Dale Earnhardt Jr. talks with teammate Jeff Gordon in the garage area. (Jim McIsaac/Getty Images Photo) » More Photos

“It’s just so much easier to race, because there’s so much there to have,” said Eury, Earnhardt’s cousin and crew chief. “You’ve got resources – and to be able to back stuff off of Jeff Gordon, off of Chad (Knaus), off of Jimmie (Johnson) and Alan (Gustafson). There’s so much information there to gather, it makes us come off the truck easier, which makes Dale Jr. happier because he’s running better right off the truck. We don’t have to work as hard to make the car run. The whole deal has just made it a whole lot easier for him.”

Team owner Rick Hendrick admitted he wondered how the additions of Earnhardt and Eury would mesh at Hendrick Motorsports, a veteran organization with a well-established protocol. “You always are concerned when you have a system in place like how we work with the engineers, whether new people will fall in with the program and do it like we’ve been doing it,” said Hendrick. “But they just really embraced our procedures, the way we go about things. I think that gave ‘em a really quick start. I’ve just been real impressed with how Junior picks up on the car and knows what he wants as quickly as he wants it. We’ve been able to give it to him, and he’s been able to deliver.”

And then there’s the family thing. Hendrick’s first employee when he started what was then known as All-Star Racing in 1984 was Earnhardt’s grandfather, Robert Gee, one of the legends of car building in NASCAR. Hendrick’s first NASCAR victory as a car owner came with Dale Earnhardt Sr. in a Hendrick Nationwide Series car. There’s no question, either, that the death of Earnhardt Sr. in 2001 and Hendrick’s only son, Ricky, in 2004 made it natural that Rick Hendrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. would gravitate to each other.

“There’s a feeling there that I can’t take his dad’s place and he can’t take my son’s place, but we understand what each other’s going through and what we’ve been through because we’ve both had the loss. It kind of gives us a bond,” said Hendrick. “I know that there’s something that he’s missing and he knows there’s something I’m missing there. That part of it’s really been good for both of us. I just like watching him be happy.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will appear live on NASCAR RaceDay Saturday at 4:30 p.m. on SPEED.

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to