Championship-winning crew chief Ray Evernham hosted a “fireside chat” on Wednesday that addressed a myriad of on- and off-track subjects. He’s a minority owner at Richard Petty Motorsports, the company created when Petty Enterprises and Gillett Evernham Motorsports merged last month. In reality, he doesn’t have a definitive role or any hands-on contact with the company that fields Dodges for Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler, A. J. Allmendinger and Reed Sorenson.
“They’re good people and I wish them well,” he said, “but there are some other things I want to do. And after the sale [of Evernham Motorsports to George Gillett], we weren’t always on the same page. We weren’t in agreement on how things should be done. After a while, the job [of team owner] became a grind. It was seven days a week with 12- to 16-hour days. I didn’t have anything left when I walked away [last June]. I didn’t have that killer instinct, so it was time to get out.”…Â More info