Ray Evernham has been long known for his leadership atop the pit box of NASCAR stars like Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne, guidance of Dodge’s return to NASCAR racing and technological innovation that changed the sport.
Evernham announced today that he officially is passing the torch on race team entrepreneurship to new team owners like Tony Stewart and Tommy Baldwin. He will now focus his attention on broadcasting, preserving racing venues for future generations, helping develop young drivers and setting new records.
“I’m proud of the accomplishments I’ve achieved with my colleagues and partners over more than two decades in racing, from the early days in IROC to the championship years with Hendrick Motorsports and Jeff Gordon to leading Dodge’s return to NASCAR as a team owner,” said Evernham. “It has been an amazing journey, and I’ve been fortunate to work with some incredible people and gain invaluable experience throughout the years.”
Evernham is relinquishing his leadership role at Richard Petty Motorsports to pursue new opportunities in motorsports, from grassroots racing to NASCAR and beyond. He is focusing his short-term efforts on establishing Ray Evernham Enterprises, broadcasting races for ESPN, managing East Lincoln Speedway, opening a new museum and entertainment facility in Mooresville, NC, (shown at right), helping develop young drivers and designing racecars for several key events.
“I’m not retiring from racing or putting NASCAR on a back burner,” he noted. “I’m committed to the growth and success of the sport overall, and to building championship teams and organizations in many different levels of racing in the future. I spent my first decade in racing driving and working on racecars. My next decade I went from a rookie crew chief to a NASCAR champion. My third decade I had the opportunity to lead a manufacturer back into the sport and own a team. Who knows what my fourth decade in the sport will hold?”
Oh, and there is the little project he has going with professional drag-race driver Doug Herbert. Evernham and Herbert are building a behemoth that they hope to take to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah this August, where Herbert plans to make a run at the land speed record of 500 miles per hour for a piston-driven car.
But what really keeps Evernham cooking these days is the museum/shop he’s putting together in Mooresville. It’s located in between the city of Charlotte and the Statesville, N.C., shop where he so recently used to put in long hours as the head of Evernham Motorsports and later, to a lesser degree, at what became Gillett Evernham Motorsports.
He admitted that he is saddened by the fact that the Evernham name no longer is part of the sport. Gillett Evernham Motorsports officially became Richard Petty Motorsports one week ago after a name change was agreed to following the merger between GEM and Petty Enterprises.
Although Richard Petty said then that Evernham was a consultant with the new combined company, Evernham admitted Tuesday that is true only in the sense that he has a contract indicating so. He insisted he has no real involvement with the company, and doesn’t expect to nor wish to have any going forward in the future.
“I think that if you’re not going to have any input or any control, it’s best not to have your name on it,” he said. “So, you know, in some ways it’s sad to know that the Evernham name is not really going to be involved in competitive racing this year. But again, I don’t really have any input into that place at all anymore.
“I have a consulting agreement. I have a minority interest in ownership, which I have offered for George to buy me out at any time that he wants to. But really, I don’t have any input on what’s going on over there.”
