Pittin’ Cousins: What Junior says about crew chief relative

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was asked Friday in a news conference at Bristol if he is too comfortable with Tony Eury Jr. — his crew chief and cousin — and if Eury isn’t able to calm him down.

Junior’s response:

“Well, there are combinations that work really good, but no one personality, I don’t think there is a crew chief in the garage with the best personality.

“Everybody has flaws and things that are going to get under your skin and things you have to look over. There are rifts between every driver and every crew chief and they work it out or they don’t.

“I think me and Tony Jr. do a pretty good job of working it out. Obviously, through everything we have been through, we still love each other to death and would do anything for each other. I don’t dread seeing him when I get to the race track, I can’t wait to see him when I get to the race track.

“We really do enjoy working together. It is a tough deal because we have a lot of sponsors and you have a lot of people, a lot of fans. You are in a big sport and each wants to go out there and make it happen.

“But at the same time, I like racing with my cousin. Whether we are the perfect combination or not, that doesn’t mean anything to me. I just like racing with him. That is what I want to do, you know, for the rest of my life. I like working with him. Whether I get to do that or not, I don’t know. I like racing with him.

“Maybe we are not the best combination out there, but I think if we are both on our A-game and doing what we should be doing and we get a little bit of luck and a break here and a break there, we would be just as good as anybody else out there. We had a little bit of bad luck and a lot of failures and stuff happen, especially at the end of last year. That makes it difficult to have an argument about how me and him can make it happen; me and him are a good combination.

“I like working with the guy. We trust each other and we go through a lot of crap together. ... We just have a bond.”