It’s often said certain individuals should write a book about their lives. NASCAR Hall of Famer Ray Evernham did just that.
The driving force behind Jeff Gordon’s dominant years in the NASCAR Cup Series during the 1990s and Dodge’s return to NASCAR are a few of the many stories told in Evernham’s book, “Trophies And Scars: Ray Evernham.”
The book can be purchased on Evernham’s website and other retail outlets.
With the assistance of author Joe Garner, Evernham reveals the inside scoop on his life — on and off the race track.
SPEED SPORT spoke with Evernham about the book and the inspiration behind it:
Q: You had a book come out in March, where did the idea come from to undergo a project like that?
EVERNHAM: It really started with my kids. Because so much of my son’s life I missed and my daughter is so much younger. She’ll never get to see any of the things that I did firsthand.
So, (I) really started to think about them wanting to know the story, or what my father did and what really life was like. I didn’t want them just to read it off the internet and have a bunch of other people’s opinions.
I wanted them to hear it in my words. So that was really the first motivation for it, it was about them. As we got thinking more about it, there were some really good stories. I firmly believe that, when you are part of a sport that has been very good to you, as motorsports has been to me, and you have the ability to have so many stories of historical stuff from perspective of some of the people that I work with, all the way back to IROC on up to the actual Gordon years, and then bringing Dodge back and the things I did with ESPN.
You look at all of those things, those stories needed to be told and need to be shared for the fans of the sport to get that firsthand opinion about it. When all is said and done, you look at your life and no matter what, you’re much further to one end than you or the other.
I just felt like, “Hey, I’ve got some good stories to tell, I’ve been really fortunate to work with some of the greatest legends in the sport,” and wanted to tell some inside stories. When you do something like that, you want to educate people and you want to entertain people.
Most of all, I wanted people to understand who Ray Evernham is.
Q: Knowing the industry that you’re in and the countless interviews you’ve had over the years, was it fairly easy to explain all the different aspects of your career that maybe people don’t know about?
EVERNHAM: You have to be really careful in making sure that what you’re telling is actual facts, or if it is opinion, say, “Hey look, this opinion, this is the way I remember it.”
There are things that are fact, and there are things that are always a debate on whether you were right, wrong or indifferent when it’s something like that.
I want to tell the story, but it was important to tell what I was thinking or what I felt. Some of the things were just really clearing up what was going on, on the inside, how we did this, how we did that, what I was thinking when I did this, and what it was like to work with guys like Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick.
And really wanted people to understand that Jeff Gordon, tremendous talent, really smart guy. Rick Hendrick, you know, Rick Hendrick is a catalyst at that place. Always has been. His leadership just is amazing.
I don’t think enough people really understand how involved he is and how involved he’s been in the success of motorsports.
Q: What were some of the crucial points you wanted to highlight and dive deeper into with the book?
EVERNHAM: I think whenever you write a book and you’ve got to discuss some hard things, my son’s battle with leukemia, my failure at a couple of things, continuing forward at divorce. Those things are always reflective, but it’s certainly a little bit of therapy.
In the end, if you’re going to do a book, and you’re gonna do it, right, and to achieve what I wanted to achieve, I had to be pretty open and honest and know that you’re really making yourself very vulnerable and telling your life story in a book if you’re going to tell the truth.