BROOKLYN, Mich. - Lance McGrew is standing where a million sunburned fans want to stand - right next to Dale Earnhardt Jr.

McGrew recently took over as Junior's crew chief, giving him one of the most critical roles in the Sprint Cup Series. When the Elvis of the sport is struggling, you don't send in the cavalry - you send in Lance McGrew.

"We're pulling out all the stops. We're going to do everything we can to get this team to where it needs to be," Hendrick

Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick said when he removed Junior's cousin and long-time crew chief Tony Eury Jr. "Lance is a super-strong crew chief and really a field general that does a great job calling a race."

With Junior 20th in points this deep into the season, with zero poles and zero wins and just one top-five finish, a change had to come.

"We've got to fix this, we've got to all work on it," Hendrick said. "We've just rolled up our sleeves and we're going to refuse to lose. We're going to refuse to quit until we get it fixed."

Enter McGrew, the slightly wonky former mechanical engineering major at LSU who in the past has worked with Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, Brian Vickers and Brad Keselowski. McGrew helped Vickers win a Nationwide Series championship and played a key role in Keselowski's quick assimilation into the upper echelon of NASCAR.

"I was very fortunate to be able to work with Lance for the first few Cup races I ran," Keselowski said. "He brought a lot of knowledge and experience to the team, which was great for someone like me who was just getting started in the Cup series. He and I were able to communicate well, and I think that shows in the progress we were able to make."

While McGrew can certainly talk drag coefficients and chassis roll with anyone, he said an ability to massage personalities trumps all of that techno stuff.

"I would trade every engineering class I ever had for a degree in psychology," McGrew said. "How you react to people and how they react to you, and getting people to pull in the right direction - it makes all the difference in the world."

McGrew, who is here working to help Earnhardt make a successful run in today's LifeLock 400 Sprint Cup race, was raised in Baton Rouge. He got introduced to racing as a kid, built a dirt car with his dad, and they both raced the car before it got too expensive.

Later on in college, McGrew saw his older friends graduate and trudge off to jobs in clean rooms, calibrating electronic equipment or assembling sensitive computer components.

"I wasn't real happy in school, and when I saw those guys in careers where they were wearing paper shoes and paper hats, that's just not for me. I decided at that point I'd much rather be racing."

A friend in Charlotte had called McGrew and told him a Nationwide team was setting up shop nearby, and that was all the invitation McGrew needed.

"I moved to Charlotte on a Friday, got a job on Monday, and that Wednesday we went to Dover to get ready to race," McGrew said.

"In this business you can get frustrated at times, because of some things you think should work easier than they do, but then you realize it is what it is, you accept it, or you go home. I chose to hang around."

Since he did a little and a lot of everything on his climb up the stock car racing ladder, McGrew had the right skill set in his tool box to handle the broad-based crew chief job description.

"I think it's because everything I learned to do on a race car, I wanted to learn," McGrew said. "I was fascinated with what it took to make the car go fast and I did all the rest of it, too."

Earnhardt, whose last win came here at Michigan International Speedway one year ago, is upbeat about the change and the union with McGrew.

"Lance is doing a great job," Earnhardt said. "People say often times the best thing to do is always the hardest thing to do. We're just putting our foot down and trying to work hard."

While McGrew has been vaulted from the background into a highly visible position aside Earnhardt, Junior said he wants to take any fire sprayed in their direction.

"Eventually, I'm going to be the one that has to answer about how much I lived up to my father's name," Earnhardt said. "I take full responsibility for making some mistakes along the way, especially this year. I shoulder any amount of responsibility that's necessary."

McGrew said the give-and-take with Earnhardt has been outstanding. After qualifying back in the 30th position for today's race, the No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard team made adjustments, and then ran second-fastest in yesterday's final practice session.

"He's trying very hard to communicate what he feels, and that's exactly what we need," McGrew said. "He has such a sensitivity to what's happening in the car - almost to a fault. He can feel the smallest things, and as long as he can keep conveying that and we keep making smart decisions, we'll make progress."

McGrew said the pressure that accompanies working with Junior won't crumple his brow any more than his internal expectations already do.

"My biggest problem in life is that I hate being wrong. I mean I hate it. I can't even begin to describe how bad I hate it," he said. "I feel like if the car doesn't perform up to par, then it's my fault. I carry that, I don't need anyone else to put it on me."

But McGrew also acknowledges the gravity of his assignment.

"We are definitely entertainment driven, and he is definitely the king of the sport as far as that goes, with the largest fan base," he said. "All of the attention on us is something I'm not used to, and it can be a little bit overwhelming, but it's not something that really bothers me."

As long as he doesn't have to wear those paper shoes, that is.

First Published June 14, 2009, 10:28 a.m.