Instead of replacing it’s driver, #88 team still searching for a miracle

[Editor's Note: Every year there is one excuse or another why Dale Earnhardt Jr. is not winning. He has changed teams, Hendrick has given him every winning crew chief they could find, but still he can't get the job done. No one in NASCAR wants to come out and say their biggest star is really just a backmarker despite having the very best equipment.]

Now comes word that #88 crew chief Steve Letarte says teams expect to reevaluate rosters after every season. "I'd be really surprised if we had the same guys that we started this season with," Letarte said Saturday.

"You can never be good enough." There could be more changes than usual at Hendrick Motorsports after this season, particularly with the addition of Kasey Kahne and his support staff, led by crew chief Kenny Francis. Kahne and Francis have scored 10 wins since getting together for the 2005 season finale at Homestead-Miami. Francis is expected to bring along several of his existing crew men from Red Bull Racing.

The addition of the Kahne-Frances partnership will change the nucleus of the #5 Chevy currently led by Lance McGrew. Chris Heroy, who was the team engineer and led Dale Earnhardt Jr. to two top-five finishes as a crew chief in the Nationwide Series this year, is rumored to be leaving Hendrick Motorsports to be crew chief for Juan Pablo Montoya and the #42 crew. FoxSports