'Appreciative' Arpin moves to front and center for JRM

Driver becomes fourth driver this season to step into the No. 7


By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
 
Tony Eury Jr. is the crew chief of the No. 7 Nationwide Series Chevrolet, so obviously he's deeply committed to that car performing well.


But as a co-owner of the JR Motorsports organization that fields the car alongside the company's flagship program, the No. 88 led by his father, Tony "Pops" Eury, Eury Jr. is also aware of his car's role in building a solid foundation for the entity that includes his cousins, Kelley and Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- as well as stock car icon Rick Hendrick -- in its ownership group.


At this stage of its existence, JR Motorsports is a development entity, but it's also burdened with a heavy responsibility to its sponsors and an organizational commitment to run at the front of the field.


And so the clock is ticking this weekend at Talladega, as Steve Arpin becomes the fourth driver this season to step into the 7, following Danica Patrick, Scott Wimmer and Landon Cassill.

JRM's short-term horizon went into a spin two races ago, after the Nashville round, when Kelly Bires was released as driver of the No. 88 and replaced by Cup veteran Jamie McMurray. But JR's management has maintained all along it wants a Nationwide regular to be in that car -- but it has to be someone who can run at the front and contend for wins, as the 88's most recent shoe, Brad Keselowski, had done.

Earnhardt Jr. came right to the point at Texas last weekend.

"We're proud of what we've been able to do so far as a company," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We're looking for the next Brad [Keselowski], the next Jeff Gordon -- whatever you want to call it -- we're looking for that next guy. You've got to get him in a good race car.

"We've got Jamie [McMurray] in the car and he's going to help us with the remaining races with Hellman's. We have that No. 7 car to alternate whoever we want, in and out of that deal because we're racing that car out of our pocket. That's the only good thing about that whole deal with running it out of your own pocket -- because you can put whoever you want in there."

And right now that's young Canadian Arpin, 26, who says he craves working on his own race cars because that allows him to know exactly how they work, and exactly what he needs to make them work better.

"When this deal with Bires came up," Eury Jr. said. "We sat down to set our agenda and we said 'one of our candidates is Steve Arpin. We need to give him a shot' because we need to get guys in the 7 car as quick as possible and give 'em chances."

The Hendrick Motorsports development driver Cassill's four-race deal was announced before Nashville, but the situation was constantly in flux.

"Everybody knows Landon [Cassill] hasn't never run a speedway race, other than in a truck, and Arpin had run three ARCA races, two at Daytona and one at Talladega," Eury Jr. said. "So from an experience standpoint, maybe that would be a good time to give Arpin a shot [because] he's got experience drafting. But Talladega is so far out of concept from every other race, maybe we need to stick that Richmond in there, because that's right behind it.

"Honestly, when we first started it was gonna be a Landon four-race deal but we were, like, 'man, we really need to get things rolling so when we get to Charlotte, like just past Charlotte when we're ready to put a young guy in that 88 when Jamie's not going to be able to do it because he's gonna be in Pocono and stuff, we need to have our agenda set up: Who are we gonna put in the car, how's the chemistry, what's his driving ability like and how's he run?'

"And all those deals kinda came up in a week, because the Bires deal kinda went down really quick. It was one of those things where we had to react, but JR Motorsports has got six months to get a talent -- like a Brad Keselowski -- to put in that 88 car, to know what we got so that team can come out of the box [in 2011] running strong."

And so right now Arpin is front and center -- though it's a moment that Eury Jr. said might extend to Arpin getting that shot in the 88 later this season.

Since the beginning of 2008, when he met Arpin at Speedweeks in Florida, Carl Edwards had become a real advocate for the Fort Frances, Ontario, native. After repeated recommendations from Edwards, Eury Jr. said the team finally met Arpin at Kansas Speedway last September.

Over the weekend at Texas Eury Jr. said at one point last fall the organization was even considering running a third car, along with the two full-time entries it's ended up fielding.

"Ever since we've met him, Steve's [Arpin] been real down-to-earth -- a real appreciative kind of guy," Eury Jr. said. "Since Carl [Edwards] introduced us, we've stayed in contact and we tried to put a deal together for Steve in the 7 car, to run the final races that Danica wasn't gonna run, but it just didn't happen."

Arpin is currently running his second season in the ARCA Series, where he has a 10-point lead in the championship over Justin Marks, after four races. Arpin comes to Talladega, where ARCA races Friday evening, having won the last two series races: at Salem, Indiana, and Texas last weekend.

"Now we're in a situation where we can give [Arpin] an opportunity and we're going to try to bounce it around in between his ARCA deal and kinda give him some chances and let him think about what he needs to do for next year," Eury Jr. said. "But we're real excited to have his enthusiasm at JR Motorsports."

Patrick's program for the next two years is a part-time schedule consisting of less than half the series' races while she concentrates on her Indy car program.

Since meeting the team last September, Arpin has spent time at the JR Motorsports shop and Friday at Texas, he split time between the ARCA and Nationwide garages. That was also the case last February, when Patrick made her first two stock car starts.

"He wants to be a team player -- he wants to do anything he can," Eury Jr. said. "He come over and helped Danica [Patrick] a lot during February at Daytona Speedweeks. He didn't have to, but that was just his personality.

"We were over here practicing with Landon [Cassill] on Friday and [Arpin] was getting ready for an ARCA race on Friday night and he's over here helping us put tires on so [Cassill] can go make a mock [qualifying] run. That's just the kind of guy that he is.

"He's just a racer -- he loves racing -- and it's just fun to be around people like that because when the team sees that kind of person; that just steps everybody's game up because they want to help that person get to their goals, also."

Earnhardt Jr. is keeping his eyes wide open at this point.

"I'm really hoping that Landon [Cassill] shows Tony Jr. what he needs to see to get more opportunity," Earnhardt Jr. said. "Landon's such a great guy; he's a real, real easy sale to the sponsors because he does such a great job. If he can show us that we can get something going chemistry-wise -- I really hope Landon works out. Steve Arpin, I think might be an opportunity waiting to happen for anybody.

"There are a lot of new variables in this environment, and they dictate really who gets in and out of the car. We're still trying to give those guys an opportunity and trying to convince who we need to, that these guys need to get a chance to get in the car."

Eury Jr. said they know the timeframe they want to make a decision on.

"Scheduling has a lot to do with it," Eury Jr. said. "If Arpin ends up being the guy, then we gotta look at his ARCA schedule. We've got some other drivers -- we've got Landon and we've got Wimmer and we've pitched some ideas out to both of those and we've got a couple more races scheduled with Landon.

"We're trying to say the middle of May, we kinda want to have an agenda, but this 7 car is going to continue to try guys out and give 'em a chance. There may be some other drivers out there that might show up but we're looking to see what we got out there, because we may be able to fill in next year with a solid driver to take up Danica's [Indy car conflict] races.

"We're constantly looking and we're gonna keep trying out new talent and give everybody the opportunity that we can. But the 88 is the flagship of our company -- that's our car and we want to contend for titles and win races and we've got sponsors on that car that we've committed to running up front and getting them the TV time because we're gonna have the best Nationwide driver out there. We're gonna beat the Cup drivers some days, and some days we're not, but that's our flagship.

"For the 7 car, our main objective is Danica Patrick, and we can use the rest of that time to have developmental drivers in the car. The biggest thing we've got to do is make sure we stay positive and stay in the top 30 in [owners'] points to help her situation out but we can also use it as a curve to help young drivers."