Evernham strikes back as work ethic questioned
By Marty Smith, NASCAR.COM
August 26, 2006
05:52 PM EDT (21:52 GMT)




BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Ray Evernham stares at his feet inside the No. 9 transporter, arms folded. He is closed, lock-tight. Ticked. Then the topic is broached, and he begins to answer.

As the words spill out he lifts his head slowly, locks eyes with the questioner. His gaze is piercing. The arms unfold and the hands clutch the counter. Veins pop. He is agitated.

In recent weeks his work ethic has been questioned. The tireless pursuit of perfection that has long defined him, that made him legend, is tarnished.

His rebuttal is simple: Say what you want about my personal life, but don't ask. And never question my desire.

Questions about any personal relationship with developmental driver Erin Crocker will not be addressed. Ask until you're blue in the face. Ask 10 different ways. He doesn't see where it has any bearing on the overall performance or well-being of Evernham Motorsports.

"I didn't talk about it before this and nothing's changed," he said. "If people will crucify you for having a personal life, I'm sorry."

Above all else, don't question his want to succeed, to win. Don't mock a weekly schedule that includes multiple conference calls, internal meetings, external meetings with sponsors, bankers and lawyers, two sponsor appearances, 55 hours spent in the office and 40 more at the racetrack.

All said, he'll make 110 appearances on behalf of EMS sponsors this year.

He wants people to know that. He certainly wanted me to know that.

This is our conversation Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway, verbatim:

So you're extremely frustrated with people commenting about your commitment, and you reputation?

Evernham: Allegations are allegations. I guess that's exactly what those are. I'm more frustrated about the fact that my work ethic is being challenged for the way I've worked the past 15 years in the sport.

I'm at my shop every day. I'm a seven-day-a-week person. Along with 110 appearances, I run my company. I run all my companies. I have five or six different companies, including one in England that I run. I've built this thing.

I think that upset me more than anything else, the fact that I always had a good reputation for working and managing. I have put together a plan as this company grows. I started with five people six years ago. I got 330 people now.

Am I as hands-on with the car as I used to be? No. But there's not another owner in the sport other than Jack Roush that's as hands-on as I am. And if you're going to grow and face the big business and face Toyota and face the people that are coming, you've got to learn big business.

People are going to say whatever they're going to say about my personal life, but my work ethic being questioned, I take issue with that.

You've said you wouldn't talk about your personal life, but it's important. People are trashing you.

Evernham: I know, Marty. But all you can do is all you can do. People are going to have their opinion in life. But as I've said, I never have let my personal life get involved with my professional life.

I've been through some tragedies. I've been through years of battling leukemia with my son. I've been through an awful lot, and I never let any of that affect [my professional life].

Right now we're going through some hard times personally, but I don't let it affect me. I work. Talk to other people in the sport. My personal life stays separate. I keep it that way.

So it hasn't been a distraction at all?

Evernham: My personal life -- I will guarantee you it's been anything but that. I have a tendency to work harder so that it doesn't become a distraction. And I have separated all of the things, completely, so there is no way that it can be a distraction to anything Evernham Motorsports has going on.

I manage the company the same way I always have managed, and keep anything that I could affect personally out of my control.

Can you see how someone could infer that, though, when you're at an ARCA race or a Truck race? Is it unfair to infer that it's a distraction?

Evernham: I think it's unfair, because, again, if my company is strong and I have good people in place and I don't take days off -- I don't understand the difference in taking a day off to go to the beach or taking a day off and going to the ARCA race.

When you have an ARCA or Truck sponsor that you're committed to for 40 appearances and you have to make sure the performance of that is right, too, that's all part of Evernham Motorsports.

Again, it's not like it's a day off when I'm going to a Truck race or an ARCA race. I've missed some Busch races, I've missed some Truck races, I've missed some ARCA races and I've missed some Cup races. I haven't made it to all of anybody's races.

What about the company as a whole? Has this situation been a distraction to the company? Some people point to that, given Kasey Kahne's recent struggles, despite the fact that he wrecked out of two of the last three races on the last lap.


Evernham: A lot of things have happened to the 9 team that have no effect on [my personal life]. If you look at what's hurt the 9 team it's engine failures and some crashes. Other than that it's been a top-10 car everywhere they've gone.

The 10 car [Scott Riggs] is right on the schedule we put it on. Look back over the notes, try and find me a first-year team that's done as well as they're doing.

The 19 car has struggled, and we've worked hard on that, my team and my staff. I sat everybody down months ago and said, "Hey, let's talk this out. What do we need to do?"

My people are behind me 100 percent, and the people that are close to me know that I'm busting my a** every day to do the right things.

Dodge said last week it was behind you 100 percent, no matter what. Has there been any sponsor?

Evernham: There hasn't been any backlash from any sponsor -- not one. The enemy of any lie is time. And everybody knows we're just going to keep quiet and work and see. I've said this before -- it's not about what you say you're going to do, it's about what you do.

Everybody knows I do work hard, the partners and sponsors that see what's going on here know how much potential this company has and knows we're working on the right things.

Do you have a relationship with Erin Crocker?


Evernham: Again, Marty, I'm not going to talk about my personal life.

Do you have plans to add a fourth team?

Evernham: Yeah, we're trying to do that. We can't do it next year. We're not going to make next year, but we've got some things that I'm in the middle of putting together right now.

The plan really was to go to four teams and we just couldn't get everything together fast enough. But we see the value in adding the 10 car. It really helped our company.

It helped information, our strength there, and we are going to try to get to four teams as quickly as we can.

How's your relationship with Jeremy Mayfield?

Evernham: Honestly...

Does it matter?

Evernham: I don't know. I don't know how to comment on that. I think, in the end, all you have to do is read the court documents and you can figure that out.

Were you shocked?

Evernham: Like I said, I want to talk about going forward. I said everything I had to say in the court documents.

Being a workaholic myself, I know how pissed I get when anyone questions my work ethic, for any reason. I know how he feels.

Interesting article.

Umm, no comment.

I can understand why Ray sounded so defensive. If I were in the same situation I would be the same way. Let's put all this in the past and move forward, looking back into the past isn't going to help the situation out any.

I'd be defensive, too. You know, I have my thoughts on this, but ultimately I'm not involved with his team nor do I know him personally and anything I say is just going to be speculation. He and few others are the only people that will ever truly know what happened and I'm ready to move on. It is what it is and there's nothing anyone can do to change what happened between him and Jeremy.

Onward to the chase! I really enjoyed that interview though, so thanks for posting it. :good

~ Mary

wow, now thats an article.

I'm guessing the fact that the New York Times (The New York Times!!!) had an article about Ray and Erin yesterday morning was probably the breaking point for Ray and the cause of the renewed defense (in the above article and on TV yesterday) of his work ethic. I was really surprised to see it yesterday and I'm sure his PR people keep track of all that (the Times probably asked Ray to comment for the story, so he would have known it was coming out).

Not saying that Ray isn't telling the truth about the sponsors supporting him, but IMO a company like General Mills has more to lose in this kind of thing than a company like Dodge. Erin has mentioned more than once in her column that she likes the "wholesome" image of General Mills, so.... :unsure:

You might have to register to read the Times (I'm registered, so I'm not sure), but if you click the above article link, there's an interesting picture of Ray, Erin, and Elliott Sadler right before last week's race. I'm honestly starting to feel a tiny bit sorry for Erin, for whatever reason. She hasn't been looking happy this week :(
___________________________________________________________________
August 26, 2006
Team’s Split Yields Charge Of Romance in the Garage
By VIV BERNSTEIN
BRISTOL, Tenn., Aug. 25 — Erin Crocker has been viewed as one of the prized diversity prospects in Nascar, a rookie in the third-tier Craftsman Truck Series who has been both praised and burdened with the expectation that she will someday become the first woman to seriously challenge for victories.

But she is suddenly keeping a low profile in a sport where publicity is a billboard-wearing, product-touting driver’s lifeblood. While others in the truck series remain accessible, Crocker is being shielded.

The wall around Crocker is the result of an allegation by the Nextel Cup driver Jeremy Mayfield in a lawsuit he filed Aug. 11 against Ray Evernham, the car owner who fired him earlier this month.

Mayfield, who was 36th in the Nextel Cup standings before his dismissal, suggested that the poor performance of his race team this year was caused in part by Evernham’s relationship with Crocker.

“At some point in time, Ray Evernham had entered into a close personal relationship with a female driver he engages to drive on Nascar’s ARCA, Truck and Busch Series,” Mayfield said in the lawsuit. “That relationship became a subject of considerable discussion and distraction in the Nextel Cup garage area during the 2006 season.”

Although not named, Crocker is the only female driver racing for Evernham, who has acknowledged that he is seeking a divorce from his wife.

Mayfield’s suit was settled after Mayfield received compensation from Evernham Motorsports to cover the termination of his contract.

Crocker and Evernham have not publicly commented about the situation. Crocker has struggled on the track this season, and she finished 35th out of 36 drivers at Bristol on Wednesday to drop to 23rd in the Craftsman Truck Series standings.

Crocker is not involved in Nascar’s diversity program, but she has received more attention than perhaps any other woman or minority driver, partly because of her affiliation with Evernham’s high-profile team.

“They’re fair game,” the driver Sarah Fisher, who was involved in Nascar’s diversity effort before returning to the I.R.L. this season, said in a telephone interview Thursday. “You put yourself out there. If you put yourself in that situation, people will talk about it, and you have to handle that.”

Fisher said she treated the racing garage as a professional office, preferring to keep her private life separate. But it doesn’t always work that way for others. Office romances are hardly unusual, and the Nascar garage can be as much a soap opera as any corporate environment.

According to the veteran Craftsman Truck driver Todd Bodine, the relationship between Crocker, 25, and Evernham, who turns 49 on Saturday, was common knowledge.

“They’re both good people and they fell in love,” Bodine said Wednesday.

After a news conference at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday to announce that Mayfield would join Bill Davis Racing and return to Nextel Cup competition in 2007, Mayfield denied that he had broken an unwritten rule by referring to the relationship in the lawsuit.

“I didn’t cross the line until I was forced into the position I had to cross the line,” he said. “I just had to do what I had to do.

“I wasn’t the one that made it public. It wasn’t no secret. That’s his personal life, his personal problems, not mine.”

Jeff Gordon, a four-time Nextel Cup champion whose bitter divorce thrust him into the spotlight a few years ago, said a driver’s personal life should not become public fodder.

“I think there are certain areas that are off limits,” he said after practice for Saturday’s Sharpie 500.

“The best thing you can do is try not to take it too serious.”

wooooooow. im just thinking the last thing kasey needs is trouble at Evernham. i dont think he's going to let this affect him at all though. that's just veeeery interesting.

:unsure: Well that was an even more interesting article than the first. You know what? I'll admit to wondering at first if this "relationship" was harming Ray's cup teams but his cup teams have been doing well recently. If he can handle a "relationship" and keep his cup teams competitive, which I really believe that he can, then I'd hope that the media would leave he and Erin alone and let them have a personal life. It's not something you have to agree with professionally but frankly it's not my place to judge.

I will say that I don't know if it was wise of Todd to confirm their relationship unless they knew he was going to. Oopsy, Todd. :idea

~ Mary

Yes, hopefully Kasey can stay focused on the "task at hand", and dismiss all that other stuff...

I really envy you guys, your lifes are so perfect, so smooth with absolutely no problems that you have all this amzing time to worry about who Ray Evernham is sleeping with. Oh I wish my life was that simple and wonderful.

You act like this is a big deal, it isn't. I have a good friend who met her husband at work. He was the senior vice president when the met and she was an in-house accountant for the company. It was never an issue for them, they both retired from the company. They are the most wonderful couple I have ever met. I would give just about anything to get the chance to experience the love they have.

I have another friend who has been with a man 30 yrs older than her for 12 years, they have 2 kids. The age difference is not an issue. If I met a wonderful guy that I had things in common with and we were in love I would not care if he was 20-30 years older than me.

Why can't you just respect Ray's wishes and leave his personal life the hell alone.

The thing is, NASCAR and some of the teams want people to follow their driver's/owner's personal lives - unless something in that personal life could be seen as unsavory. Think of how prominent wives like Shana Mayfield, DeLana Harvick, and Buffy Waltrip are. Think about the focus on wives/girlfriends in Victory Lane, in charity events, and in interviews on NASCAR RaceDay. Think about the popularity of NASCAR 360. It's good publicity for a "family sport" and helps some fans relate to a driver/owner when they know more about their lives.

Is it anyone's business that Ray's son had leukemia? Not really, but Ray just brought it up again in that nascar.com interview. Do we really need to know about Erin's (harmless) obsession with Starbucks coffee, shoe shopping, and handbags? :) Nope, but she discusses those things and all the things she does during the week in her column to help her grow a fanbase that she can display to sponsors. Kurt Busch's PR people put out a huge news release detailing he and his wife's first date, the proposal, and the wedding plans. So I don't know if it's fair for them to say "as long as you only say good things about me or things that present me in a sympathetic light, we can talk about my personal life". Sarah Fisher said it best: Fair game.

If Ray was getting divorced and dating a 25 year old who worked for Robert Yates racing, no one would care. However, Ray and Erin had been - literally - marketing themselves as a platonic duo all last year. Posing for the Cheerios ads and appearing on many TV/radio shows and in articles together, where she jokingly called him her uncle or adopted dad or he was joking that she was the daughter he never had.

If people can't understand why a CEO dating his *direct* subordinate could be seen as a business issue in the eyes of some fans, well, we'll have to agree to disagree on that. :) (Especially when the CEO has other companies paying millions of dollars in support of his direct subordinate, her equipment, and her image.)

Right now I stay out of Kasey's personal life (whatever that consists of, I truly have no idea). However, if I read about Kasey dating someone famous like Lindsey Lohan or Nicole Richie, you can bet I would be reading all about it and me and my friends would be talking about it- unapologetically. And trying to contact Kasey so we could slap some sense into him. :lmbo

(BTW, in reading various (non-news) Ray /Erin commentary this week, it's interesting to see how many people had assumed that Kasey and Erin were the pair who were dating since she was always on his pit box. And they didn't care at all - because Kasey is not Erin's supervisor).