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Heads start to roll as Dale Earnhardt fails to win races

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s struggles on the Nextel Cup circuit this season have cost his crew chief, Pete Rondeau, his job.

Rondeau was replaced on the No. 8 Chevrolet on an interim basis by Steve Hmiel, the technical director at Dale Earnhardt Inc. Hmiel's first race will be the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina.

Earnhardt is 11th in the points standings through 11 weeks and has not won a race this year. That is far below expectations for a team that has finished in the top five in the past two seasons and has won eight times in that span, including six victories last year.

"We are capable of consistently winning and are focused on that as a company," Richie Gilmore, vice president for motorsports at DEI, said in a statement Tuesday. "We are going to concentrate our efforts on improved results with the No. 8 car."

Rondeau was in his first year as the crew chief for Earnhardt after working last year with Michael Waltrip, Earnhardt's DEI teammate. Rondeau was part of an off-season team swap, in which most of Earnhardt's crew moved over to Waltrip's team, and Waltrip's crew switched to the No. 8 car.

The change was seen as a gamble because Earnhardt finished fifth in the points race last season and had an outside shot to win the title until the final race of the year. Waltrip, meanwhile, finished 20th.

The move was made to invigorate Waltrip's team and to ease tension on the Earnhardt team. Tony Eury Sr., Earnhardt's uncle, was the crew chief of the No. 8 last year, and Tony Eury Jr., Earnhardt's cousin, was the car chief.

Earnhardt and Eury Jr. had a sometimes combative relationship that bottomed out in the final race last year when they barely spoke to each other.

In the off-season, Eury Sr. was named director of competition at DEI, and Eury Jr. was named crew chief for Waltrip.

After finishing third in the season-opening Daytona 500, Earnhardt dropped to 27th in the points standings after three races. He briefly moved back into the top 10 after finishing eighth at Darlington Raceway on May 7. Waltrip started poorly but has moved up to 17th in the standings.

Only the top 10 in points, along with any drivers within 400 points of the leader, qualify for the 10-race playoff at the end of the season. Earnhardt and Waltrip are now out of the top 10, but they are within 400 points of the leader, Jimmie Johnson, heading into the Coca-Cola 600.
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