Stacking Pennies with Corey LaJoie Mar 30, 2026

Ray Evernham: Greatest Crew Chief of All Time? | Stacking Pennies

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Concept

Hall of Fame

They’re talking about a Hall of Fame, which is an award that recognizes the biggest names in NASCAR. It’s basically a “best of the best” honor for people who helped shape the sport.

Brand

Jeff Gordon

Jeff Gordon is a famous NASCAR driver. They’re mentioning him because he’s part of the same “Hall of Fame” conversation and represents big success in the sport.

Brand

Hendrick

“Hendrick” is short for Hendrick Motorsports, a top NASCAR racing team. They’re known for winning a lot and running very organized operations.

Concept

Rockingham

Rockingham is a NASCAR race track. People remember it because races there can be really different from other tracks, and that affects how teams plan and race.

Concept

Indy

“Indy” means the Indianapolis race track. Winning there is a big accomplishment because it’s one of the most famous places in racing.

Term

flat tire

A flat tire means the tire suddenly loses air. In a race, that can force the driver to slow down or stop, and it can ruin their chances.

Concept

ran the car out of gas

They’re talking about not having enough fuel to finish. In racing, teams sometimes try to stretch fuel, but if the race goes differently than expected, they can run out.

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Charlotte

Charlotte is a major NASCAR track. Late-race strategy there—like fuel and restarts—can make or break a finish.

Concept

restart

A restart is when the race resumes after a caution. The order of cars and how fast they get going again can decide who wins, especially late.

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missed by one lap

“Missed by one lap” means they didn’t complete the full race distance. It’s a sign that the outcome was extremely close, but something late prevented them from finishing.

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Penske

Penske is a big racing team organization. When someone says they’re working for Penske, it usually means they’re part of a very well-run, high-level racing operation.

Concept

downforce

Downforce is the “push down” from the air that helps the tires grip the road. More downforce usually means the car can go around corners faster because it sticks better.

Concept

Pebble Beach and Monterey

Pebble Beach and Monterey are big car events where people show off classic cars and also do track-related activities. It’s a major “car culture” week.

Concept

car week

“Car week” is the big week of car events around Monterey. It includes shows and track activities all in one stretch.

Brand

Jensen Button

Jenson Button is a top-level former Formula 1 champion. If he’s showing up, it means the event is attracting people from around the world.

Concept

purse

A purse is the prize money for the race. Higher finish usually means more money, but some events are also about trophies and bragging rights.

Concept

test day

A test day is when racers go out to try things and learn how the car behaves. It’s like practice, but focused on setup and feedback.

Concept

valet parking

Valet parking is when someone else parks your car for you. The story mentions it because the car was being moved around by a service before the speaker tried to leave.

Part

Monroe shocks

Monroe makes shock absorbers, which help control how the car moves over bumps. Mentioning them “per wheel” is a way of saying the suspension parts were still basically stock.

Company

The FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the global governing body for many motorsports. In this context, the speaker mentions working with FIA leadership to help oversee officiating and ensure rules are applied properly.

Company

Ford

Ford is a major global automaker with a long history in motorsport and engineering. Mentioning Raj Nair “used to be at Ford” emphasizes that the officiating oversight team includes leadership with automotive-industry experience, not just racing backgrounds.

Company

Tom Fulery

The speaker names someone as part of a point about avoiding problems with officiating. The exact meaning depends on who Tom Fulery is in this context.

Concept

feedback

Feedback is what a driver tells the team about how the car feels and behaves. Good feedback helps engineers change the setup so the car works better next time.

Brand

Scott McLaughlin

Scott McLaughlin is a top-level race driver. The story is basically: he’s so focused that after a race he spends time doing detailed work on his report.

Concept

post-race report

A post-race report is the structured feedback a driver gives after a race, covering what worked, what didn’t, and how the car behaved. It’s used by engineers to plan setup changes for the next event and to refine strategy.

Term

Daytona

Daytona is a famous NASCAR track. The point is that Corey and Rusty were testing setup changes at a track where small differences can really show up.

Concept

Talladega

Talladega is a famous NASCAR track where cars run extremely fast. Because the racing is so close and fast, pit stops and strategy matter a lot.

Term

tape it up

“Taping it up” is a quick fix to keep something from falling apart. It’s a temporary repair so the car can keep running.

Concept

pit crew

The pit crew is the group that works on the car during a quick stop in the race. Their job is to change tires and do other work as fast as possible so the car loses as little time as possible.

Term

wings

Wings on race cars aren’t just for looks—they help the car stay planted. Changing them can change how the car handles in corners.

Term

diff users

I’m not fully sure what “diff users” means here because the wording is unclear. It sounds like they’re talking about a regulated part near the rear of the car that affects aerodynamics.

Term

fencing

Fencing is the barriers that keep spectators away from the cars. On street races, it’s especially important because the track is in public areas.

Concept

cut the roof off

Cutting the roof off is a big modification that changes the car’s shape and weight. In racing, it usually means you’re building something more stripped-down, but you have to make it safe and strong.

Term

carbon fiber

Carbon fiber is a material used to make car parts that are both light and strong. It’s not something you just “bolt on”—it usually needs careful building and handling.

LIVE

Hey friends, welcome to stacking pennies awesome episode last week appreciate all of the comments on that

That was a fun one talking to one of the greats and one of the greats behind him on

the box

With the rainbow warriors Ray Evernham join us in studio today. I'm excited about this one as well

He's got his hands still in a lot of stuff

We're gonna talk about all things 2014 dodge

What else I rock series now? He's

Let's see if we kind of goods we can get out of Ray Evernham and his successful Hall of Fame career all sorts of different stuff

Motorsports show coming right up. So this is stacking pennies. Let's go

Stagging deep selling cheap. I taste like gasoline rubber and victory. Where's that your stack?

Alright friends the wait is now over because we have another Hall of Fame

We're back-to-back weeks. Look at us go buddy. Holy cow. So we had Jeff Gordon sitting in that seat last week

Now we have the man that was on top of his pit box for all of that success among many other things

Please help me welcome Ray Evernham

I get to get the golf clap and everything

Yeah, that's cool that Jeff was on because we all know that that you know, I wouldn't be in the Hall of Fame without him

So cool. We're still he's still like my little brother. So it

As soon as I heard he was on the show, I had to be on it

I know, you know, all your people reached out to our people now. Here we are

You said you were getting lunch with him this week. What is like a conversation now?

You know decades after all the success like what you said you he's like your little brother

Like what do you guys talk about talk about the things that he's doing and he's doing

I think he's doing a fantastic job over at at Hendrick and you know doing the things that he does keeping people going motivated organized

So we talk a little bit about business and you know talk about family, you know

Obviously his kids are growing up and and becoming, you know, quite quite great little athletes themselves

We talk about our you know our playing with the vintage cars and what not sometimes we try and talk about the old races that we ran

But we you know as we get older we disagree. No, that wasn't we did that wasn't darlings and that was Rockingham

No, no, no that we did that at Atlanta, you know, so it's funny

It's funny how sometimes we we remember an event. We just can't figure out where we did it

It's funny you say that because like I was reading your book trophies trophies and scars and

Loved it and I like you caught me right at the beginning because you called we're both from the same part of Jersey

But you use the term clam diggers. Yeah, which no one which no one really knows but is that an insult

No, it's like it's not us because we are it's like, you know, but people call rednecks whatever

You know, it's like, you know, if you if you are redneck and you understand it

It doesn't bother you because it's a bad John or so. Well, it's a blue collar

Working area the Jersey Shore that's it's north of the weirdos in the 609 area. We're really cool guys up there north of that

I thought weirdos were more more north

But you were talking about and speaking of that you were talking about and I was reading this it was like surreal

I was reading the part of it on the plane to Indy when you guys went to Indy and won and you beat Ernie

Was it Ernie Irvin in the 28?

He got a flat on the he got a flat tire, you know with two to go

I think yeah, our car chief Raymond Fox. Yeah was the car chief of the 28

And I said I brought it up to me because he was still pissed off about it. They got a flat

Well, is there races that you come up that you guys are still pissed off about I don't know

You'd have to ask Jeff but I can tell you you know, everybody says well

What do you think? Well, you know that when we ran the car out of gas when we say we I mean me ran the car out of gas at

Charlotte, I mean 100 grand right or 200 grand. I think it was that time. We were one lap shit

We were playing that game man. We were gonna be so light

We were man, and we were gonna be empty and we had it down and they call back a restart

Remember rusty jump to restart and they call back a restart which they never did and they caught us and we missed by one lap

And that was that was embarrassing, but that was on me. You know, it was definitely on me

So the parallel to that day we

Were in position to win the race with the 12

Brad keselowski ran at a fuel come back to green pulled off Kyle Larson rolled up a row and beat us and then we were at

The pit box at the start finish line had to watch those guys celebrate

It was so I felt bad for Raymond again and myself

But you know we in that book it was shocking to me just a lot of the parallels

Obviously you've had way more success but working for Penske and now

Moving down here and then all the guys you're around in Jersey with Jamie to Mano and and all that stuff

But I rock man

I rock was always near and dear to my heart because I grew up burning the concrete with Uncle Nat

You know Ronnie Kramer who worked there forever alongside of you and we were always super interested in your career, but

What Jason no rebuilt there with Roger?

I'm sure that's why you're doing this today with the with the heritage and I rock and everything you got going on

Well, you know sometimes in your life you get with somebody who has a

Big influence on you and you don't even realize that at the time because you don't know how much you don't know and then you're learning and you think

But that's just the way normal life is and then you get in another situation

And you excel because you think everybody else knows those things and then you realize you've been taught these things by somebody special and

You know, I do again with my new position with any car see mr. Penske a lot

But going back then I had to make a decision

Was I gonna make it a modified racing or whatever so I took that job at Iraq

And I'm gonna convince Roger Penske to let me drive his Indy car once he sees me drive, you know with home run

You know me mirrors solve it. Yeah, it's gonna be teammates. It's gonna be good

What I didn't realize is that I didn't have the talent to do that, but

But I did have some talent that J. Signori brought out, you know as far as

management and time and and and

Managing man hours and putting cars together in process and start to really understand that unfair advantage that the the Penske

Organization talks about so much and J. Signori

Who his background J was a really good race driver didn't have a lot of money was Mark Donnie's best friend took care of Mark

Donnie's cars Mark said to Roger. Hey, I got this guy. I real we need to hire him and

But J's footprint not just an Indy car racing with the people he trained

but if you look at his tree of the people he trained that have come down and

From from the north and been part of of NASCAR and people that I took what J. Taught me and taught to them

The championships and whatnot people go, well Bray Evernham's trails like yeah

No, I'm just a branch on J. Signori's tree his footprint on teaching crew chiefs and mechanics and things like that's pretty pretty amazing

I love that analogy of a tree because

Cal Petty at the at the previous Hall of Fame dinner. I'm sure that you went there. They were inducted in

Was it Robert Yates? It was there's four or five guys and

Cal Petty drew the thread that more or less connected all of these guys for decades on the sport

Talk about J. Signori and you're a branch off his tree. Now. You got Chad can now

This was a branch off your limb, right? If we just kept a scrap late in this out

We talked about Alan Gustafson that big win yesterday with chase Elliott. Did he have any involvement with you?

No, actually after Allen was was part of the the Hendrick deal some of the systems that we took over there that kept you know

Improved, you know, he was on the five car

But you know Alan's very engineering based and and and some of the systems that we put in place

You remember a lot when I started the the 2014 for Mr. Hendrick

We brought down six or seven of my I rock guys, you know guys like Michael Landis who was our parts guy and

Manager it, you know

several of the guys

Steve bird Ergy satch, you know the couple of crazy fabricators, right like a college head football coach

You're bringing your DC your offense coordinator all the people. Yeah, and that they knew the system

So they helped the other guys do the systems

But you know Eddie Naraki who was one of the bodymen and mechanics and Dan Stone metson

So there were you know again

There was a half a dozen solid I rock guys that knew those systems that helped start to 2014

So I rocks always been special because it was in Tintin Falls, New Jersey

I grew up in Manusquon where you had a cup shop even there

But that's a whole nother conversation with Dick Johnson Australian driving your car

But I always felt that and I'm it's hard to

Britheson the words but like even when you look at like Carl Thomas and a lot of the guys that worked at

I rock they would build race cars and go race at wall stadium and the race cars at wall stadium when I was growing up

Or some of the most beautiful race cars think about Dick Barney's car and and I felt like the guys from I rock

Rick high tide raised all ships and then since I rock had shut down

I seen not saying any of these cars there aren't nice like Jimmy blew it and

We had those guys that always have had nice race cars, but they've lost a little bit of that rate race car

Building knowledge because of the hub that was there. It would trickle down. Did you ever feel that way?

You know the hard part about all that is who really gets to build their cars anymore, right?

Yeah, you know you have to buy a lot of stuff

There's rules to suspect this spec that you know and it's just it's evolution

But you know probably still some good systems

I think it it raised you know the way people prepare their cars with real race check sheets and check their mileage is and things cars

Cars are breaking down less probably guys are crashing a little bit

crashing a little bit less, but it's

You know who we kid around a lot of us guys that race hard in the 80s and 90s

You know we say we we saw the best of it right because we could we could we had access to some new technology and you know a

decent amount of money the value of your dollar got you a decent place and in

Racing and we could still build our cars

We could still use our ingenuity and that's it's tough right now

You know a lot of these guys are racing

Computers and simulations and stuff that's already figured out for them

So I don't know that I enjoy that what were some of those advancements right you come down early 90s, and it was still a

1400 left front spring and a 3,000 right front spring as you start to learn

Okay, the nose gets down makes better downforce

What was like what was the timing of some of those introductions like ooh that was better ooh that was better

The tools that were developing about the same time we were doing that remember we were taking measures and strings right

But then all of a sudden it became lasers and it became CNC machines

And we were able to take some theory and test it because you could find those smaller things and then

People were hiring engineers

Well the 2014 was one of the first teams to have a full-time engineer and then they understood and I will tell you that

Rick Hendrick has always been a visionary, but he was open to suggestions. There were other people

You know that they're at at the time that

Really didn't understand the value of engineering or computers or or shock dinos versus the money that they cost

So almost got fired a couple times going straight to mr. H

But uh, you know you would explain to Rick and Rick would invest the money, you know, he could see that

Okay, and he could see the engineering and he went out

early in the 90s and and brought in guys like Steve Leavitt, you know

Gary Aker

Rick Stump, you know guys would with engineering backgrounds that just thought about the cars a little bit differently

And our cars just started to get really good you from the time that I went there

I think the first car we built took like 50 pounds of ballast by the time I left Jeff Gordon's cars had almost

400 pounds of ballast and yeesh and that CG was dragging the ground. Yeah clearly

Shifting gears from mass car because you mentioned before you fired this thing up

You are the busiest retired guy that you know. Yeah, yeah, because you're you're in the middle of this I rock revival

So talk to us a bit about that in addition to what you're doing on the Indy car side as well. I love

old cars, I love history and

Still do a lot of different things

For Marcus Smith and the folks over the SMI so they're awesome

Something different they finally built a kind of a gentleman's racetrack across the street from Charlotte Motor Speedway

Rick Hendrick is involved in partners in that and Marcus Smith said man

I love what goes on out at Pebble Beach and Monterey

They've got the vintage cars on track and you know

Then you've got the Concord and this kind of a car week and that was his vision

Oh, probably four years ago

So we started started playing with so help them put together a thing called it

You know the the Smith Hendrick heritage now

That will be held it at 10 tenths last year we did the Trans Am

Historic Trans Am which is really cool watching the Camarals and Mustangs banging around there and this year

You know Rob Kaufman and I bought back. Oh two three years ago the rights to the I rock series

And we found we've located about 85 cars worldwide legitimate real I rock cars really and

Last year we debuted an I rock historic I rock race at Laguna Seca out there for for car week

I had about 21 different car shows up, but we had

Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch

Mark Martin, Bob LaBona, Dario Franckini, Jensen Button

You know we had all these people to Scott Pruitt all these people signed up

Hey, we want to come play with you guys

You know so we've got all of these former I rock guys and stars lined up and now we're going to do it here

For the Harish we're gonna have another you know, I keep calling it, you know, I rock

You know exhibition and whatever but they run the piss

All cars, you know

A trophy you you put up a trophy. I mean it doesn't matter purse or whatever them guys are going for the trophy

This Kurt have his own. Oh, yeah, I heard I heard grumbling already of people like Kurt's cars way too fast

Yeah, I told them I have a if you don't slow down. I have a carburetor for you

Yeah, I got I got a little I got a little plates about my lawnmower, you know

Yeah, but he's um those guys they come they have a lot of fun

And it's more about the camaraderie at at Laguna Sega our tent was just full of people with

With stories and whatnot and it's a mix of um

You know people who have an I rock car and they want to come and and run with the with the pros and and we have a blast

So it we're excited about being able to do that at 10 tense

I remember you telling me a story about a test day

You don't have to get in this story

But it's gonna lead into my next point of rusty Wallace driving your old DA car from Flemington

And he went out where your motor mile motor mile and he you're like yo, yo, yo slow down

This is a vintage car. Yeah, I do you have to deal with that with some of these guys when they come back like I'm like Jeff

It's talking about how fast Mark Martin is all the time. Do you got to be like, yo take it easy boys?

Well, I try and talk to all of them about that, but yeah, some of them, you know

And and and Jeff is good at being under control Mark Kenny, you know, but there's there's some of those guys like I'm gonna tell you

Jensen Button

He was I mean

He was on that thing and and I knew the car he was driving obviously. There's there's

Some of the cars are older. Yeah, some of the cars aren't as they're having grease that ball 32 years man. Let's man

He was quick Dario Franckini really quick

But there's a difference between quick and reckless and quick and careful, right?

So but that they enjoy it and to let them enjoy it you got to let them run it

So, you know, our deal is okay. Look you run hard run hard, you know, hit one another, right?

And don't stink up the show, right?

Same thing we yeah, make it make it look good, you know run hard

So they're gonna have some practice over there and then we'll have some qualifying and let them run hard and and in the show

They'll figure it out themselves. But you know, if you have contact, you just don't get invited back and there's really no

There's no spectators, right? This is more like a social play social media

We have a place for spectators in the clubhouse

So it's gonna be kind of an open pit area except for one on track

And we're also gonna have the historic vintage Indy cars, which pretty incredible. There's there's some unbelievable Indy cars coming

I mean things championship winning Mario Andretti's championship winning car the Bronner Hawk from

1965, you know for cars

Race skillman owns it. And so I don't know if they're gonna put that out

You know just for display or if they're gonna run it around the racetrack, but they will

You'll see Indy cars from the 40s 50s on up through the 80s as a display running around and then there'll be you know

our Iraq practices and qualifying so Fridays all day on track and

You will have an Iraq feature event, but we're gonna have you know have some fun

We're gonna have driver intros and all that stuff like it used to be and and they really do a good job promoting over at

SMI and then into Friday night

We do a charity program where several of the Iraq drivers and you know, we've got guys like Tommy Kendall and Scott Pruitt

Tom G. C. Boris Boris said we do a I was probably

16 I don't even know if I was 16. I had I just got my permit my driver's permit

So you had to drive with like, you know a family member

so there was a party at Larry max house, I'm not sure what the occasion was and

It was it was you know outside catering ten outside like it was like a full-blown party

So we go to this right and dad knows that he's got a driver. So he's got you know, he's had a couple

He's having a good time

So we go to leave and there was like a car service out front like they would valet you drop it off. They drop valet it

So they valet our car, you know, dad tossed me the keys art son up to you now

So there was somebody in front of me

So we're loaded up ready to go this guy's chatting it up tipping the valet or whatever

I'm like, oh my god, let me just back up. So I look in the mirror nothing put in reverse back it up

I go shit put it in park Tommy Kendall had some Corvette that might have been this tall

I put the trailer hitch of the escalator right through his hood

And that was it. I'm like, oh, no, I drove dude. I drove home like this like oh shit

That's gonna be expensive. I thought you hit the chicken car

No, it was something he wasn't as mad as I anticipated him

So I'm sure that it wasn't you know deep one of them judging by the sound of this party

Yeah, it might have been I haven't seen Tommy since then he's probably you're the back into my car

So, yeah, sorry to cut you off. You see him. You'll see him. You'll see him Friday and Saturday

Okay, is it this coming weekend next week? No, it's it's next weekend. It's the the 10th and 11th. Okay. Oh, we can be there

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, what you said you found 85 cars

so located 85 of them worldwide and

Some of them are our track ready some of them are in collections

And we're just trying to get people to bring them out to run in our series when we when we hold a true Iraq event

It has to be a true Iraq car. There's probably some other series

You know that if we run some more of these things we may let people do replicas

But there'll be some rules around it, but it's really about celebrating what Iraq was how big it

You know had a huge influence on motorsports if you think about the motorsports in America

Maybe the world, you know, like what they did in the 70s bringing those guys back, you know together and you know

So they had 33 different seasons

I think for for Iraq pretty pretty incredible stuff and for that many of those cars to be around the

Porsches are the most expensive and the hardest to find not a lot of true Porsches left and very expensive

Then there were the first generation Camaros. They were out of the showroom

Mark Donahue and his guys built those cars in like nine weeks, right?

And then they they started running them at Daytona in Michigan and Richard Pettie told them look if you cats are gonna run

These speeds you need to get a real car. Look, I don't drove one last year

Camaro that Pinsky had and he's like that was the most badass car ever driven like he no power steering and no

You know leaf springs, you know and when the car they had Joey drive

They didn't even change still had, you know, two old Monroe shocks per wheel and stuff like that

I know you have a pretty large car collection yourself with what are a couple of your favorite cars in there?

Yeah, you know, I don't have as big a collection as I had in the past

Got rid of a lot of the street cars and stuff because my passions race cars. It really is and

but my car my my favorite car in my collections a car that that I fell in love with when I was 15 and

Never thought in the world I could own it

but tracked it down took me 42 years to finally get possession of that car, but

I love the movie American graffiti, right love that movie

So the 1958 Chevy from the American graffiti movie, you know would toad and Debbie and all that craziness

So I own that car and we worked together to restore it

We did an Americana show on it and it's it's sitting there in in perfect condition

And we take it out once a while and drive it when we debuted that car

We debuted it in Vegas dressed up as the characters and you know, we had a blast

But that that car that car means a lot to me and I've got some of my original race cars

I've got the car that I won my last feature with at wall stadium

I've got the car unfortunately that I got her in at Flemington. I've got that car

I've got my sprint car that I won my last sprint car races. I was in the grandstands now. You got hurt. Yeah, so you got hurt and

You say you hit the fence with something you hit let me turn four

Yeah, I was a little jammed up on the inside and I got in the back of somebody and got sideways

So I just cranked it right and at the same time I got hit in the back and it went halfway through the ambulance gate

And there's a there was a big post there and that it hit right on my door on the ambulance gate

And then shot it back out into the racetrack. It was as big

They say I don't remember it

I really don't got some good sleep, you know the video look cool. Yeah, like we're guilty of being short track guys and

Being laser focused on short track stuff or NASCAR stuff and we were talking about that earlier about like how our branches

Don't reach much further than that, but reading your book

You gave me a whole new appreciation for Pike's Peak and how dangerous it was and you signed up to bring one of the cars

You built the go dangerous if you run off. Yeah, you're safe. You're safe if you stay on the road

Yeah, well, that's that's like the old the Tart saying you it could be dangerous or could be slow

So you got a pick but like how did what what are those experiences like of going to Pike's Peak and doing other things like that?

That have brought you to you know

You're your passion for Indy car now and road course racing to build a car

Right and to challenge myself to find out if I really could be as good as I thought I could be out of out of stage

and you know so at 60 years old we built that car and

Took it to Pike's Peak went up there as rookies and won our class at a new record in our class

Came about 11 seconds away to break it into the nine minute

About which which very very few people have been able to do for the amount of cars that they run up there and it was it was truly

Pike's Peak is almost a spiritual event. There's only two

Unrestricted places on the planet, right? There's only two where you go run what you brung and you're betting your ass, right?

You're you're what's the other one?

Bonneville

Bonneville and Pike's Peak those are those are the two it's run what you brung

You know and you know if you're if you're confident enough that you're a good driver confident enough in the car

You build but if you know if you see the top or see at the bottom one or two

You know so that so to me that was good. It was um

It was good and I felt like you know still I feel like I could have been okay

But still not as good as some of the people that I you know could never been as good as

The top echelon and cup, you know or or at Indy car

It's it's pretty impressive watching some of that stuff, but Pike's Peak to me was was

It put myself up at peace like you know what you can build a pretty good car and you're a pretty fair driver because you're not dead

You know you've got a trophy and you're not dead talk talk to me a little bit right before

We jumped on to you're talking about so you've been doing some work with

What do you call it the officiating group independent officiating board or independent officiating incorporated so Indy car

had some controversy with rules and and whatnot and

Last year last year post Indy people felt like the OPTIQ wise, you know

That was a little bit too close to the penske organization and which

I'm gonna tell you that you know there's nothing there purely optics everything that we've looked at you know that you know

that's just not

Something Roger Penske does

But they separated that and I work with Ronan Morgan from the FIA and Raj Nair

Who's a really cool guy used to be at Ford now

He's at synchro Porsche and that the three of us really kind of oversee some of the officiating make sure that there's nothing

Nothing going on no Tom Fulery and which is different for me because it's you were trying to find the thought you were trying to do

I actually found some yeah, I love that the chief inspector there, you know rocket they call him right he really really really cool guy in

I said how do we check that and I said and he's like well

I said hey take a look at this because the first thing I would do was this you know and there are teams doing that

Yeah, and so that it would a couple of those guys had to reduce some things, but it's it's neat

Really impressed with Indy car

Organization the way that they present the show

The way that safety all about safety and we were talking a little bit ago

Some of these some of these young kids these drivers man there they are they are on it like they

It's not like it's a two-hour basically a two-hour race, you know

Ninety-hundred last but they man those kids are on it

And you don't do not take your wife to Indy car driver way in because every one of those guys

I mean through their no mix, you know the abs are sticking out and I'm like man

Those guys are fit every one of them. So you've been surrounded

your entire life by

phenomenal racing talents

Just by your observation work with Jeff Gordon now you're around guys like Alex Palo and Joseph Newgarden these cats

They're at the top of the spear of what their particular craft is

What makes those guys elite versus or what the what makes those guys elevate themselves against their competitors, you know

That's a good question and people ask a lot and they're waiting to say well, you know

They got better reflexes that they got that most of the really good race car drivers, you know that are at that level

Are very smart they think about things in a different dimension

Then, you know, mr. Penske's got a word about hey

They look out of a bigger windshield

But the their feedback is at a different level and they're committed sat next to Scott McLaughlin on the plane

Come home last night and he did nothing but work on his post-race report that looked like a legal

document, you know and

You think okay, these guys these guys are they're committed, but they're intelligent and and the racing is their their thing

And they're racing IQs are high

But you know early in my career work them with people like Mario Andretti and Bobby on sir

Yeah, it's tight here. It's loose here, you know like Jeff Gordon Jeff Gordon would never go

Yeah, I'm pushing getting in or I'm listening. Oh, he would come in and say I

Feel like when I go in the corner the weight is coming from here and going over

Here, but it doesn't stay there, you know

And he would give you and I've said to several of his crew chiefs like look if you can't set up a car for Jeff Gordon

You shouldn't be a crew chief right because he gives you know

He made me look like a star because he was my computer along before they had dad in the car and and you know guys like Mario

Rusty Wallace you talked about rusty first time I worked with rusty was at Daytona Iraq car and

You know we were screwing around with steering boxes because when put power steering in there

You know when you you got to keep you can't keep that thing on center, right?

You know because it was a little bit play in the old boxes

So, you know everybody used to put the the the toe in the right front, you know

So that they had to pull this way and I was like see what happened

I'm gonna put a little toe in the left front of this car. So rusty goes out. He runs down

He comes in, you know five six laps around say tona comes in, you know gets plug checked coast in

Talking on me. What you know, what do you think anything goes? Yeah, that's pretty good. You know pretty good. He said, you know

But I was going down the down the back stretch just thinking he said feels like you have toe in the left front of this car

Other than the right front and I was like a 16th of an inch. Oh god. Yeah

Yeah, it wasn't was like a half inch, right? So it says here, you know with I rock and

Obviously had a ton of involvement with SRX and it was such a special series

And you see you saw guys short track guys like Doug Kobe and you know, whoever get shots in it and

Saw Lee Pulliam get a get a chance this weekend and do really well. So it was great, but

Obviously, it's super hard to build something like what I rock had nowadays. What are the challenges that

SRX had that I rock didn't have

Well, you know, there were obviously a lot of challenges there

It takes a lot of takes a lot of money and it takes to be on the right side of the politics

No to do something like that

I think that we proved that

We proved that the fans liked it

So hopefully we can continue to work on it. I mean it'd be my dream to bring back the old I rock series and it's glory

I don't know if that's truly possible

Because that the sports evolve so much and it's tough to get these to get a driver that that's committed to one thing

But there's still a pretty good desire for those guys to race one another

I mean, there's you know, you talk to the indie guys and they're like man

I'd like to race that guy someday, you know, so there's some desire there

But there's also, you know, there's also some good ideas, you know, what we did was kind of a seniors tour thing

You know, there's you know as driver. Let's face it. They're getting younger and younger, right?

You know, they're getting younger and younger and

The guys that are getting out of the cars are not that old, right?

So but they don't want to race 30 40 times a year

So that maybe there's a way of doing something like that with the legends of the sport and I felt like we had a we

Had a a good proof of concept with with SRX. We just

Unfortunately couldn't keep it going. I love the scene

I love the golf analogies of Pebble Beach to 1010s and the senior tour because I saw bill one bill

He's gonna test his I rock car this afternoon. He's over at 1010s wheeling around there

He's gonna he's gonna be the celebrant. So we're gonna, you know, we have like somebody we honor and so bill, uh, you know

Bill is gonna be the the celebrant at the heritage and we're gonna we're gonna have his

212 mile an hour car on display there. That's cool. Yeah, you wouldn't you wouldn't he says he wouldn't get out of it

He wouldn't get out of the electric chair to get in it today, though

Well, it's funny how over time you're like, I can't believe I drove that thing

Wasn't the story behind that car

So he had a flat tire some sort made up a lap the old-fashioned way and drove back on one because the car was like an inch smaller

Everywhere 55-inch tread width. Okay, think about that and compared to what was legal. What do they know?

Well, well, there was no rule back then. Oh, they used to there was no rule

So, you know, most time what we were 60 61

Okay, so five inches narrow than everybody else and that day I was at Talladega that day

I was pitting for Dave Marcus. Dave was Dave was Dave was my buddy

He would he would pay me all I could eat in a hotel room to come and change cars

so and

What happened that day the piece of the headlight got knocked out somehow and that's car made him come in under green and pit

And they had to tape it up and went out and he went out under green and made up a lap and a half

And took the lead it was flying that that year at at Talladega

I think the slowest car in the field

40 whatever cars or whatever they ran back then was like 202 miles an hour. That's when men were men

Like the picture might one of my all-time favorite pictures is one cal yard bros like this sideways and the whole cars up in the air

In qualified by yourself now in my kids inside one of those and now my six-year-old can drive a cup car and qualify to Talladega

So I've been a Hendrik now for three or four months and I love when I walk in there the ever ham room when I turn and look

And I see you and Trower and Andy Papa

And I can't help but think when I walk in that facility when I started doing pit stops

Two decades ago. We had a guy named Robert that would show up at Rouson set some cones out and guys would run around it

I thought was the coolest thing ever that those guys were working out and to see what it's evolved through now

You see the Hendrik facility, but I can't help but think that that group is the one that planted that seed

When you walk in there now and see what it's turned into. What do you think when I've started to be a crew chief?

I looked at the pit stop stuff and I thought man. I watch these guys

All right, I went to the first pit practice and the guy goes over the wall smoking cigarette cowboy boots on I'm thinking

We can gain. We don't have to fast. I want to beat these guys on on on pit roads

So Andy Papathon to see you and I had worked together a little bit at Kuikis and Andy Andy was brought over there to do

Some things and couldn't do it. So when I was hired to start the 2014

He was one of the first people I brought in I said you go figure out a way to get some

you know bring some athletes in and

Those guys came in as volunteers. We didn't have any money. We couldn't get equipment

You know, it was like it was really a volunteer deal and mr. Hendrik happened to come in

We're working on Saturday and there's guys run around the field and rolling tires around carrying each other on the back

And he pulls up he goes

And he calls me Raymond every time is like when he's either mad at me or when he don't understand he goes he goes Raymond

What the hell are them guys doing?

You know, so I told him and he was really like he's that visionary, right?

So he stepped in and got the money for the extra guys

He bought some equipment and it got bigger and bigger and he saw the results and and he really supported it

And you know we at that time

For that that run all the way up through 98 99 there, you know

We dominated pit road and we won a lot of races purely

You know getting track position or getting out on the last last stop and you could count on those guys to make adjustments

You could count on a two tire four tire all those things and that that just built and and again, you know

Yes, it was my idea. Yes, it was

But you know, there were a lot of people that worked on that behind the scenes including Andy Papa

I'm trying to get Trower in the Hall of Fame still. Yeah, and Trower ship

Trower ship. I wish they had a like I need like a golden wrench

You know just you know, they do the thing for the media, right? They do but that that pit crew deal

Like there needs to be something special in the Hall of Fame for those pit crew members because there's been some great

There's been some great pit crew members when you look at these to do the skull motor

Remember they'll score sports all protein Scottie Robinette. I had his card on there

So, you know, I'd love to see some attention to go those guys somehow and goes deeper like Ron Malick

Yeah, like car chief. So there there's a there's a golden wrench that I'm trying to sell Winston Kelly on here

Yeah, you probably don't sell them too hard. I don't know. No, I think Winston

I don't know that it's Winston. You got to sell it. Yeah. Yeah, there's always more layers the cake

Yeah, any other layers on your cake Ray. What's you got a couple kid one one child?

I've got to I've got my son Ray J's 34 years old and he's on the autism spectrum and you know again because of him

We've been able to do a lot of different things for autism

Including starting some centers called ignite where we teach young adults on the autism spectrum social skills and life

So like a clubhouse with them. So he's he's doing really really well. And then I've got a 10 year old daughter

Who is just man? She is wide open. I don't know what I'm gonna do there

We've gone from we've gone from horses to volleyball to La Crosse now. She's she's eyeing up racing

You know, so it's gonna be it gonna be interesting because she's

She's she doesn't have a chance right between her mom. Yeah and myself. Yeah, you know

It's all about look when you're gonna go it's gonna be good

So I'm hoping that she comes in and says she wants to race because what would you do? What would you start? Oh, man?

Well, you know, I would I would start with her with the go-kart because right now what I look at a lot of these

Kids that are coming up through the Indy car series. I've got some good road racing experience

I agree and then I would get her in a legends car on on the on the oval and then I

Really want here because I had a plan going okay, so we'd go we'd go go carts

We'd go legends cars

We try and figure out how to do some dirt, but then I'd get her in the midgets

You know so she can run the dirt on midget and then you know try and get her and you know one of the

Formula type cars whether that's an F4 three or way up and then of course Indy next and then you know the choice between

You know, where do you want to go from there? So I got laid out when she's ready

You're gonna go a single-seater single-seater, Paul. Well, I'm a single-seater open-wheel guy

I I never intended to be NASCAR, you know, I intended to be Indy

I ended up you know being blessed to hook up with Jeff and those guys, but I do feel I

Do feel like open-wheel racing in America is gonna continue up, but certainly wouldn't be opposed because I think the new gen 7 car

you know had

Had you know guys like Dario Franckini or some of the guys that tried to cross over had that car instead of the old car

100 they probably would have been a lot better, you know Dario's fantastic race driver

But timing probably wasn't wasn't right, you know, and I think one Pablo Motoya would have won a probably a bunch more races

Even Danica Patrick I just that that transition now from open-wheel to Indy

I'm sorry to the NASCAR may be a little bit easier because of this car

I would agree 100% and timing no matter if it's crew chief and life and life, you know

Water shed moments in your career or driving career

Timings, I mean SVG is another perfect example of timing and I worked out perfect for him coming in

How was Arlington? I didn't go to Arlington

So my my two Indy car races this year that I've attended was St. Pete, which was you know first for me

Saw how the street course worked

And whatnot again very impressed with what I see with the Indy car organization and then again the teams, you know

I told Fox, you know Fox is a partner in Indy car now

They should show

They should do a little

Documentary, you know, they've got their series and whatnot

I said take a whole show on what it really takes to put a race on it'll blow you away

You know because I've been heavily involved with the race directors and the officials and you know

The streets set up and what they do to put that on the amount of data that the Indy cars have going on there

those cars

are really

Incredible cars and you think they've been racing that same car for 12 years

And they're getting prepared to have a new car for 2028 with some different bits arrow bits on it changing the

Overall, you know, they've got they've got their speedway stuff and then they've got their, you know, their road course downforce stuff

So it's really just wings pods, you know, there's differences on

Where they can put the floor

You know, they've got a pretty restricted height on on their diff users and things like that

So largely it's wings side pod configuration

And they're um, we we saw that this week unfortunately a couple hard hits

They're they're pretty safe cars scottie mac almost mad try to go on a ride. Yeah, holy mackerel. Yeah, what about dc that one that race is

Super exciting for me. How much how much work goes in behind you mentioned how much work it takes to put on a race

is there more

Red taped across with it with an event like that. I think there would have been

But the way they did it, you know, would the way that they set it up

Helped a lot with the executive order to to do that but with a street race

Trump's making her happen

It's it's pits and pit entry and corner

So they're setting up the course and then you got to put fencing and you got to keep the crowd separate

And then okay, where you're going to park the cars where you're going to put the fuel where it's tiring

I'm going to be you know, and you're doing this in the middle of a city. So it's not like you got a month to set it up

Yeah, uh, so there there's a lot that goes on race control

And you know, you look at just the security for places like they had, you know at arlington and certainly now dc

security is going to be

A big thing and there's a gentleman named kyle novak who really does a great job as a race director and and race operations and

Just had dinner with him the other night to get to know him and the list of things that he told me that he did

I was like

Damn, bro. Yeah, I went to you know, do you sleep? You know, uh, so there's a lot that goes on but you know

It's been a very good

Experience for me getting on the in inside of of the stuff that they've got going on

It's not often you can get in a situation where where you can hopefully add with your experience and yet learn at the same time

So it's been it's been exactly that

It's not often we get to do three questions with the guys well versus him

I you've been on the show once before though. I believe I don't think so. You've never invited me on

I mean, I better like you had jeff last and he probably said hey, we take care of rey rey

You know he jeff he looks out for me. He's like hey

Listen, I was a gordon fan because your jersey roots that that's you you pulled me in there

Your dad sat in the grandstand with my mom for the longest time

I was banging around there in the sixth cylinder. Yeah, and my dad bought his first race car for me

Had a had a sun it had a sunroof. Oh, that's right. The car we built for my brother

That's right. I forgot about that. So you start that you started all this for you guys are tight

Oh, yeah, well, we took so there might have been some alcohol involved in this but around the around the old ebb and ham

garage one night

my brothers

fiance at that time her dad gave her a car and they were gonna put on the street car and we decided

Now we're gonna cut it up make street stock out of it. So we took the saw saw and cut the roof off

And stuck a cage in it and willy ran it three or four times and and he sold it to your dad

I got a picture of that thing pushing like a dump truck, dude. I gotta

But we didn't do much to it. I'm putting the cage in I just guarantee he didn't do much to load it on the trailer

And put a number on the side

Well, we we've been wrong. We can sit here and chop it up all day

But I got we got three questions, right?

First question is obviously generally geared to a race car driver and you are a race car driver at heart

And you just happen to be exceptional at working on them

If you had to pick one car and one race track to race at the rest of your life, what do you go with?

410 world about lost sprint car el dora

Separate the men from the boys every day, you know, that's why running like that, you know

As billy pouch tells me all the time. He said you're like you may not have a long life running

Yeah, you might be here for a couple of weeks. It was fun while I lasted what about

My choice would be probably

t-rex charl yeah

t-rex but

Untouched and back in 97. Yeah, I go look at that. I wouldn't look at that car a couple weeks ago

t-rex when we hit the combination

Of that car because that was the first slam the ground

That was all honestly by let's just mess around and try this

Yeah, and just put equal springs in it and put a bigger bar and put that thing on the ground

That was an eye opener question number two ray. What's the most embarrassed you've ever been at the race track?

Oh boy when I ran the car out of fuel. We were leading the winston. I guess that was

98 we were leading the winston with one lap to go and

And you know ran ran out of fuel in a in a in a short race like that

It was just a mistake on my part but prefaces you you put less fuel in on purpose to have less weight

Nobody was really doing that yet. No, we we had

A lot of wild stuff going on, you know back then on stuff that you knew it was such a short race

And you really didn't care if them, you know crazy motor stuff transmissions gears axles all kind of stuff, right?

and uh, I was like

We're we're you know, we're gonna gain some front weight and we're gonna be

Like right out of gas because a lot of people would come in and this

We won a lot of races at rockingham and darlington like this and I watched people

Do it there'd be 30 laps to go at darlington and they just and you're like

Right, you know six pounds a gallon buddy at darlington

We had a time where we were only doing one can of fuel all day because the tires didn't only go that far and uh, so

You know, I was all about weight

Back then and uh, it matters. Yeah, you know, I felt like it felt like it did and uh,

Unfortunately, they called back that restart and and I guess that ate up

Couple caution laps and to green and then we and we were done. So no excuse that was on me

I told him that was that was a gas was 200,000 a gallon now

That's that's about what it is right now

Put that thing through the hormones straight

Question number three

I've had the men in black pen here and I got to zap all of your racing memories

Which only got to keep one which one did you keep how long's the memory?

Is that like a one night thing? Is that could be post flemington crash?

Oh, I was gonna say there's no memories from that. So that's what I use up

I used to uh, flemington crash and head injury to my advantage a lot of guy. I really don't remember

Yeah, like eight like yeah ad and bc. Sorry to forget your name. I hit the fence 98 season

You know that championship that that night, you know being able to to to look at

Jeff and the the crew and you know, we'd come so far right, you know, we didn't start till 93 and and and you know

By 98 that was our third championship and we won all those races. So that memory of being able to uh

To look out into that crowd and look look at the faces of the people that had put so much into it and

you know, just that that memory of I think

When you talk about a big accomplishment, it's not really a race or trophy

It's that being part of that team that you know, like that night you just knew like look

We we have we're going to be a part of history where the people like us not like us

Whatever we're part of history. So that memory that was the refuse to lose team

That was a refuse to lose team. Well, they were they damn refused it. I promise you

One last thing um

Rewind what was about

five six months ago. We're at uh

Graham smith's wedding and we're sitting there

It was you and Aaron and rick and linda came up and it was my wife sitting there and we were just talking about catching up life

My dad this is the other thing

So since then I have been working on building a carbon fiber shop solely because of you

So I've got a carbon fiber shop set up. We're doing a seat

We talked about safety a lot in this episode. So that I'm trying my hand at bringing a product to market

Because you gave me the bump

More or less, so I'm excited to show you that here in a couple minutes after this episode

But lastly, we'll wrap it up with this tell the folks we're going to tune in and watch this iraq event here next week

I think you just go to um heritage invitational.com and it'll give you all of the information our complete schedule for the days

And then it will be a post on racing america

Not just the iraq and vintage indy, but you'll be able to watch the pro am on friday night on racing america as well

And that's a that's a lot of fun because again, you know, when you've got some some uh, some dress some pro drivers and some amateurs out there

And there's nothing nothing separating but orange cones. They get after they get after a pretty good very good

Uh, well guys, I appreciate you turning in appreciate you guys listen to us each and every week

You can go to instagram at underscore stacking pennies

Core of the joy ryan floras. I'm racing rockin ham this week in the truck. What are you doing this week changing tires?

I'll be there too on the 88 car hendrick cars. What are you doing this weekend ray? Well, I'm probably getting iraq cars prepared

We're going to test a little bit this afternoon um and get ready, but it is easter weekend

I'm going to probably be watching the rockin ham race and uh

Try and spend a little time with my family because they're like

Man dad thought we thought you were retired

Yeah, yeah

Yeah, a good racer's never really retired. No, you're never you're never done

Well, y'all have a fantastic easter weekend

He has risen ladies and gentlemen because in god we trust here stagnant pennies

I hope you guys do too

Keep stacking pennies get you ultimately where you want to go in life. Y'all have a fantastic week

Core of the joy ryan floras ray evernham wishing you

Good morrow

0:00

47:58

Ray Evernham: Greatest Crew Chief of All Time? | Stacking Pennies

Hall of Fame

Jeff Gordon

Hendrick

Rockingham

Indy

flat tire

ran the car out of gas

Charlotte

restart

missed by one lap

Penske

downforce

Pebble Beach and Monterey

car week

Jensen Button

purse

test day

valet parking

Monroe shocks

FIA

Ford

Tom Fulery

feedback

Scott McLaughlin

post-race report

Daytona

Talladega

tape it up

pit crew

wings

diff users

fencing

cut the roof off

carbon fiber

About this episode

Original notes