Evernham trying to find his new role with race team

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- If you see Ray Evernham around a NASCAR racetrack this season, you better cherish the moment.

Unlike in years past, when Evernham was winning races and championships at Hendrick Motorsports and forging a legacy as one of the sport's best crew chiefs of all time, while working with Jeff Gordon; and later when he left that role to build his own race team as Dodge's flagship team in its re-entry to Cup racing in 2001 -- in 2008 Evernham has no clearly defined role in NASCAR.

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And while Evernham says he has no intention of leaving the sport entirely, his involvement will be the least it's been in decades. There's no telling where he'll show up next.

His absence was certainly felt last week when Elliott Sadler's No. 19 Gillett Evernham Dodge team participated in the first Sprint Cup test of Preseason Thunder at Daytona International Speedway -- and Evernham wasn't there.

So it was a pleasant surprise last weekend at Daytona, while Craftsman Truck Series teams participated in their Preseason Thunder test session; that Evernham dropped in to check on the progress of his friend, Erin Crocker, who was testing a Morgan Dollar Motorsports Chevrolet.

And he made no bones about where he stands, even though it seemed painful for him to be having the conversation -- as much as it seemed that way last fall when he discussed changes that were being made to the team in the wake of its majority sale to businessman George Gillett Jr. and his family.

"It's odd and it's going to be odd," Evernham said. "But I'm a percentage owner now. I don't have a job at the shop -- I don't really have a job. I can come and go as I please.

"It's just entering a little bit different part of my life. I've been on the road for 15 years, and a lot of things have passed me in that time. I've got a 16-year-old son [Ray Jr.] that has some challenges in his life that I'm trying to help him with.

"I've got a lot of things to do, so I can try to stand back and help without having the 360 people [GEM employees] counting on me to do a job every day. I've handed off all of my competition responsibilities to Mark McArdle and I'm in the process of handing off a lot of the business stuff.

"It's the first time in probably the last 35 years that I don't have a set job."

It's incomprehensibly hard for someone not on the inside and not inside Evernham's head to know exactly what's there.

Evernham said time would tell if his new role, while presenting its own set of challenges, was a comfort -- or more of a frustration. (Continued)