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Evernham In The Hotseat |
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Ray Evernham stands squarely in the spotlight of Dodge Motorsports
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Join the Discussion
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"Knowing Ray I bet he's not showing all his cards till raceday."
GASMAN24
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One of the biggest stories of the 2001 NASCAR season has been over a year in the
making. It was September of 1999 when Ray Evernham announced that he
would leave Jeff Gordon and Hendrick Motorsports. Then on October 14th, 1999
it was formally announced that Evernham would spearhead Dodge's return to
NASCAR Winston Cup racing in 2001.
Since then Ray has named his drivers, built a team, equipped a race shop from the
ground up and been instrumental in designing, getting it approved and then testing
the new 2001 Dodge Intrepid.
January was the beginning of their "official" test sessions and the early numbers
were not what they had hoped for. Ray Evernham's best test speed at Daytona
came from veteran driver Bill Elliott who was nineteenth overall at 180.574 mph.
For comparison, Stacy Compton driving for Melling Racing posted the best test speed
for Dodge at 180.821 mph. This was fourteenth fastest speed overall as Matt Kenseth's
Jack Roush Ford lead the way at 182.271 mph.
What's The Problem?
First of all, there may not be a problem at all. During testing teams typically try
out new combinations just to see how they work and don't have their best
equipment out for the test. However, it is more likely that the Dodge teams are truly
scrambling now.
Essentially their problem boils down to one of two things. Either the new Intrepid
R/T body style is not aerodynamic enough for Daytona or the Dodge engine program
isn't quite up to speed yet. Either way, Evernham and the other Dodge teams still
have nearly three weeks to find and fix the problem and if they don't they can always
lobby NASCAR for a rule change to help them along.
What's It All Mean
Credited with leading the development of the new Dodge Intrepid for Winston Cup and
with both of his teams sponsored by Dodge Ray Evernham stands squarely in the spotlight
of Dodge Motorsports.
Over the long haul I believe that Ray Evernham Motorsports will emerge as the premier Dodge team
but it might take them a few races to find their legs and become truly competitive.
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