Speaking with members of the gathered media at the NASCAR R&D following Tuesday morning’s mandatory owner/driver meeting, team owner Rick Hendrick addressed the issue of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s continued struggle. During the 227-lap Coca-Cola 600, Earnhardt Jr. quickly dropped to the back of the pack and simply struggled to get around the track without hitting anything. With yet another poor performance, Hendrick is starting to look for another answer.

By the time NASCAR made the call to end the race, Earnhardt Jr. ended the day fortieth, two laps down. The disappointing finish was Earnhardt’s fourth finish outside the top-25 in the last five races and dropped him one spot to nineteenth in the series standings.

 “We just missed the set-up,” Hendrick admitted Tuesday afternoon. “I can’t explain why because, all four cars were basically the same and they all fought the same problems early on. I’d say as a group we were off. We should be better at Charlotte than we were yesterday. I was disappointed, the team was disappointed.”

While Hendrick clearly understands Earnhardt Jr.’s struggles are the most pressing and public issue, he also explained none of his four cars performed up to snuff this weekend.

“We’re always concerned when we have a car that doesn’t run well,” Hendrick added. “We’re always meeting to try and figure out what to do and how to make it better. That’s just an ongoing situation. We’ve got to come up with a plan and work towards it. We thought we had a pretty good plan coming into Charlotte and I was fairly pleased with the All-Star night and thought we’d be better Sunday and we just weren’t.”

In fact, Earnhardt Jr. had his worst outing of the year and his worst effort at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway since finishing 41st in the Coca-Cola 600 in 2003. In the past, Hendrick has stood by Earnhardt Jr. and crew chief/cousin Tony Eury Jr., yet after five finishes of 20th or worse in the last six races that may be changing. With the team missing the set-up so badly, Hendrick is now admitting that discussions are taking place as to what the next move will be to improve the No. 88 team.

 “Could it change?,” Hendrick said when asked about a possible crew chief change. “No. We're talking about things. We're meeting. We're going to make decisions as the days go by, but we haven't made any decision as of right now."

Heading to Dover this weekend, this team needs to step up its game in a big way and it all needs to start with the driver-crew chief connection. While Earnhardt Jr. and Eury Jr. may work well together in their minds, in everyone else’s it is time for a change. Change is often met with resistance and if Mr. Hendrick decides now is the time for change it may take time for the new combination – whatever it may be – to come together, but then again things can only go up from here.

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