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Car owner Rick Hendrick said embattled crew chief Tony Eury Jr. will remain Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief — but added both men would understand if a change needed to be made.

Earnhardt is 19th in the standings entering Sunday's race at Martinsville Speedway.

That slow start has fueled speculation about Eury's future with the team. Hendrick addressed those issues Wednesday in a conference call with reporters.

"Right now Tony Jr. is our guy,'' Hendrick said. "The thing I want to say today is that I'm 100 percent behind this group. I have no intentions of making any changes. I have all the intentions of making it better.''

Later in the call, Hendrick said: "I can tell you this, that both of these guys, (Earnhardt) and Tony have told me that if they thought they need to be split that they understood. That's my call. I'm not ready to make that call. Not even close. Matter of fact, I feel better about it since we've been working through it here with our guys. I'm convinced that they're better together.''

Hendrick is known for his patience. He resisted calls to replace Steve Letarte as Jeff Gordon's crew chief last season when Gordon experienced his first winless season since his rookie year in 1993.

Gordon now leads the points.

Hendrick also said he's pleased with Earnhardt's determination, noting the driver is working out and has changed his eating habits.

Hendrick says his team is doing everything it can to help Earnhardt's team.

"We've got all the folks that hopefully and supposedly know what to do here focused on that team,'' he said.

Hendrick also said he would like to have Mark Martin drive again full time next year. Martin has a contract for next season, although one plan was for him to drive part time. Martin suggested last weekend at Bristol that he would like to drive full time but said he hadn't discussed any plans with team officials.

Hendrick says he'd like to have something finalized by the summer.

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