A few days ago, news broke that Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Greg Ives was retiring from his duties. Naturally, this prompted many in the NASCAR community to pay tribute to Ives.

Chief among them was his current driver, Alex Bowman, who dedicated a rather touching one to him.

Even the likes of Dale Earnhardt Jr. joined in and spoke about his fondest memories with Ives.

He said, “Me and him in got in a little bit of a sparring, sh*t-talking situation. Which was uniques because I didn’t understand any of his humor.”

“Our humor, neither one of us, sort of, got each other. I didn’t think we would ever really work together or become friends, for that matter.”

“He comes over to JR Motorsports and has great success with Chase and I got to know him really well. He’s a good dude.”

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“He’s soft, got a good heart, believes in what he’s doing.”

What else did Dale Earnhardt Jr say about Greg Ives?

Dale Jr confessed that being a crew chief for him in particular was not the easiest job in the world. This was because they often had to shoulder the blame when things went wrong. The ex-Hendrick Motorsports driver admitted that anything that was normally his fault, would be on the crew chief’s head.

Despite this, Ives never ever betrayed him or had a low opinion of him on the team.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. knew that Ives was the best option for him, due to his impressive resume. In fact, Greg Ives was part of the championship-winning squad helmed by Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus.

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So when he and Dale Jr linked up, they won plenty of races together. However, they soon developed a much deeper bond that resulted in them having each other’s backs during difficult times.