Dale Earnhardt Jr. hasn’t had the best history with his crew chiefs -- first the feuding with Tony Eury Sr., then the frustration of running mid-pack with Pete Rondeau, an interim stint with Steve Hmiel and finally the tumultuous tenure with Tony Eury Jr.

At one point or another, Earnhardt Jr.’s results and attitude made each of his respective crew chiefs look bad. But as is always the case at least once, the driver of the No. 88 car has the potential to make his crew chief look like gold.

For the latest crew chief on Earnhardt Jr.’s pit box, Lance McGrew, that point came on Sunday at Michigan.

Leaders Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin and Brian Vickers hit the pits knowing they’d need to stretch their tanks to 51 laps in a run to the finish. Earnhardt Jr. took advantage of the new wave around rule in association with double-file restarts, then pitted with 40 laps to go while under caution, guaranteeing he could go the distance.

“The way our luck has been, I wasn't sitting there thinking I was in the catbird seat,” Earnhardt Jr. said of McGrew‘s strategy, which he said confused him at first. “I was thinking maybe I'll get on the podium.
 
“I know every one of those guys are real good at saving fuel. And we've all gotten smarter I think in the last year and a half actually on some of the tricks to do, some of the things we can accomplish under caution to help ourselves.”

Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch sprinted off pit road ahead of Earnhardt Jr., but on only two tires. It wasn’t long before the highest-running vehicle with a ticket to the checkers was the No. 88, and he was closing on leader Johnson through the entirety of the race’s final run.

All hope of winning ended when Vickers continued to pedal even 50 laps into the run on a single tank of gas, but strategy vaulted Earnhardt Jr. from somewhere just outside of the top 15 to a final finishing spot of third, his second-best result of the season and second top-five finish of 2009.

“My team deserves a lot of credit,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “They worked hard all weekend, got a good car, made a lot of changes, we leaned on our teammates a lot in setup knowledge. We made some good changes in the race. Just some really smart stuff we had Lance and the guys doing all weekend.”

Had Earnhardt Jr. driven to Victory Lane at MIS for the second time in two years, the tale of pit-road strategy would have loomed even larger on his win total.

He won on a two-tire strategy in at the Chicagoland Speedway in ‘05 with Hmiel. His next victory came thanks to two more tires at Richmond in ‘06. Then, in 2008, Earnhardt Jr.’s latest win came on fuel mileage with Eury Jr.

Part of the trend? Falling back after a strong start, which Earnhardt admitted was sometimes more mental than an unconquerable obstacle.

“Since I started working with Lance, I've been trying to work really hard to be the same person at the end of the race that I am at the start of the race mentally,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “That really helps (the team) stay focused on their job and working on the car instead of having to control me and my problems. They can think about what they're looking at on them laptops, figuring this, that and the other, everything them engineers are telling them in their ear.
 
“I think it just comes down to sticking with it, staying with the team, and trying to be part of a solution instead of a part of the problem.”

Earnhardt Jr. didn’t make McGrew look like gold Sunday at Michigan, but he did begin to polish on the desire to make a consistent run at the front.