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Crew chief Tony Eury Jr. will join Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Hendrick Motorsports next season, the team announced Tuesday.

This keeps intact a combination that has been together for nearly all of Earnhardt's NASCAR Nextel Cup career. Eury has been Earnhardt's car chief or crew chief since Earnhardt ran his first Cup race in 1999. Most recently, he has worked as Earnhardt's crew chief since late in the 2005 season.

Since being reunited with his cousin two years ago, Earnhardt has one victory, 18 top-five finishes and 30 top-10 results in 71 Cup starts.

Hendrick Motorsports said it had signed Eury to a multiyear contract and that he would join Hendrick after this season. Earnhardt and Eury have been working for Dale Earnhardt Inc.

The hiring of Eury was among a few Hendrick Motorsports moves revealed Tuesday. Casey Mears will move from the No. 25 to the No. 5 car next season. Mears' crew chief, Darian Grubb, will move to a management role and coordinate engineering efforts for the teams of Mears and Earnhardt. Mears' new crew chief will be Alan Gustafson, the crew chief for the No. 5 team and Kyle Busch this season. Busch will move to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dlong @news-record.com