Fast Facts: 2018 NASCAR Hall of Fame Inductee Ray Evernham

The dynamic duo of Jeff Gordon (l) and Ray Evernham in the 2018
NASCAR Hall of Fame portraits
credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Ray Evernham’s list of “hats worn” during his career is more than impressive: Modified driver, chassis specialist, crew chief, team owner, race analyst, television show host – and now member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Evernham and fellow 2018 inductees Robert Yates, Red Byron, Ken Squier and Ron Hornaday Jr. were inducted into the Hall of Fame on Friday, Jan. 19, 2018. Here are the Fast Facts on this multi-faceted personality.

• Ray Evernham was born Aug. 26, 1957 in Hazlet, NJ. He began working on short-track race cars as a teenager, and eventually found his way into the driver’s seat of northeastern Modifieds. Along the way, he also worked with the International Race of Champions (IROC) as a chassis specialist and worked with Alan Kulwicki – a relationship that lasted only six weeks as their personalities clashed.
• A racing injury took Evernham from the driver’s seat, but his chassis setups for a young Jeff Gordon in 1990 impressed both Gordon and Ford executives, who teamed the pair up at Bill Davis Racing in the Busch (now Xfinity) Series in 1992. Evernham followed Gordon to Hendrick Motorsports at the end of that season, making their driver/crew chief debut in the Cup Series in the 1992 season finale.
• Evernham – leader of the “Rainbow Warriors,” as Gordon’s pit crew was nicknamed – remained as Gordon’s crew chief through the 1999 season, combining to win 47 races and three Cup Series championships (1995, 1997 and 1998). In 2006, Evernham was voted on by media as the greatest crew chief of all time.
• Evernham left Hendrick Motorsports following the 1999 season to become a team owner in the Cup Series, bringing Dodge back into the NASCAR fold in 2001 with another Cup Series champion, Bill Elliott, behind the wheel. Evernham Motorsports would eventually field teams in all three of NASCAR’s top-tier series as well as the ARCA Racing Series.
• Evernham has worked as a television analyst on a number of occasions, including three stints with ESPN/ABC and currently for NBCSN. He is also the host of the show AmeriCarna on Velocity.
• Evernham married former driver Erin Crocker in Aug. 2009. They have a daughter, Cate Susan, born in July 2015; Evernham also has a son, Ray J., from his previous marriage.
• Find out more about the NASCAR Hall of Fame and its inductees at www.nascarhall.com.