CONCORD, N.C. -- It's almost as if Ray Evernham is an older version of Marty McFly and George Gillett is his potential Dr. Emmett Brown, to borrow a couple of characters from the old Back to the Future movie.

In other words, to get to a more profitable and productive future, Evernham, owner of Evernham Motorsports, believes that he has to make a return to his past. And he's hoping potential business partner Gillett can provide him with the resources to get there.

"What I really want is a business partner who can make some of those business-to-business connections, take some of business responsibility off of me, and let me worry about things like seven-post [shakers] and working on the cars. That's what I'm good at -- and for the past two or three years, I have been pulled far off of the car stuff to do business stuff," Evernham said.

For the record, the seven-post shaker is the latest hot technological toy that the top NASCAR teams utilize to analyze mountains of simulation data. They cost between $1.5 million and $2 million, and then it takes a year or more before teams get them up and running to where they can actually apply what they learn and translate it into better results at racetracks.

Hendrick Motorsports has one. So does Richard Childress Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and even upstart but apparently deep-pocketed Ginn Racing.

Evernham Motorsports does not. Like most of the teams struggling to keep up with the aforementioned NASCAR powerhouses, Evernham has to fork out around $15,000 per day every time he wants to rent one -- and it's not the same has having one right at his own shop.

But Evernham's courtship of Gillett, owner of the Montreal Canadiens in the National Hockey League and a former minority owner of the National Football League's Miami Dolphins, is about more than seven-post shakers. It's really about Evernham attempting to apply his best talents to where they are needed most within his organization.

He said that he has gotten away from that recently, and admitted that he believes it has much to do with the struggles his three Dodge race teams have endured this Nextel Cup season. Heading into the season's 12th race, the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway this Sunday, Evernham's three race teams have yet to win a race this season and none would make the Chase if it were to begin today.

Elliott Sadler, driver of the No. 19 Dodge owned by Evernham, is 17th in the driver point standings but has been losing ground of late. Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 9 car that won a series-high six races just last season, is 30th and hasn't finished in the top 10 since placing seventh in the season-opening Daytona 500. And Scott Riggs, driver of the No. 10 car, is 37th in points.

Kahne won both races at Lowe's Motor Speedway last season -- the Coca-Cola 600 last May and the Bank of America 500 this past fall. But the Bank of America 500 effort in October was the last time an Evernham-owned car reached Victory Lane.

Evernham blames mostly himself.

"I think the past year has been very, very busy for me both professionally and personally, and I got probably a little bit too far away from my cars -- and that's what I enjoy. I enjoy the cars and I enjoy the guys and that's where I need to be," he said.

He strongly believes that Gillett, 68, is the man to help him get there. Evernham insisted that the recent announcement that parent company DaimlerChrysler will sell Chrysler Group, which oversees the Dodge manufacturer's racing program, to private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management for $7.4 billion, has not muddied the negotiation waters with Gillett.

"I was with corporate two days before the deal was announced and actually, I had one of the best meetings I've ever had up there at corporate, or let's say the best in a long time. I think this is going to be good. I think [Chrysler CEO] Tom LaSorda has got a handle on what NASCAR needs. I think they're going to reallocate some funds and put 'em in the right place," Evernham said.

"I believe these people that are buying this understand the importance of NASCAR. Certainly if they don't, they'll get educated on it. We'll have to wait and see if all that stuff happens, but the bottom line is I think they know what they need to do and I think they're doing it. And this company coming in may allow them to have a little bit more freedom than what they've had. As far as everything that I've been told, NASCAR is very important to Dodge."

Perhaps more importantly, Evernham said he believes that Gillett's decision to partner up with him is not necessarily that dependent on what Dodge is going to do with its racing program.

"He's aware of what's going on. Eventually a NASCAR team is going to grow to not be dependent on the manufacturer," Evernham said. "The teams are getting bigger and bigger with technology. We need manufacturers, certainly, in the sport -- but I think everybody has to know that Detroit, right now, has got to worry about rebuilding everything. So to be able to count on manufacturers spending tons and tons of money [in racing] is going to be tough.

"I know George already is a Dodge dealer and has a great relationship with them. But I don't think Dodge being sold has really any input on what George is doing."

Evernham said that he wants the freedom to get back closer to where he was in the days when he was a crew chief for Jeff Gordon, and during the early days at Evernham Motorsports, when his main focus was getting his cars to run faster.

"I loved it. To be able to come up with something new that nobody else had, God, yeah, I loved it. It was certainly a challenge and inspiring," said Evernham, who left Gordon's highly successful team at Hendrick to form his own company under Dodge's umbrella in 1999.

"Now people have to be inspiring in a different way. The guys of 10 years ago aren't the guys of today."

And, of course, the Car of Ten Years Ago is not the Car of Today and certainly is not the Car of Tomorrow. Evernham, an early opponent of NASCAR's new Car of Tomorrow, now supports the idea and said that he understands the need for it.

"There are still a lot of inspiring things you can do -- developing simulation, developing ways to make the cars better. I think that's where the fun is now: taking the car and saying I'm going to develop a new way to make it better or make it work -- rather than the old way of trying to circumvent the NASCAR rules," Evernham said.

"In the end, NASCAR had to change. And this Car of Tomorrow is one of the first things that's going to change it, if we're going to keep growing and keep expanding the fan base and keep attracting [investors in race teams like] the John Henrys [whose Fenway Sports Group joined forces with Roush Racing] and the George Gilletts and the people that are involved in other professional sports. If we're going to bring those types of people and those fans, we've got to have a lot more black-and-white [rules], and the Car of Tomorrow is the start of that.

"I know that the drivers have complained about it and the people have complained about it. We just have to figure out how to make it work and keep making it better, because it could well be the thing that does it for us. It's the future, and we've got to deal with it."

Evernham said that he simply hopes Gillett -- and the infusion of cash Gillett would bring -- are a part of the future at Evernham Motorsports. But he stressed that it is not yet a done deal.

"Right now it looks pretty good," he said. "But I've been through so many deals that just don't work, as bad as you want them to. I'm hoping this one works."