April 20, 2006
By Ron Felix
Ray Evernham
Given the fact that Dodge has won three of the last four races, Texas, Bristol and Atlanta, the issue with the Dodge noses may now be a closed subject. Dodge has been mildly lobbying NASCAR for some help with the Dodge Charger front ends aero-wise and some teams have even taken to running the two year old Intrepid.
Dodge recently suggested, strongly, that the teams all use the Charger. That's what they were in business to sell and the Intrepid has no place in today's market. Texas Motor Speedway was the last track that the Intrepid would run if the teams wanted continued support from the company.
But it would be difficult to ask NASCAR for help with the Charger noses while you're winning. Ray Evernham, owner of Evernham Motorsports, thinks there probably won't be any request for help in the near future.
"Honestly, I think it's a dead deal all around," said Evernham while preparing for the Busch race at Nashville last Saturday. "I can't officially speak for Dodge, I'm just going to give you my opinion. Evernham Motorsports has no intentions to go ask Dodge to go ask NASCAR for anything. We feel like we've got to work on our cars and continue to The try and get them better. The official plan for Dodge would have to go though John Fernandez, (the Director of Dodge Motorsports Operations). We're getting ready to do the car of tomorrow anyway, Maybe there'll be a change for '07 and maybe not. I still don't feel like we're getting all the potential out of the Charger, so we're going to continue to work on it.
The teams have all been presented plans for the Car of Tomorrow and Evernham says they will participate in the next test. Will the car be successful, will it bomb, will it be a hit or a miss with the fans.
"If it works, if we do it right, I think it will be a good thing for the sport," Evernham explained. "If we do it wrong, it will hurt the sport. Now that we've got some good plans, we're building two of them. I want to try and help to be a part of the solution and I guess I could stand and complain and moan and cry about it but the bottom line is, we're going to do it. I want to be sure it gets done properly to save everybody some money and make the sport safer for the drivers.
"There's going to be a test the Monday after the Charlotte race and we're going to be ready for that one. We're going to go ahead and go there. We're currently building two of them, one speedway version and one downforce version. We plan on jumping on board and being part of the testing.
Evernham Motorsports waited until the last minute, like many other owners did, to get started on the project.
"You got to go, we're going to do it -- so you got to go," said Evernham. "All we can do is to jump on board and to help them develop it and hope they're willing to listen and work with the owners. The people in the garage area, they are some of the smartest people in the world when it comes to racing, if NASCAR will just embrace them and listen to them a little bit, it will save a whole lot of time and money.
What will become of the Cup cars that are racing now? With 43 team now running each week and say that each team has an average of 10 cars, and that's probably a low figure, there could be at least 430 Nextel Cup cars for sale at a good price.
Will NASCAR change some of the rules so that they will be able to utilize some of those cars?
"I don't know, but there's at least 70 ARCA cars (teams) so that might be a little bit of an idea of what's going on," Evernham explained. "I don't know what their plans are. I really haven't talked to them in depth about that. The market will be pretty flooded with that many cars. I know you'll see a lot more ARCA cars.
"Again, that is an issue, but you can't really start something (with the cars we have) because in two or three years, there will be no more supply of them, so again, I look at the ARCA series. All those ARCA owners are going to benefit because they are probably going to but this Cup stuff for ten-cents on a dollar."
Maybe the owners could just donate them to charity and use them for a tax write-off?
"Maybe we could build a little track up there in Statesville," Evernham said jokingly, "and have some of the crew members go knock some fenders in. Let them race the cars."
Evernham turned semi-serious at this point. He's looking for Bill Elliott and apparently doesn't have his phone number.
"If I could find my friend Bill Elliott, maybe...ahh.. do me a favor," said Evernham. Whatever you going to write about this, just say "Ray (Evernham) wants to know -- where's Bill (Elliott). If you see Bill Elliott, tell him to call me.
Bill still works for you, right?
"Bill has never worked for me," Evernham said. "He's always worked with me.
http://insiderracingnews.com/RF/042006.htmlBill doesn't work for anybody, he works with me."
