Evernham needs a break, but NASCAR needs him

He used to arrive at the race shop before 7 each morning, and remain well past 7 each night. As the team owner, he felt he had to set an example by being the first one there and the last to leave. He could count on a single finger the number of times he had taken more than four consecutive days off in the past 14 years. If he wasn't overseeing every aspect of his organization and wearing more hats than a race winner in Victory Lane, then Ray Evernham didn't feel like he was doing his job.

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It was a crushing level of commitment, one that helped him shepherd a new manufacturer into NASCAR's highest level and win 13 races with the team that bore his name. But over time, it wore him down. The fun drained away. The politics ate at him. The on-track struggles piled up. And so Evernham, who won three Cup championships as Jeff Gordon's crew chief and easily ranks among the smartest men in NASCAR, turned the organization he founded over to other people and stepped away.

While the Sprint Cup tour tested at Daytona International Speedway, Evernham was at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., buying a red and white 1955 Chevrolet he had long sought after. When it's delivered, the first thing he's going to do is give his mom and dad a ride. He's going to pursue some ideas in the automotive aftermarket industry, maybe do a little more boxing, and try to rekindle the fire that drove him for so many years,

"I wasn't having fun. I didn't have fun, and it just wasn't because of the performance," Evernham said. "The performance you can get back. There was a lot that went on the last couple of years that kind of took the fun out of it for me, and hopefully I can get that back. I love racing, I've loved racing my whole life. It's been the only thing I've ever been excited about. So some of the fun had gone away, but there are a lot of great people in this sport, and I want to spend time with the great people. Maybe being away from the negative people will help me a little bit."

It's a radical departure for a man whose work ethic was legendary, who for years assumed the roles of car owner, chief executive officer and director of competition at Evernham Motorsports. Last year he sold majority ownership in his organization to George Gillett, the Colorado businessman who also owns the Montreal Canadiens of the NHL. More recently, he hired Tom Reddin of LendingTree as CEO, and promoted vice president Mark McArdle to managing director of competition. Each of those men brought some staff with them. McArdle estimated that it's taking six to eight people to do the jobs Evernham once did all on his own.

"He recognized that he needed to take that step back in order to know how to go forward," McArdle said. "What's the quote, the more you see of the curvature of the earth the higher you fly? So it was a bit more difficult for him to see that earth curvature the way we had him mired in day-to-day operational issues. Really no one appreciates the fact that he was doing the job of owner as well as director of competition. That's an insane work load, even for Ray Evernham. There comes a point in time where that gets to be too much."

He's hoping for a fresher perspective, a recharging of the batteries, the freedom to help with the technical aspect of a race team -- still his first love -- without getting bogged down by operational issues. He's not going to be in there every day, up to his elbows in sponsor contracts and personnel concerns. But he's not going away, either. He's still a co-owner of Gillett Evernham Motorsports, albeit a minority one. He's just throttling back a little, which isn't a bad thing. Because NASCAR can't afford to have smart, imaginative, savvy, enterprising people like Ray Evernham get completely burned out and walk away for good. (Continued)