Hendrick: "Right now Tony Jr. is our guy''

Car owner Rick Hendrick settled the debate on crew chief Tony Eury's future -- or did he? -- Wednesday in a conference call with reporters when he, essentially, gave Eury a vote of confidence.

"Right now Tony Jr. is our guy.''

So what do you make of that?

Here's more from Hendrick, who also noted how Dale Earnhardt Jr. is working out and eating better and applauded the driver for being at the shop this morning meeting with team members and going over setups for this weekend's race at Martinsville.

Hendrick: "We've got all the folks that hopefully and supposedly know what to do here focused on that team. I think the good news is we're all trying. I'm not sure we'll see the results tomorrow but we have put all the effort we have there. Right now Tony Jr is our guy. I couldn't change anything. We're not in left field.

"The thing I want to say today is that I'm 100 percent behind this group. I have no intentions of making any changes. I have all the intentions of making it better. These guys are working their butts off. No different than Steve (Letarte) and Jeff (Gordon) did (last year). I've got to believe that in the next few weeks we're going to see some real success out of that crowd.''

More Hendrick later in the call: "I can tell you this, that both of these guys, Junior and Tony, have told me that if they thought they need to be split that they understood. That's my call. I'm not ready to make that call. Not even close. Matter of fact, I feel better about it since we've been working through it here with our guys. I"m convinced that they're better together.''

Hendrick: "We have been looking at that team, as we do every team trying to make sure that we're doing everything we can, and we have the right chemistry, the right people and our performing to our potential. We had a sit-down (between Tony Jr. and Dale Jr.) back in Texas and as I do with all the teams and talk about ways and things we could do better. I've got to tell you that Dale Earnhardt was here today (race shop) from 9:30 to 12 p.m. with Ken Howes, Doug Duchardt (team executives) and Tony Jr. and (engineer) Brian Whitesell. The commitment from the guys on that team is there. Let's just take the 24 team last year and where they were and everybody was saying, hey you need to replace Steve (Letarte, crew chief) or you need to do something because they're just not running. Last year the 88 (Earnhardt) was the best team we had on the complex and they were the ones that were leading the charge and we kind of fell off about the Chase. Things didn't seem to work. I can tell  you that we've looked at everything. Dale Jr. is working out. He's changed

"Dale, I think is as focused, or maybe even more focused than I've seen him since he's been here. I give him a tremendous amount of credit because you can tell a young kid, hey, you need to work out, you need to eat better, you need to do this and do that, but Dale has taken all the suggestions that anybody has to heart. We've got to give him the best stuff out there.''

Hendrick also talked about more than Earnhardt. He discussed Mark Martin and talked about the engine problems Martin has had and Martin's future with the team.

"I tried to get him to sign a three-year deal when we started,'' Hendrick said. "I want Mark to be happy, and he sure seems to be happy. You look at guys and you try to determine when they maybe lose their desire. I've never had anybody have any more desire than Mark Maritn has. It's Mark's call. We're going to have to make a decision here pretty quick. He's got so much talent. I think the sport needs him. I think the sport would miss him. He's so fit and so mentally ready to go. I think Mark wants to drive.  He's a huge assest to this company.

"We had a couple of new motors that broke and we don't usually do that. We're not putting a new motor in (Martin's) car. We're putting a motor that has had some time on it and been through a rebuid. Those are the kind of things that you do afteryou've been bit a couple of times.''

Hendrick on Gordon: "Jeff, I'm excited to say that Jeff Gordon is as hungry today. He is on it when he shows up. I have this thing here that to be successful you've got to do three things. Number one, you've got to show up. Number two, you've got show up on time. Number three, you've got to show  up on time with your gameface on. When Jeff Gordon walks into the track, he's there early and he's got his gameface on. He's got that whole team working. He wants it. He's determined. He's in the best physical shape I've seen him in in years. He is driving the wheels off that car again.

OK, getting back to Earnhardt. So now what do you think of what should happen to Dale Jr. and Tony Jr. after reading what Hendrick has to say?

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