Evernham still has stake, role in Gillett Evernham

By Kenny Bruce - Assistant Managing Editor

Friday, May 16, 2008

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SCENE ON THE CIRCUIT

Ray Evernham says he is still an essential part of Gillett Evernham Motorsports. Rumors have been circulating that the 50-year-old Evernham had sold his remaining interest in the organization that fields Cup teams for drivers Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler and Patrick Carpentier.

Evernham sold a majority interest in Evernham Motorsports to businessman George Gillett in August 2007 and the company was subsequently renamed Gillett Evernham Motorsports.

“The way that whole program worked, I sold 80 percent of the company and I will continue to own 20 percent of the company until George and I decide we’re not going to be partners or whatever,” Evernham said May 10.

“But I basically have a 20 percent ownership in the company and I have a five-year work agreement to stay in my position. I sit on the board. I have a voice in running the company and I have a job in the shop.”

Evernham says his position isn’t one that requires him to be in the office each day or at the track each weekend – earlier this year he agreed to serve as an analyst for ESPN’s NASCAR coverage, and he says his new schedule has allowed him to spend more time with his son, Ray J.

He’s also building a “little place in Mooresville to display a lot of the things that I’ve gotten over the past 35 years,” he said, “but still, 75-80 percent of the bulk of my time every week is with Gillett Evernham.”

And that workload includes gathering information at the track, something he hopes will provide Gillett Evernham officials with notebooks full of ideas regarding the competition on the track and the organization in general.

“I just make notes and notes and notes about things that I see that we could be improving,” Evernham said. “Notes [about what] I think other people are doing to beat us. Just kind of looking at things long-term.

“Unfortunately, we need a billion-dollar budget to do everything I want to do, but at least my mind’s working again.”

After selling a majority interest, many felt Evernham would take a more active, hands-on role with the teams. But Evernham, who won 47 races and three NASCAR Cup championships while serving as crew chief for Jeff Gordon, said his future doesn’t include a return to crew-chief duties.

“People think hands-on means on the [pit] box or in the garage area ... those days are gone,” he said. “I can’t say I wouldn’t enjoy that, but I sure wouldn’t enjoy it every weekend. It’s no secret ... I was just talking to [Wood Brothers Racing co-founder] Leonard Wood, that [1971 Mercury race car] he created over there, that’s a piece of art. Guys in his day, you could build that stuff, you could come up with ideas. And in my time in the ’90s you could do that. Here, you can’t. You get a car, you assemble it and you learn how to race it. It’s just a different world. I’m not saying it’s better or worse, it’s just a different world. ...

“This sport grew, and I had a choice. I could either figure out somehow that I could financially step up on my own and gamble everything that I had done in my whole career and try and continue handling it, or do what I did. Say, ‘Look, you know what? This is not my expertise. It is not what I want to do. I’m going to partner up with somebody and do the thing that I want to do. Make a bigger difference.’

“I would much rather be part of a team that’s going forward, than be a 100 percent owner of something that’s going to go out of business some day.”