Ray Evernham
FameRank: 4

"Ray Evernham" is an American consultant for Rick Hendrick/Hendrick Companies, formerly an auto racing crew chief for Bill Davis Racing and Hendrick Motorsports, owner of his own team Evernham Motorsports from 2001-2010, and analyst for ESPN's NASCAR coverage. A three time Winston Cup Series Champion with driver Jeff Gordon, in 1999, Evernham won the NASCAR Winston Cup Illustrated “Person of the Year”.

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It's pretty stressful. I think last year we were even in a tighter spot. It was even tougher back then, ... Unfortunately your team is rated now on whether you make the Chase ... and everything you do all season long, no matter how good or bad you were, people are going to look back and see if you made that Chase.

I can't ever remember him not responding in a clutch situation.

Really, there's a part of me that's concerned, and there's a part of me that takes my hat off to Jack Roush. It's pretty amazing what the man's done. I don't think that NASCAR can be concerned, because everybody else had the same opportunity Roush had. He's been able to capitalize on it.

The biggest difference between an athlete like Michael Jordan or someone we always compare Jeff to is the fact that those guys can rely largely on their athletic ability. In our world, no matter how good your athletic ability or your driving ability, you still depend largely on whether you've got the car to get the job done.

We've just missed it aerodynamically with the new body on this car.

The more aerodynamics become involved, the more Dodges seem to suffer.

No matter how good he is, they've got to step up.

If you finish 43rd and the other guys finish in the 20s, there's still a lot of cars separating you. If you want it to come down to where all 10 guys have a shot, then it would be great to just be racing 10 guys.

I can't ever remember him not responding in a clutch situation. He's what I call a big-money player. Whenever there was a big challenge or big money on the line he would seem to step up.