decisions have to be made based on performance and not friendships. He's reaping the benefits this year as a driver, and there's just too many really talented people to put on that box to try and make his own drivers perform.
ReplyDeleteThe 88 hasn't run just fantastic since Keselowski, and we know now that a lot of that probably had to do with Brad.
lets face facts here, Danica and Cole Whitt are both not performing this year, at least not for the $. I personally dont think Tony Sr/Jr are to blame here, they are just the scape goats in the reason why danica is not performing. I bet both tony's are saying thank god were away from that media spotlight
ReplyDeleteRyan Pemberton needs to be Competition Director, unless they have another key aquisition to announce in the coming days. I love the Eury's, but the objective side of me is wondering if Theresa Earnhardt is somewhere saying "I told you so".
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad Dale didn't do this about 6 years ago,he would probally have 2 or 3 championships by now in the 8 car where he belongs.
ReplyDeleteHey Dave,i think that there will be a lot of people upset about the split between Sr,Jr and Dale Jr,they will make statements to the effect of no loyalty and to some extent i might agree because up until about 4 or 5 years ago those 3 were always tied with each other,including the back to back nationwide championships...I hope the people will look at it from a business standpoint and not some trumped up conspiracy theory...
ReplyDeleteAmazed how the stories run wild when none of us were behind those closed doors and know the real story. You all should be hollywood box office directors.
ReplyDeleteThis situation with JRM seems like, at least in my eyes, that drastic moves had to be made. No one is doubting the resume of Tony Sr or Jr but their performance as an organization as a whole has been fairly lackluster. This goes far beyond Danica Patrick. The 88 for the last couple of years has been marginal ever since Brad went full-time to Cup. They've tried to scape-goat drivers before such as Kelly Bires, Scott Wimmer, etc. Pemberton to me is a phenomenal hire in my eyes. He has had recent success in the sport, won Cup races and has had experience working with HMS as a feeder person. This makes sense on all fronts and I am very glad to see that the friendship did not overrule the right business decision. If they wind up with better cars and a stronger program as a whole (with or without Danica) then everyone will be happy in the end.
ReplyDeleteI love how Danica gets thrown under the bus for the Eurys being fired by Junior when the Eurys basically exist to be fired by Junior (how many times is this now?).
ReplyDeleteBTW- Pops got canned in April as Whitt's CC, I guess that's Danica's fault too.
Well. Can anybody honestly say Cole or Danica are Stenhouse/Sadler/Dillon caliber drivers? If they want to run a championship contending/winning operation they may need to realign driver lineups along with management...
ReplyDeleteStenhouse wasn't a championship caliber driver for the first half of 2010 with all his wrecks/DNFs, but they had the cars with the speed, he just needed to mature.
ReplyDeleteYou look at JRM, Junior qualified 16th at Bristol and 20th at Texas this year in the 5 car. Last year, McMurray and Kahne ran 5 races in the 7 car and their average starting position was 15.6
How can they get any work done at JRM shops? Every day they have to stop work while a commercial is being filmed. BTW what does JR know about coal?
ReplyDelete