by Lee Spencer

Despite attempts from Earnhardt and McGrew to put a positive spin on the situation, the pair struggled to find a comfortable zone on stage — It's hard for a team to celebrate when it's 24th in the point standings.

Those close to Earnhardt say he has felt dejected this season. There have been times when the driver has privately wondered about the team's dedication to him.

However, that apprehension didn't come into question on Friday. And Earnhardt maintains he didn't have to "convince" McGrew to remain in the job.

"Lance sees a good race team in front of him," Earnhardt said. "He tells me sincerely that he believes in my talent as a driver and feels like that with the right situation, that we can have a lot of success. Being a crew chief is a very, very tough job and very thankless. Lance understands that as well as anyone.

"I feel confident that he can handle the pressures of the job and I feel confident with him on the box. I feel like he is going to make the right calls."

Earnhardt has experienced the year from hell in 2009. He missed the Chase and has made 53 starts since his last win. McGrew, a 17-year race veteran, was enlisted to pick up the pieces. Despite noticeable gains throughout the season — particularly Earnhardt says during "points in the race where we've struggled in the past" — the finishes just haven't been there , whether self-inflicted or at the hands of others.

Lee
Spencer

Senior Writer

Now that the "interim" has been removed from the beginning of Lance McGrew's crew chief title, the No. 88 team knows the direction it will take moving forward.

But where does the greatest improvement need to be made? Finishing the race.

Of the 66 drivers that have competed in the Sprint Cup Series this season, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is 66th among competitors that gain or lose positions over the last 10 percent of the race. Earnhardt averages a 17.8 position mid-race, an 18.7 average position throughout the race and an average finish of 23.1. In 32 races this season, Earnhardt has lost a season-high 93 positions in the closing laps.

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"I see the individual pieces of the puzzle that were missing kind of coming together and starting to work, but we aren't finishing the races and we're having problems or issues," Earnhardt said. "We just have to figure it out. It's more of a mentality or a confidence thing than anything you could put your hands on.

"It's not like we're failing in the basic mechanics of building the cars or setting them up for that matter. It comes down to the right attitude and showing up feeling like you're the team to beat or there's no reason to feel like you're a long shot. I can't speak for everybody on the team, but my confidence was pretty down earlier. It's gotten better. It's still nowhere near where I want it to be, but every week we seem to improve on that."

McGrew insists the entire organization is committed to turning the situation around. But the initial spark has to come from the No. 88 shop if any long-term progress is expected. McGrew made it clear that he is not afraid to make changes to the existing squad to assemble the best possible support staff for his driver.

"Until you feel completely confident that you have the best car chief, that you can have the best shock guy, that you can have the best engineering staff and on down the line, you're constantly wanting to improve that because that's what makes it all tick," McGrew said. "I'm not 100 percent sure what's going to change or who is going to change or how it's going to change, but I know that Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) being my counterpart on the No. 5 car, we're going to do some restructuring In the shop and we're going to change the dynamic of that shop.

"We have 550 teammates at Hendrick Motorsports that are bleeding sweat to make this No. 88 team run as successfully as it is supposed to be running."

And that's a concept that Junior Nation, and everyone else in NASCAR, can get behind.