DEI keeps crew chief Eury Jr. with long-term contract

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Tony Eury Jr. signed a long-term contract extension Thursday with Dale Earnhardt Inc., opening the possibility the crew chief will reunite next season with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Terms were not released for the deal, Eury's first contract in his 14 years with the company. Before this, he had always worked with a handshake agreement.

"Having such a loyal employee and talented crew chief like Tony as part of DEI on a long-term basis was an important objective for the continuity of our program," DEI owner Teresa Earnhardt said in a statement.

By signing him to an official deal, DEI eliminated the chance Eury could leave with driver Michael Waltrip at the end of this season. The two were paired together this year in a wholesale swap of crews and equipment between Earnhardt and Waltrip.

The swap was necessary because the relationship between Earnhardt and Eury, who are also cousins, had deteriorated to the point that the two were hardly speaking at the end of last season.

Although Waltrip's team has been decent since the switch, Earnhardt's has struggled. He has just one victory this season and is in 15th place in the points standings -- in serious jeopardy of missing NASCAR's championship chase over the last 10 races.

With Eury calling the shots last season, Earnhardt won five races -- including the Daytona 500 -- and made NASCAR's playoffs.

Before this season, Eury and his father, Tony Eury Sr., were the only crew chiefs Earnhardt had ever worked with. The Eurys led him to the Busch Series title in 1998 and '99 and went with him to the Cup series in 2000, where they won 15 races.

Earlier this month, both said they were open to working together again next season.

"Tony Jr. is awesome. I always felt like he was going to be one of the best crew chiefs in the business," Earnhardt said. "I do want to work with him again. I think we should."

Earnhardt also said that separating the two was the only way to save their personal relationship.

"We didn't change the teams because of a performance issue. We changed it because of an attitude issue between me and Tony Jr.," he said. "We changed it, maybe not for the right reasons, but the change did what it was supposed to it. It fixed his attitude and it fixed my attitude.

"It's not always greener on the other side for either one of us. We both look at each other and talk to each other today totally different. I think that gives us that opportunity to work together in the future that we wouldn't of had if we would have run ourselves totally apart."

DEI officials have ruled out sending Eury back to Earnhardt's crew this season, but have yet to comment on next season. Waltrip has said part of his decision to leave DEI at the end of the season was because he was not guaranteed to work with Eury next year.