This is Later with Lee Matthews The Lee Matthews Podcast. More what you hear
weekday afternoons on the Drive. New from the award winning book publisher Octane Press,
Trophies and Scars, a personal and profoundly remarkable, revealing story of the
life and times of NASCAR Hall of Famer Ray Evernham, who is joining us
now to talk about just that. Ray. Welcome, Hey, Heylee.
How are you good? Sir? Good to have you along today. Okay,
you always wanted to be in NASCAR in some way or form, but
your parents didn't. I gather, Well, it's kind of god about people
ask me, why how'd your strategy get into racing? So, I don't
know. My dad was a fantastic athlete, you know, played a lot
of baseball, football, you know, really great, but racing was my
thing. And you know, so don't don't really know where that that gene
came from. But they used to shake their head. I always tell everybody
my dad looked like Buddy Ebsen, you know, from the Beverly Hill dat
least, And he used to shake his head at me like I was Jeth
grow all the time. Well that was that was what I was getting at
a lot of people get into NASCAR because their parents were gear heads or maybe
dad was a hot rodder or something along those lines. Yeah, and again,
it just was something that I really took to and it was my uncle
that started taking me to the races, and you know, mom and dad
supported it once I started, but it really, you know, it was
a local stuff around New Jersey at that time. Grown up in the sixties,
almost every gas station had a you know, a little modified stock car
or something, and there were just a lot of them around our area and
a couple of local tracks. And loved the open wheel cars, the midgets,
the modifies, and there was a guy that lived not too far from
us named Mario Andretti. That was the guy that I grew up. And
we're talking to NASCAR Hall of Famer Ray Evernham and yeah, it seems like
in those days too, when you still had carburetors, there was a lot
more tinkering going on with engines like that. Yeah, and everybody kind of
had to build their own stuff, right as as the sport has progressed,
So I had the tools. You know, we're seeing c machines and you
know, all of the rapid prototyping and you know, laser cutting and all
that. You know, now a lot of people are just you know,
buying their cars and pieces. Back then, you couldn't, you know,
when I come from a time when you had to if you wanted to race,
you had to build it. You'd had to buy something used from somebody
else, or or build your own. And it so to me. It
was a great time and I got to work around a lot of people and
learn a lot of things. I just bought a brand new twenty twenty four
model and I shudder every time I opened the hood because I don't recognize anything
under that hood anymore. Well, so you just get your laptop out and
plug it in. Yeah, yeah, Ray Evernham is with us. He's
a NASCAR Hall of Famer. And you did do your share of driving,
but at some point you decided maybe this isn't for me. Well, you
know, I had been bouncing around. I really wanted to go Indy car
racing and whatnot. Then I met this this Jeff Gordon kid, and I
realized in my heart there's no way in the world I'm ever going to be
as good as that kid. This kid is special, and I was good
about. I was good about building cars and setting cars up. But you
know, together Jeff and I had you know, I had magic. You
know, we we had magic and we still do, you know, when
we get together and do something. So you know, it was perfect timing.
You know, everything happens for a reason, they say, And you've
got to be You've got to be willing when when sometimes change comes up and
you're not really ready for it, but in your heart you know that it's
time to change. And again that's what the book is not just about racing.
It's you know again, it's about business. It's about life and you
know some of the things that you that you face as as life changes,
whether that's from an injury or illness or you know, or sometimes sometimes it
just doesn't work out you know the direction you want to go, and that's
why we call it Trophies and Scars. Trophies and Scars is the name of
the book. Ray Evernham, a NASCAR Hall of Famer, is with us
to talk about it. You also detailed your spearheading the return of Dodge to
NASCAR. What brought that on? Well, you know, we talk about
you know in the book there that look was sitting on top of the world
being Jeff Gordon's crew chief leading the Rainbow Warriors. We're the best in motorsports.
And then you get an opportunity where a company comes to you and says,
hey, I want you to start something for us. Design a car,
help finish this motor, get the race teams, built parts, all
of these things, and lead this. And that was one of those ones
where you really at some point when you've got even though everybody's telling you how
great you are, you really want to know if you am I good enough
to do this? Can I make it without Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick?
You know? Can I do this on my own? And that was kind
of a personal challenge to me, and it was time to grow. You
know. In my heart, I knew that we had done everything that we
could have done and won three or four times over with Jeff and Rick.
But this was a This was an opportunity for me, I think, to
prove that I could do something on my own, and more so to prove
that to myself. Ray Evernham is with us Trophies and Scars as his book.
It's not just a memoir, but it's about business and achieving your goals
and setting goals. Uh, most of what you learned you were self taught,
aren't you. Yeah, But you know when you say that, that's
like saying, hey, you know, I went to college and I was
self taught, right. You know, I was fortunate to have worked with,
you know, early in my career, to work with some of the
greats in motorsports. You know, the Andrettes, the voice answered Petty Earnhardt,
you know the Gordon you know, and the people that Rick Hendricks surrounded
us with, and you know, being able to be in a Penske organization
for a while. So you know that just what I learned from the the
people along the way. And again that's why it was important for me to
write the book, because not everyone who taught me something that was very valuable
that was necessarily a superstar, right. It wasn't Roger Penske, always a
Rick or ANDRETTI. You know, there were a lot of people in my
local racing area or just you know friends that taught me some valuable life lessons,
and you know, I wanted to make sure that they knew that that
little bit of encouragement or that lesson really helped me get to where I am
now and where he is is a NASCAR Hall of Famer, and Ray Everingham
is with us trophies and scars. Is the name of the book. What
do you think is the Is there one single innovation that has stood out in
your head as far as development of engines in NASCAR? Is there one that
stands out over the others? Oh? I think in general the amount of
rpm that they turn and the materials they put in these engines. Now like
they have increased temperature, these engines can run it, you know, two
hundred and thirty two hundred and forty degrees of engine temperature and they turn incredible
RPMs. So from the engine development, you know, what the manufacturers have
done producing these things amazing, It's just amazing. You know that they have
to keep restricting the horsepower because they could be making close to a thousand horsepower
out of a you know, a pushrod engine, and again I find that
just amazing. But I think most of the probably the biggest technical advantages that
NASCAR can be proud of, is some of the things that they've brought from
the safety standpoint, with driver restraint systems, seating and things like that.
I really think that's where NASCAR really really stepped it up. He steps it
up in trophies and scars. Ray Evernham, the NASCAR Hall of Famer,
joining us to talk about this book. The book is available everywhere from Octane
Press and we thank you for joining us. Well, I appreciate that and
look forward to catch you out. Wish one of these days I get back
out at Oklahoma City and Tall So it's just something magical about that place too.
Love going through there. Oh you'd love to chili? Have you ever
been in the chili bowl? Oh? Yeah, Okay. Thanks for listening
to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen
to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation