KANSAS CITY, Kansas (AP) — Dale Earnhardt Jr. has given a formal endorsement for crew chief Lance McGrew.

He’s just not sure if that carries any weight.

Earnhardt will start a season-best second in Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway, his 16th race with McGrew calling the shots for his underachieving Hendrick Motorsports team. Although there’s been few tangible results since McGrew replaced longtime crew chief Tony Eury Jr. in late May, Earnhardt is pleased with their progress and wants McGrew back next season.

“I like working with Lance. I get along great with Lance,” Earnhardt said. “We have had some great runs and I feel like I can build on that type of success. I hope that we’re successful the rest of the year and that we go into next season with the same group of guys.

“But the decision isn’t mine, and never will be mine.”

The decision will ultimately be made by team owner Rick Hendrick, who put McGrew in the job when Earnhardt’s season was spiraling out of control. Coming off five finishes of 20th or worse in six races, Hendrick made the difficult decision to separate Earnhardt and Eury, cousins who had worked together for Earnhardt’s entire NASCAR career.

McGrew guided Earnhardt to a 12th-place finish in the debut race at Dover, although there’s been just two top-10 runs since their pairing. Even though the record books don’t reflect it, Earnhardt’s performance has improved since he started racing cars built by McGrew.

Earnhardt heads into Sunday’s race 22nd in the standings with just five top 10s all year. He’s also stuck in a 57-race winless streak dating back to Michigan in 2008.

But Earnhardt thinks McGrew is the key to brighter days for the No. 88 team.

“I feel like I’m a different race car driver than I’ve been over the last several years, just my temperament and my disposition throughout the races and the weekend,” he said. “I still have to check myself every once in a while — I get a little angry, but just during practice and stuff when something you do to these cars can frustrate you.

“But for the most part, Lance is really great at controlling the situation and controlling our team and directing our team throughout the weekend and the races themselves. I’ve enjoyed the experience working with him.”

Walking Free

Carl Edwards is hoping to ditch the crutches he’s been using in the next couple days.

The preseason favorite to win the Sprint Cup title broke his right foot in early September during a rough game of frisbee, and has been using a set of steel crutches ever since.

The injury has not affected his racing — he has a win and two other top-10s in the Nationwide Series since the injury, and was 11th last week in the Cup race at Dover — but Edwards is eager to be walking free.

“Just one more week on the crutches, and, trust me, I can’t wait,” Edwards said. “That’s fine. It’s not a factor in the car, just getting around.”

Big tires

Goodyear will head to Richmond International Raceway next week to work on its 2010 short-track tires, but the NASCAR supplier will also use the two-day test session to put a larger model on the track for the first time.

Matt Kenseth and Travis Kvapil will test Tuesday and Wednesday for Goodyear, which is in the very early stages of testing a tire that is 1½ inches taller and wider than the current model. Roush Fenway Racing will have to bring different cars with 17-inch wheels — compared to the cars with 15-inch wheels currently used — to accommodate the larger tire.

“The Richmond test is very preliminary and is our first opportunity to get the larger size tire on the track,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of race tire sales. “We’ve been very happy with the lab work on the larger tire and the modeling results that we’ve seen, so the next logical step is to get this tire on the ground.”

NASCAR has no timetable for potentially using the larger tire.

Artifact added

The bright orange Unocal 76 spotter ball has become the first artifact added to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

The Hall is set to open next May, and the Unocal ball was brought in this past week. It had been restored by a company in Florida, and sent to the Charlotte, N.C.-facility in three sections. It took Hall of Fame crews three days to assemble the ball inside the facility.

The rest of the artifacts aren’t scheduled to be added until January, but the size of the Unocal ball required it to be brought in much earlier.

The ball is one of the four spotter balls first installed at Daytona International Speedway in 1969. The enclosed platform gave officials and broadcast spotters a view of the race track.

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