Dickie Venables has remained silent through the recent parting of ways with former employer Tony Pedregon for a reason. He’s not one who prefers to get dirty slinging mud and considers himself a no-BS person who refuses to deal in rumors, gossip and innuendo.

Today he’s decided to tell his side of the story. He’s won’t sling mud because, in his words, there isn’t any mud to sling. According to Venables, there is nothing more to the story than two friends, in a working relationship, who didn’t agree on the way a situation was handled.

“I was called into the office the first of last week and Tony informed me that he was releasing Kurt Elliot,” Venables said Friday morning in a telephone interview. “Out of respect for Tony and I am not going to get into the reasons for that, that [Elliot] was my assistant crew chief, my right hand man, he was my second set of eyes and hands … a very important person. Dickie Venables has remained silent through the recent parting of ways with former employer Tony Pedregon for a reason. He’s not one who prefers to get dirty slinging mud and considers himself a no-BS person who refuses to deal in rumors, gossip and innuendo.

Today he’s decided to tell his side of the story. He’s won’t sling mud because, in his words, there isn’t any mud to sling. According to Venables, there is nothing more to the story than two friends, in a working relationship, who didn’t agree on the way a situation was handled.

“I was called into the office the first of last week and Tony informed me that he was releasing Kurt Elliot,” Venables said Friday morning in a telephone interview. “Out of respect for Tony and I am not going to get into the reasons for that, that [Elliot] was my assistant crew chief, my right hand man, he was my second set of eyes and hands … a very important person.

“I just didn’t think that was the proper way to handle it. I wish he would have come to me and told me that we needed to make some adjustments and asked for suggestions of how we could avoid that.”

Venables said he was taken aback by the directive.

“I was in shock that he made that important of a decision without hearing my viewpoint on the thing,” Venables said. “He’s the owner and I’m the employee, so I have to respect his decision. I don’t have to agree with it, which obviously I didn’t.”

Venables told CompetitionPlus.com that he’s a people person and considers a man’s character to be one of his strongest attributes.

“I’m a no BS kinda guy … a stand-up guy … that’s how I operate,” Venables said. “I just felt it was the wrong thing to do. I’ve always put a person’s emphasis on their personality and the way they get along with everyone. It’s really hard to get a group of guys that work good together like that and I felt like we had that. I put more emphasis on that than ability. We all live together out here on the road. You can teach anyone anything. I was just disappointed with the way it was handled.”

Venables said the decision didn’t make sense to him at this stage of the game, especially with the team leading the points.

“I walked out of the office and agreed that we would do what we had to do,” Venables said. “I thought about it for a day and I just wasn’t okay with that decision. I went back to Tony and questioned it. I asked him if he was sure that was the decision he had to make. My concern with Tony was to see what we could do to get from now to the end of the season. I wanted to know what we needed to do to keep things intact through the end of the season. He had made up his mind and I didn’t question it because he makes the final calls.”

Venables decided to stand firm in his own beliefs. 

“Kurt was the first guy I hired on this team,” Venables said. “It wouldn’t have mattered if it was someone else than Kurt. The assistant crew chief … if they have been there for five years, there’s a reason they’ve been there.”

Venables told Pedregon on Wednesday that even though the team had experienced personnel cutbacks, the assistant crew chief is one place the team couldn’t afford to cut back.

“It was a calm situation and we just couldn’t come to a resolution,” Venables said. “We just decided it was best to go our separate ways. Neither one of us wanted this to happen. The timing was awful. My main goal was to get to Sunday night at Pomona.”

Venables empathizes for the tough position Pedregon is in. He’s also not surprised the team won last Sunday in Brainerd, Minn.

“Tony is an upbeat positive kind of guy,” Venables said. “I know he was getting blasted by the media in Brainerd, and he had a lot of distractions. He went out there and drove his ass off.”

There’s no definitive word on where Venables will draw a paycheck from next but there is certainty that it won’t be before Indy. He’s heard the rumors that he’ll join Don Schumacher Racing as Jack Beckman’s tuner or replace Jimmy Prock as the crew chief for Robert Hight. None of those rumors are true, according to Venables.

Venables main objective is to weigh his options, enjoy some time bass fishing close to home and most of all, keeping a friendship with Pedregon intact.

“We had a disagreement,” Venables explained. “We are good friends and will continue to be that way. We worked together for five years, started a team from nothing, we were able to win a lot of races and a championship. I will always remember he gave me my first opportunity to be a crew chief on my own. Sometimes you get in a position where parties have tough decisions. We have always been able to work things out in the past, this time we couldn’t.”

Would Venables think of returning to Pedregon in the future?

“He’ll be fine, I wish him the best,” Venables said. “he knows that if he needs something, all he needs to do is call. People are more important and a man can never have enough friends. I have a lot of respect for him. He took a helluva chance when he left John Force. That took a lot.

“I wasn’t happy the way this went down. We are moving on. Who knows somewhere down the road he might be in a position for me to work with him. And I would if the situation was right.”

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