Evernham, Smith partnership to combine resources
By Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive
November 16, 2001
1:34 PM EST (1834 GMT)
HAMPTON, Ga. -- An intriguing collaboration between team owners Ray Evernham and Jim Smith has created a yet-to-be-named three-car operation, the team announced Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
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Ray Evernham
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Under this newly formed union, Jeremy Mayfield will take over Evernham's No. 19 Dodge, thereby moving Casey Atwood to Smith’s No. 7 machine. Mayfield's deal with Evernham is for two years. Bill Elliott, meanwhile, will remain in the No. 9 Dodge.
Evernham will handle all competition and technical aspects of the No. 7 Dodge, which will continue to be housed in Smith’s Ultra Motorsports shop. Smith, meanwhile, will continue to oversee the business side of the team -- a daunting task, to say the least.
At present, the No. 7 car is unsponsored; but Atwood said that Evernham has assured him they’ll run the entire 36-race slate out-of-pocket if necessary.
Evernham claims the reasoning behind the move is so Atwood can get seat time while bolstering the overall resource pool for the team.
“We’ve agreed that we’ll stick together and give Casey seat time, and I believe that that young man is a future Winston Cup champion,” Evernham said. “I’m very proud of him as a young man, team player and I know … he is close to victory.”
He nearly won last week, and has been running much better of late. At present, Atwood is content with Evernham’s decision to remove him from the 19 car, but at first he wasn’t so accepting.
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Casey Atwood and Bill Elliott
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“Your initial reaction is usually not the best one,” Atwood said. “I wasn’t very happy at first, but if you step back and look at everything from a different perspective this will be better for everybody. It’ll be better for Ray and better me in the long run. I’m only 21 years old.”
In Mayfield, Evernham adds a seasoned pilot who, prior to this season, was among the Winston Cup elite. Mayfield’s tenure in Roger Penske’s No. 12 Ford produced three victories, a slew of poles and more laps-lead that you can count, but ended abruptly earlier this season. After a disagreement between driver and team, Mayfield was released.
Now, he’s back and says he’s content for the first time in a long time.
“It’s been something coming for awhile,” said Mayfield of the break-up with Penske. “I look back and think it started out weird because me and Rusty were in different shops, different teams, different everything, you know. We started out as two different entities. All the sudden you try to put it all together and it doesn’t work.”
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Jeremy Mayfield
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It certainly didn’t work this year. Despite posting five top-five finishes, Mayfield struggled to regain the consistency of years past. It was time for a change, so he parted ways with Penske following a 36th-place effort at Kansas City. He’s been away from the garage since.
“I feel like I’ve been gone forever man,” Mayfield said. “I’ve been chomping at the bit to get back here. I’d just turn on the start of the race, then go out and work on my farm. I couldn’t take it. It’s something I don’t wish upon any driver.”
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