SCR: Do you ever wonder about what kind of success you would be talking about today if you never left that team? Do you miss those days?
EVERNHAM: Sure I miss them. But you've got to be careful and not get caught up in the good old days. Every great team has a run and a cycle of four or five years. If I was still there we might not have been as good as we were when I left. I can look back and know that when Jeff and I were together, we were the best. It's like that old Bob Seger song where he says the trick is not to play the game too long.
SCR: If you had to pinpoint one reason you left Hendrick Motorsports, what would it be?
EVERNHAM: It was purely the challenge of starting my own team. There is no other reason. If the opportunity with Dodge never came up, I'd still be with Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick today. If I were ever going to work for somebody else in the future, I would want to work for Rick Hendrick.
SCR: In looking back on it all, what was harder--plotting pit strategy every week or starting a brand new race team from scratch?
EVERNHAM: Starting Evernham Motorsports has been the biggest challenge of my life, no question about it.
In just his second Cup race,...
In just his second Cup race, Kahne (above) finished a close second to MattKenseth at Rockingham (right).
SCR: You started out as a driver yourself. What kind of racing did you do and why did you decide to call it quits?
EVERNHAM: I used to race Modifieds. I got a head injury in a wreck at Flemington Speedway in a Modified race in 1991 and had to take almost three months off, but I wanted to quit on my own terms. The very first race after my comeback, I won and ended up retiring at the end of that year because I knew I wasn't the same. I didn't want to quit as a loser, but after I won that race I knew I was going to call it quits.
SCR: If there were one thing that you could go back and change as far as your career in racing, what would you change?
EVERNHAM: Oh man, that's a tough one there. I guess I'd change my talent for Jeff Gordon's talent as a driver. I always joke with people that if I had his talent I'd be sitting right where Jeff is now. Seriously though, I've had a great career with everything I've ever done. I've really, really been blessed. As a driver, I didn't win a lot but I did win some and picked up a track championship. Then in the Busch Series I got to win races as an owner and a crew chief. I won races and championships with Jeff Gordon. Now I am lucky enough to be able to run my own race team. I've been lucky enough to do a lot of things that other people could only dream about. I always tell people that if I were to get hit by a bus tomorrow, don't cry for me. Throw a damn party because I've lived my life the way I wanted to.
SCR: What's the biggest moment of your racing career as a crew chief and team owner?
EVERNHAM: That's really a question that's too hard to answer because people ask me that all the time. All I can say is that I'm just so fortunate to be a part of this, I feel like I've been blessed. When you have wins in races like the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 as well as championships, I honestly can't pick just one thing out. It's really hard, but I guess that's a good problem to have.