ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997 TAG: 9704070143
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: AUTO RACING
DATELINE: ROANOKE, TEXAS
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER
Larry McReynolds is happy.
He is sitting in the lounge of Dale Earnhardt's transporter on a rainy Friday morning at Texas Motor Speedway with a smile lighting his broad, round face.
McReynolds is the crew chief for the most demanding, successful driver running in the Winston Cup series. And he is struggling.
Since leaving the powerhouse Robert Yates Racing teams and joining Richard Childress Racing, McReynolds has assisted Earnhardt to his worst start in years.
In five races, Earnhardt has finished 31st, 11th, 30th, 8th and 15th. He is 15th in Winston Cup points.
In 1996, Earnhardt won two of his first five races - a more typical debut for the seven-time Winston Cup champion.
The garage gossip network is fairly bristling with rumors about the sad fate of the new crew chief: Larry McReynolds is on shaky ground. Larry McReynolds was overrated. Larry McReynolds is on his way out.
Larry McReynolds smiles.
``Larry has been doing this a long, long time,'' he says. ``I've had every kind of thing thrown at me that you can throw at me. I've gone through a lot. I've had to deal with drivers getting killed [Davey Allison]. I've had to deal with drivers getting seriously hurt [Ernie Irvan]. I've had to deal with substitute drivers [Dale Jarrett]. I've had to deal with trying to do a second team while making sure we had a good team for the driver who was recovering.
``These glitches are real small to what I've had in the past.''
The mild-mannered McReynolds is one of the most human folks in the Winston Cup garage. He wears his heart on his sleeve. He is articulate and unfailingly considerate. But his kindness cannot be mistaken for a lack of intensity or aggressiveness.
At Dover last fall, McReynolds confronted and grabbed Derrike Cope as Cope came out of the infield care center, accusing him of wrecking Irvan, who was then his driver.
McReynolds, to be sure, has not looked like a happy resident of Camp Childress during the past few races, often wearing a ``leave me alone'' look.
``You'll see me tense if we win five races in a row,'' McReynolds said. ``That's just Larry. There is a lot of speculation about what's going on with Richard Childress Racing and Larry McReynolds. But I still hold my guns. There's no performance clauses. I wouldn't sign one. This business is too tough.''
At the same time, McReynolds never would have guessed his debut would have been this poor.
``You couldn't have hit me between the eyes any harder with a claw hammer and catch me off guard or surprise me as much as I have been surprised with the first five races of the season,'' he says. ``But I still see the light. It's not like we're looking at each other saying, `What in the world should we do?' We know what we need to be working on. And we need to be working on a little bit of everything.''
Earnhardt was in a bad mood Saturday about the condition of the track here at Texas Motor Speedway and wasn't interested in talking about anything. He had one word, and only one word, about how things are going with McReynolds:
"Great."
Still, it has become clear that this is not just a matter of adding McReynolds to the Earnhardt team. This team is being completely rebuilt. Of the famous Flying Aces pit crew in Earnhardt's glory days, only gasman Danny "Chocolate" Myers remains.
``We've made so many changes in the team,'' said Childress. ``We've had to change a lot of stuff in building our cars. We've had to redo our pit crew. We got a little bit off in some areas and we're going back and rebuilding. As for Larry, he's everything we thought he is and then some as a leader. I feel great about it right now. I wouldn't go to Vegas and bet against us.''
McReynolds had a stern test on the eve of the Daytona 500 when a couple of pit crew members stayed out late the night before the race and showed up late on race morning. Hours before the most important race of the year, he dumped them from the crew.
``It was a tough call to make,'' McReynolds said. ``But Dale supported that call when we made it and he supported it even after the race. You know, you hate cutting your nose off to spite your face. But I think all eyes of the crew were watching to see what kind of call I was going to make. It was, `Are they going to let it slide because it's the Daytona 500 or are they going to hold their ground.'
``This is a fun challenge, even though we're 15th in points and we've had one top-10 finish,'' McReynolds said. ``I still get up every morning excited about going to work. And I had lost that over there [at Robert Yates Racing]. I used to put one foot on the floor and keep one foot in bed and say, `Oh, no, not another day. I just don't want to go today.'
``It's sad when you feel that way. Life is too short. I get confirmation every single day that I made the right move.''
LENGTH: Medium: 91 linesby CNB