CONCORD, N.C. - Dale Earnhardt Jr. says that he and crew chief Pete Rondeau were "out of touch" in their communication and that's a reason why Rondeau was replaced earlier this week.

Rondeau disagrees. He said that the only miscommunication was why he was replaced. Earnhardt blamed communication issues for not running better this season. Earnhardt heads into Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway 11th in points and has not won a race. He led the driver standings at this point a year ago and had three wins.

"I didn't feel like personally I was getting a lot of information about what changes were being done on the car, and I'm sure that I wasn't giving him enough information about what those changes were doing," Earnhardt said in a news conference Thursday afternoon. "I just felt like we needed to make a change."

Asked about the communication issues in a separate interview, Rondeau said: "From my side of it, I gave him what he asked for. And now I'm hearing he wanted more. Basically what he got was what he wanted. I guess that still wasn't enough."

Rondeau attributed the team's struggles to issues with aerodynamics and horsepower. Earnhardt, who qualified 15th for Sunday's race was critical of Dale Earnhardt Inc. for those issues earlier this season and publicly backed Rondeau.

"I don't think it's just going to turn around this week," Rondeau said.

Steve Hmiel, technical director at Dale Earnhardt Inc., will serve as Earnhardt's interim crew chief. Hmiel had been Earnhardt's spotter. Jimmy Kitchens will take over those duties.

"I think Steve Hmiel can get in there and see a few things and see what the temperature of the team is and give us an idea of what would be good," Earnhardt said. "With his experience, he knows already a lot about what I like and don't like in a race car."

The team did not set a timetable for finding a replacement. Earnhardt said the team would look outside DEI. He also said that he hadn't considered bringing former crew chief Tony Eury Jr. back from Michael Waltrip's team. The teams swapped cars, crews and crew chiefs in the offseason, sending Rondeau to Earnhardt's team.

Hmiel discounted the crew chief's role with Earnhardt's team, saying other changes will play a role in the team's improvement.

"We're going to a strictly open-book policy where we'll use engineering unilaterally," said Hmiel, who was Mark Martin's crew chief during part of the 1990s. "Our tire guys will work together. It'll be more similar to what the teams that are winning all the races are doing. That's talking amongst themselves and using all the assets that are available to them to become a better race team.

"Pete wasn't against that. We just weren't at that point in our company's history. The thing that needs to be said about all this is that if it failed, it's because I didn't use the people that are there. And if it succeeds, it's because all the people that were there did it - not because it had anything to do with me. It's just a matter of taking the personal face off the crew chief and making DEI an entity that can win races regardless of who's sitting on top of the pit box."

If that's the case, Rondeau remains confused why he was replaced after 11 points races and two exhibition races as Earnhardt's crew chief.

"I don't know what they were thinking all through the process," Rondeau said. "I never got any warning on it. It was pretty quick."

Rondeau is taking a leave from Dale Earnhardt Inc. He said he'll speak with Richie Gilmore, vice president of motorsports at DEI, next week about his options. Rondeau says he'd like to be a crew chief. One possibility is Dale "'s team, which does not have a permanent crew chief. Bill Wilburn is serving as the interim crew chief after replacing Mike Ford, who left the team last week.

"I definitely wouldn't put myself in the same position I just came out of," Rondeau said. "Being in a no-win situation. If we ran good, it was supposed to. If it didn't, it was going to be my fault. I knew that going in, but at the time I thought I would have more backing than I currently had."