by Darrell Waltrip

Dale Jr. shake-up

Tony Eury Jr. is for Dale Earnhardt Jr., as HMS tries to turn around the struggling No. 88 team. Waltrip: It had to hurt Rick Hendrick to split up Dale Jr. and his cousin, but here's hoping the No. 88 can rebound soon. Spencer: With his crew chief out and the heat on, Dale Jr. says he'd leave his ride to help the No. 88. But he'd rather fight on. McReynolds: Crew chief-driver splits are nothing new. Here's what the No. 88 has to do to get back on track. Hammond: Rick Hendrick finally came in and split up Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Eury Jr. But he should've acted sooner. Video: Rick Hendrick talks about the big change to Dale Jr.'s No. 88 team.

I know he was dreading having to make a change between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Eury Jr., but he's like the rest of us — he saw he had to do something to turn Dale Jr. and the No. 88 team's year around. And I'm sure he, like the rest of us, is hopeful that this will do it. Nobody wants to see Dale Jr. struggle like he did last week, when he finished 40th in the Coca-Cola 600.

Earnhardt's run at Lowe's Motor Speedway was pretty much the icing on the cake, I think — he just didn't run well at all and had a miserable day. The problem was that he's just had way too many of those days this year and the owner, no matter who they are, has to shake things up and do something different in this situation.

Personally, I'm glad it was Rick Hendrick who had to make that decision and not me because that's a tough one to make. I hope it works out for those guys because we'd all like to see Dale Jr. run much better than he is right now.

I gotta think that Dale Jr. wasn't too excited about changing something. I think he felt pretty comfortable with Tony Jr. and probably felt like he could ride it out all year. But from a driver's perspective, if you are not performing, you have to do something. The way the racing world is today, you can't just sit back to wait and see — you have to make something happen. You have to be proactive, you simply can't wait for something to happen.

From a driver's perspective, you hate it because you have chemistry (and in this case you have family ties to consider). But as a driver, you go to the next race very optimistic because this was maybe what was needed and it may be better and it'll be a win-win — that's what you hope at least.

Right now Earnhardt's confidence isn't very good. I see him at the track walking around with his head down and he hasn't been very happy. I think this could be the shot in the arm that turns their year around and possibly gets them into the Chase. Trust me, that's what Dale Jr. and Rick Hendrick are hoping.

But really, this is all you can do. You can make a change and think it's for the better. Now you have to keep your fingers crossed and hope that it works.