Ray Evernham Interview: What You Didn't Read in the Magazine!

SCR: This year you've taken on another young driver with Kasey Kahne. What did you see in him that made you want to hire him to fill the shoes of a legend like Bill Elliott? He obviously made you look pretty smart when he finished second at Rockingham to defending series champion Matt Kenseth by a matter of inches in only his second Nextel Cup start.

EVERNHAM: Kasey is a pretty amazing kid. He is extremely talented. I followed Kasey's Sprint and Midget career and he won a lot of races. His USAC career parallels that of Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman. Kasey's commitment and demeanor probably had more to do with me hiring him than anything. This is a kid who has the talent and he is working very hard to make a future for himself. He's a racer. He studies tapes and listens to what Bill Elliott has to say. Kasey has a tremendous amount of desire and commitment, and when you couple those two things with talent, that equals a great driver.

SCR: What's the best thing NASCAR has going in its favor as we speak?

EVERNHAM: The fans. Period. Without the fans we've got nothing. If the fans didn't watch on television and come to the races, NASCAR would still be fifth on the most-watched sports list instead of second. The fans are the biggest thing NASCAR has going in its favor.

SCR: On the other side of that equation, what is one area NASCAR needs to improve upon?

EVERNHAM: I'd say definitely the costs so we can continue to have full fields. I don't think having the so-called field fillers are good for the sport. It just shows the economics aren't the best right now. There are always going to be guys at the top, in the middle and at the bottom. We just need to make sure those guys at the bottom don't have to close their doors.

SCR: Would you encourage your son to become involved in the sport?

EVERNHAM: Ray J. is now 12 years old. I've bought him a little dune buggy that he drives the wheels off of. If he wants to race, I'll leave that up to him. If he wants to race, I'll encourage him and help him in any way I can. It's going to be totally up to him. Whatever he chooses to do, I just want him to be passionate about it.

SCR: Where would you like to see Evernham Motorsports in five years?

EVERNHAM: I'd certainly like to see a Nextel Cup championship in our showcase. I want us to have a good healthy organization with some longtime sponsors. I want my team to be one of the leaders in American motorsports, both on and off the track. When you walk though the doors of Evernham Motorsports, I have an empty trophy case for where I'm going to put our first Nextel Cup championship trophy. I've never in my life done anything in motorsports for the money. I've done it to win and the other things fall into place. That's just like that empty trophy case. The vision that I have is for it to be filled one day.

SCR: What's your opinion of the new 26/10 playoff point system NASCAR has implemented for the 2004 season? If you had a driver that was, say, 600 points ahead at that cut-off mark, then had that advantage taken away, how unfair would that be if that driver ended up fifth or sixth in the final standings?

EVERNHAM: I don't feel like we're going to be crowning a season long champion anymore and that's OK because we knew that going in. I feel like we're now going to be crowing a 10-week champion instead of a season long champion like we have in the past. Now we're not judging our champion on his season long performance anymore. I'm trying to keep an open mind about this because a lot of times people are resistant to change. I've got to be supportive of Brian France and NASCAR going forward because I know they have led this sport in a lot of good directions in the past. I feel like if they figure out this new system isn't good, they will make a change. Like I said, I'm going to be open-minded about it and not that old guy who resists change. This new system can be good for the sport but for me now the word champion will mean something different.