Earnhardt heard the wails against Eury and defended his man. Eury chose not to hear.

“I’m going to be honest with you,” Eury said. “I try not to read it or listen to it, and that way I don’t know about it. We go there each week and try to do the best we can, but there’s big expectations that people think we can do, and there are only so many people who can do it on any given weekend.”

When Eury and Earnhardt arrived at Hendrick, they went to work in the race shop that had housed the teams of Kyle Busch and Casey Mears the year before.

That shop is separated from the building that houses the championship-winning teams of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. It is separated by more than just physical walls.

Eury said he kind of knew that it would take some time to get the teams in his shop up to the level of Johnson and Gordon. - www.kansascity.com