MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Lined along one wall sit three classic, old-school, Indy-style open-wheel race cars from the 1940s and '50s. They are very cool to look at and more expensive to own and maintain.

Lined along another sit some precious "gifts" from a previous employer, each a story unto itself. Still another wall is filled with a trophy case of sorts that seems to stretch on forever -- both in real space and in terms of the pieces of rare racing memorabilia brought to life chronologically in the mind.

Willing to help

Ray Evernham hasn't totally ruled out a return to the Cup Series, especially if an old friend or two were to call.

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Sitting calmly in the middle of it all is the proud owner of the place, former NASCAR crew chief and current minority team owner Ray Evernham. This is Ray Evernham Enterprises, and if you own a Sprint Cup Series car and want him to look at it and tell you how to make it go faster, get out and go somewhere else.

Asked if anyone has approached him with that request lately, Evernham grimaces as if in pain before a grin breaks out across his face.

"You mean Cup cars to work on? I would run 'em out the door," says Evernham, who is looking to sell the minority interest he owns in Richard Petty Motorsports (formerly Gillett Evernham Motorsports) and make a clean break from the competitive side of racing for at least a little while. "I think everybody who would ask me that question knows that they would get chased out. If my friends have a car they need to be stored that is something they're going to restore or an antique or a classic car, we'd gladly store it for 'em. Other than that, if it's not a speedster and you're racing it, don't bring it here."

Evernham has spent the past 30 years running at full speed, or at least trying to figure out how to; now he wants to relax and slow down a little, take stock of the many artifacts he has collected while being an integral part of the sport he obviously cherishes.

"This is a place that we want to do for fun, to have no stress. It's not about business; it's about sharing a time. I've really enjoyed that '50s Hot Rod era, so when I'm in here I feel inspired. I listen to a little music, bring friends through," Evernham says of his new place, which is about 80 percent museum/entertainment and 20 percent race shop -- and might lean more like 90-10 that way by the time he's finished sprucing it up.

"You spend an hour in here, you are so relaxed. These are things that I'm proud of, and it's a place that I want to enjoy. As soon as you make it competition again, that relaxation goes right out of it. So this place will never be about competition."

The museum showcases an array of race cars of various vintage and style.

Taking stock

Evernham is the first to admit that he is a genuine pack rat. He throws away nothing.

You don't believe it?

In one room off to the side, amid stacks and stacks of all kinds of race memorabilia that still must be sorted through, an assistant he has hired to help him go through all his "stuff" pulls out a yellow sheet of notebook paper. On it is a drawing for a "Super Modern" race car, along with detailed notes accompanying it.

Evernham drew it while he was still in high school. That was more than 30 years ago.

"At that time, the only class I could afford to race was what they called modern stocks at Wall Stadium [in New Jersey]," Evernham says. "We drew this car up, and I had this idea of what they called my 'Super Modern.' I was in high school, supposed to be paying attention in class -- probably one of the classes I didn't do so well in. But I drew it out on a yellow piece of paper -- the plans for that Super Modern. We actually built that car and I won 10 races with it."

How in the heck did the yellow piece of paper survive all these years?

"I have no idea. Stuff like that gets folded up and put in scrapbooks. And I had a ton of scrapbooks. Between my mom and my ex-wife, Mary, and family, friends, my brother, they just saved a lot of stuff," Evernham said.

"It's really hard for me to throw things away, so I find a place to put it. And I end up having to have a 42,000-square foot building to put all the stuff in."

He bought the building that houses Ray Evernham Enterprises last March. It previously had served as home for a plumbing supply company "with shelves all over the place." Evernham said he envisioned creating a home for all the junk he has accumulated throughout the years -- but now he's wondering if he might not eventually need a bigger building.

"I'm starting to worry. It's filling up fast," he says.

He has on display three cars and two motorcycles that were given to him by team owner Rick Hendrick for winning various races and championships -- including a 1996 Viper GTS that he calls his "rolling trophy" for helping driver Jeff Gordon win his first Cup championship in 1995. The license plate reads "1 CUP 95."

Another of the cars given to him by Hendrick is a red-and-black 1991 Acura NSX that the owner gave to him in 1994 after Evernham served as Gordon's crew chief in the inaugural Brickyard that Gordon won. The car once was Hendrick's own personal vehicle, giving it more meaning to Evernham.

There are modifieds that Evernham and others drove, and the Cup car that was driven by Bill Elliott when he captured the pole at Daytona in one of Evernham's cars after Evernham helped lead Dodge's return to the sport as a manufacturer. He even has tires from some of the race cars he helped lead to victories, if not the cars themselves.

The museum not only is a feast for the eyes; a diner setup provides a feast for the palate.

The other rooms

But that's not all. Evernham remains in the process of sorting through and arranging all that he has. In the middle of the heart of his new place, the cars that are the centerpiece of his collection line the walls, a small but honest-to-goodness '50s-style walk-in diner sits next to a small karaoke stage, and various other memorabilia is beginning to fill every available space.

Asked if he can sing karaoke, Evernham grins again and demands clarification.

"Are you asking if I can or if I will? The answer is that I can't but I will," he said.

Witnesses confirm he is a regular on the stage at private functions, "but usually only after a glass of wine or two."

Off to the rear of the main staging area is a working shop area where Evernham has other cars displayed and a few dirt late models he tinkers with occasionally. Another room behind that is used for storage and also houses a full-scale boxing ring, although Evernham, a boxing enthusiast, admits he hasn't climbed through the ropes much lately.

He has been too busy. At the front of his new building there are rooms upon rooms jammed with boxes upon boxes of more stuff. He has filing cabinets filled with race notes from every event he ever worked as a crew chief. At one point during a personal tour, he stops and hovers over one box, then pulls out a Buzzie Reutimann autographed T-shirt.

"One of my favorites," he says, smiling even more broadly.

There are die-cast cars and old-school photographs; trophies for poles won and posters of all sorts. He said he's trying to divide everything up into his "driving years, IROC years (when he helped revive the series), Gordon years and Dodge years."

What he doesn't eventually display he intends to put up for auction on eBay, with all proceeds going to benefit Racing for a Reason, the charity he founded in 1997 after his own son, Ray J, was diagnosed with leukemia. Going through everything is a formidable task, but one that Evernham says he enjoys and intends to do at his own pace. (Remember, he's a racer -- so that's likely to be faster than the rest of us).

"Right now my list of things to do is all wanna-dos; there are no have-to-dos," he says.

The place, sadly, is not open to the public and very likely never will be. Evernham says he likes to pick and choose who he brings through. He holds private functions where he can entertain and, heck, even get on the karaoke stage with no one judging him.

But he is proud of the work in progress and who knows, maybe one day he will change his mind and let all race fans in for a peek.

"I think I'm at that stage in my life where I just wanted to put all the things that I feel like I've accomplished in one spot," says Evernham, 48. "I'm enjoying them with my family. I'm doing some things right now where I don't have to worry, or I'm not so worried about, geez, is that going to make a profit or am I going to go out of business? I'm just like, 'Let's just do it and see what happens.'

"I feel that if you have success at a sport, or a business, there is a point where you've got to become a caretaker of that. This sport has really created all this stuff for me. I believe I should share that with some people."