DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Ray Evernham, who won three Cup Series championships in the 1990s as crew chief for Jeff Gordon, has been selected as NASCAR's top all-time crew chief in a vote by a national motorsports media contingent.

Evernham's selection was announced Friday at Martinsville Speedway, in conjunction with the announcement of the new DIRECTV Crew Chief of the Race contingency award for the Nextel Cup Series. The $5,600 per-race award will go into effect with Sunday's running of the DIRECTV 500 at Martinsville. It will be presented weekly to the crew chief whose team has the lowest combined start/finish numbers. A year-end award of $102,400 will also be presented to the crew chief with the most victories. (Eligibility is based on a team's participation in the DIRECTV Crew Chief of the Race contingency program.)

Evernham, heading a first-rate pit crew that became known as the "Rainbow Warriors" because of their brightly-colored uniforms, guided Gordon to Cup championships in 1995, '97 and '98. Evernham left the team late in the 1999 season to head Dodge's 2001 return to the series. He continues in that role, via his Evernham Motorsports operation, with drivers Kasey Kahne, Jeremy Mayfield and Scott Riggs.

"I'm blown away," Evernham said. "I've never thought of myself as anyone special. All I did was have a great team, a great driver and did my job the best I could. I thank the media for their recognition."

Evernham was one of 10 crew chiefs nominated for the all-time award. Over several days of voting, Evernham amassed a total of 1,187 points to edge eight-time Cup champion crew chief Dale Inman by only 24 (1,163) points. Leonard Wood, who is credited with helping to revolutionize the approach to pit stops in the 1960s, finished third with 1,079 points.

Media participating in the voting ranked the 10 nominated crew chiefs. A first-place ranking was worth 10 points, a second-place ranking nine points, etc. Evernham received 46 first-place votes, while Inman had 47 and Wood 19.

Rounding out the results:

• Harry Hyde, 1,051 points
• Bud Moore 937
• Kirk Shelmerdine 908
• Ray Fox 748
• Lee Petty 737
• Gary Nelson 643
• Herb Nab (512).

"To me it's an honor to be mentioned with those other people," Evernham said. "Those guys are the heroes that I've looked up to. If you were a baseball player, it's like winning an award above Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth, great people like that."

NASCAR.com



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Hooray for Ray!

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YAY for Ray!!!

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What an honor for Ray, he deserves it!

:clap :na he competley deserves it!!!!!! way to go ray!

Congrats to Ray! :clap

RAY EVERNHAM (Car Owner, CEO Evernham Motorsports)

NOTE: Evernham has been selected as NASCAR’s top all-time crew chief in a vote by a national motorsports media contingent. Evernham’s selection was announced Friday at Martinsville Speedway.

“I want to thank the media for thinking of me like that. I never thought about myself on the level of Dale Inman and Harry Hyde and Leonard Wood and people like that. Those were my heroes, and it really did blow me away. To do the things you have to do as a crew chief, you’ve got to be part of a great team. I was fortunate enough to have a great team with Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon and the Rainbow Warriors. Again, I just tried to do my job the best I could every day. I was watching something about Smokey (Yunick) this morning and he said, ‘in the end, what you’ve got is the value of what people think of you and what you think of yourself.’ NASCAR is the biggest sport in the world and gives opportunities like that to people like us. In the end, we’re all basically mechanics. All we’ve ever wanted to do is make a racecar go fast. To be recognized for being able to do that is just an unbelievable honor to be even mentioned with this group of people. I appreciate it and thank DirecTV and NASCAR. Again, it just blows me away. For the honor to come from people who know the business means a lot more than anything else you’ll ever get. This means a great deal for me.”

I :hearts Ray. I agree with 'em. He is the BESTEST.

:clap :clap What a wonderful honor!!! I'm so happy for Ray!!!

woooohooo Ray

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awesome!!! congratulations to ray!!!! :clap :clap

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Congrats to Ray!