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RICHMOND, Va. - When Brian Vickers announced he was leaving Hendrick Motorsports midway through the 2006 season, the race team quickly distanced itself from the driver.
He no longer was privy to any details about his Chevrolet and he was banned from team meetings. Despite being shunned, he managed to win at the Talladega Superspeedway and post six other top-10 finishes before joining Red Bull Racing and Toyota.
Now it's time for Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and J.J. Yeley to be the outsiders at their own race teams.
All three are headed for new rides in 2008, and for Busch and Yeley, the change includes a new manufacturer. That puts their current employers in a tough spot. Running up front comes with a risk of giving away company secrets.
So far, all three are saying the right things and racing hard. So far, they've tried to keep their focus on this year, not next. So far, everyone's getting along.
So far.
Breaking up is never easy. Joe Nemechek was told in advance he wouldn't return to Felix Sabates team in 1999, and Nemechek responded by winning at the New Hampshire International Speedway. Sabates never flinched; Nemechek still was fired.
Earnhardt Jr. heads into Saturday night's Chevy Rock and Roll 400 at the Richmond International Raceway in 13th place in the standings. The top-12 after Richmond move into the 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup.
He's 128 points behind and needs either Kurt Busch or Kevin Harvick to have colossal problems to have a chance. If not for two blown engines since his announced departure from DEI in May, Earnhardt probably would be safely in stock car's playoffs.
The son of seven-time series champion Dale Earnhardt doesn't have any answers, especially since he doesn't spend much time at the family's shop.
"I haven't been over to DEI that often," Earnhardt said. "They have been making great power, and I keep praising them the best I can on the TV. When they are sitting at home, like this weekend, they hear us on TV talking about the motors. I have always told the truth.
"They have found some great power this year. We have had some reliability issues; that has been due to the new motor coming in, the change in the fuel and all of that. We broke a couple motors early in the year and then here lately and that was pretty crucial at times."
He races next year for Hendrick, where engine problems are a rarity. Hendrick operates three full-time teams in the Nextel Cup Series and his team has suffered engine failure only once in a total of 100 starts.
Kyle Busch was forced out at Hendrick to make room for Earnhardt; Yeley was forced out at Joe Gibbs Racing to make room for Busch. Yeley landed at Hall of Fame Racing - which will change its name to West Coast Racing next year - after that team's new ownership pushed Tony Raines out on Tuesday.
But with 11 races remaining, all are trying to remain focused on this season.
"You can say 'All right, this is his last year at DEI and you wanted to go out with a bang and be in the Chase,' but unfortunately it's not going to happen," said Tony Eury Jr., Earnhardt's crew chief who will join Earnhardt at Hendrick next year. "So we'll just kind of take what we got and move on. We'll just try to win some races. That's our goal going in and we haven't done it yet."
Busch's move to Gibbs raises all sorts of problems for Hendrick and Chevrolet. Busch already has qualified for the Chase and will be considered one of the favorites to win the championship.
But since Gibbs is making the move to Toyota next year, it's not likely Hendrick will allow Busch to peek under the hood.
"We're still doing our job. We're still trying to make the Chase and make this championship happen," Busch said. "It's a little bit of a difficult situation to go through, but in the end, you just know that it's business, and you have to work together to make sure it doesn't happen."
As soon as Earnhardt cut his ties with DEI, the team seemed to shift its focus to Martin Truex Jr. He was ranked 20th before Earnhardt made his announcement, now he's 10th with an automatic berth into the playoffs.
"I think that you know, it hurts those guys' pride when the remarks were made about DEI being able to continue without me and a driver there," Earnhardt said of Truex Jr. "And for them to go out and make a statement like they have over the last couple of weeks, I think it helps them and gives them a lot of confidence and gives the rest of the employees that are not going to the race track a lot of confidence."
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