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VENTURINI: ‘Real Deal’ with Ray Evernham at Las Vegas
SPEED’s Wendy Venturini with Ray Evernham on this week’s edition of “Real Deal” from Las Vegas Motor Speedway...
Wendy Venturini  |  Posted March 02, 2009   Charlotte, NC
SPEED's Wendy Venturini. (Image: SPEED)

SPEED’s Wendy Venturini with Ray Evernham on this week’s edition of “Real Deal” from Las Vegas Speedway.

Wendy Venturini: "In this week's "Real Deal", we caught up with one of the most innovative men in NASCAR... voted the greatest crew chief of all time in 2006, by the motorsports media, Ray Evernham has left his mark in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. In 1993, Evernham would team up with then racing phenom Jeff Gordon under Hendrick Motorsports. The rainbow warriors would go on to win 47 races and three Sprint Cup titles over the next six years. In 2000, Evernham was presented with an opportunity to start his own team and bring Dodge back into the series after 15 years of absence. His Cup teams won 13 races but after more than 15 years in the sport, Ray has decided to step away and do some different things."

Wendy Venturini: "First off, we are here in Stanley, North Carolina... East Lincoln Speedway; a track you recently bought into. This seems to be the way the way business ventures are going these days, isn't it?"

Ray Evernham: "I don't know if it's a good business venture. Most short track owners would tell you that, but this is kind of a labor of love. If you look at what Tony and Dave Blaney and what some of the guys are doing, we want to save the short tracks across America and I have always had a love for dirt racing and this was right here and I thought in my retirement what a great thing to do."

Wendy Venturini: "Why has this project become your new passion? It is not really a new passion but it is just a new opportunity?"

Ray Evernham: "Something told me if you really want to put your money where your mouth his, if you really want to do something to help the community and to help short-track racing, and have a good time, this was the place to do it. I knew the place was coming up for sale and I thought, man I need to get involved so this doesn't turn into another strip mall or housing development."

Wendy Venturini: "Was there ever an exact moment when you put your finger on it, where this is where you wanted to turn towards?"

Ray Evernham: "I think as you grow in years and you have accomplishments, life starts to change. I didn't even realize it until somebody asked me three or four months ago, what was the turning point. Truthfully the day we lost all the people in the Hendrick plane, really started me thinking about, what do I really want to do with my life, is it about collecting trophies, is it about doing things like that or maybe I can use that to do something good. Now I’m doing a little bit for me, and if I want to come here Saturday night, instead of going to the cup races, I think I can have just as much fun and who knows we might see the next Tony Stewart or Jeff Gordon here."

Jimmy Spencer: "When Ray started to go here, here or there, teams started to fall apart. Richard Petty is not going to allow that to happen."


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