texastrophies Posted May 24, 2005 Report Share Posted May 24, 2005 Hmiel named interim crew chief of No. 8 car Rondeau out after 11 races, 11th-place showing in point standings NASCAR.COM Staff Report May 24, 2005 04:23 PM EDT (20:23 GMT) MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Dale Earnhardt Inc. announced Tuesday, effective immediately, that Steve Hmiel will serve as interim crew chief on the No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hmiel, who is the technical director at DEI, replaces Pete Rondeau after only 11 races. Growing pains?Junior talks about the team changes and his '05 season "We are capable of consistently winning and are focused on that as a company. We are going to concentrate our efforts on improved results with the No. 8 car," said Richie Gilmore, vice president of motorsports for DEI. "Pete is a valuable asset and has brought a number of innovations to our organization. He will continue to do that in a different capacity and we're happy that Pete is so strongly dedicated to Dale Earnhardt Incorporated and its success," Gilmore said. Earnhardt has struggled this season, posting five top-10 finishes. He is currently 11th in the point standings, 229 behind leader Jimmie Johnson. After finishing third in the season-opening Daytona 500, Earnhardt scored three consecutive finishes outside the top 20. However, in the past seven races he hasn't finished worse than 15th. "We have high expectations of how our teams are to perform and we will utilize every resource we have to win races," Gilmore said. "Our primary objective is to get the 8 and the 15 [Michael Waltrip] solidly into the Chase for the Championship and as a company, we're focusing everything we have at that goal." Rondeau started with Jasper Motorsports, serving as car chief for the No. 77 team before moving to DEI in 2002 to work as Waltrip's car chief. Last October, in a shakeup with Waltrip's team, Rondeau replaced Slugger Labbe as crew chief. But more shakeups were on the way when the No. 8 and No. 15 teams essentially swapped crews. Tony Eury Sr. was promoted from crew chief of the No. 8 to director of competition for DEI, while Hmiel, the previous director of competition, was named the company's technical director. At the same time, Rondeau was named crew chief of the No. 8 team, and Tony Eury Jr. moved over to crew chief for the No. 15. The core members of the Nos. 8 and 15 teams collectively transfered intact with the promotions of Rondeau and Eury Jr. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrud Posted May 24, 2005 Report Share Posted May 24, 2005 Re: Hmiel in, Rondeau out of #8 Ya beat me to it. Jayski reported that Jimmy Elledge or Mike Ford could be the replacement. I don't know about the move. It might be alright. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texastrophies Posted May 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2005 Re: Hmiel in, Rondeau out of #8 Kind of makes you wonder. Everytime Jr. said something about the crew, everything was good. Guess it wasn't. I still say that those 3 bad finishes had nothing to do with the crew switch. If my memory serves, they had a flat, Jr. caused a wreck, and don't remember the third one, off hand, but it seems like it was an on track deal, not a crew problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bexar_county89 Posted May 24, 2005 Report Share Posted May 24, 2005 Re: Hmiel in, Rondeau out of #8 your right, those are conditional problems but maybe theres something else we dont know about too. who knows right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slugshooter Posted May 25, 2005 Report Share Posted May 25, 2005 Re: Hmiel in, Rondeau out of #8 [ QUOTE ] Kind of makes you wonder. Everytime Jr. said something about the crew, everything was good. Guess it wasn't. [/ QUOTE ] In front of a camera yes, but on his in-car radio, all he ever did was complain and keep getting on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MUDRUNNER Posted May 26, 2005 Report Share Posted May 26, 2005 Re: Hmiel in, Rondeau out of #8 Seems a little early to me.On SPEED last night Marty Smith said Rondeau was a quiet leader and JR. wants a crew chief that's also a cheerleader to fire him and the team up.I wonder if things don't improve who will be next on the list. I remember watching the JR. interview on Dateline about a year ago when JR. said he would rather run bad with Eury Jr. as the crew chief than run good with anybody else. I hope the crew chief change makes a difference and gets JR. to run up front,but right now I don't think we'll see much of a change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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