OMG – Evernham’s New Office Crib!! Dakar Rally January 27, 2009
Posted by claireblang in 2009 Season, Crew Chiefs, Teams.Tags: Chad Knaus, claire b lang, Dakar Rally, NASCAR, Ray Evernham, Sirius NASCAR Radio, Sprint Cup Series
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OMG – Evernham’s New Office Crib!!
Today (Tuesday, January 27) I went to Ray Evernham Enterprises for a special lunch with Ray as he announced his new course for his future. I was blown away by the museum Evernham has put together at his new museum/shop just off exit 36 on I 77 North. (See the amazing picture).
Upon entering the facility – looking through the many trophies and notes and photos and framed articles of racers who lived and died (most all of them died) racing the vehicles on display – - I saw a “Rainbow Warriors” engraved plaque. The etched metal piece on the wood was engraved with the signatures of the guys on the #24 team. Although Evernham has a slew of motivational banners and signs (some given back to him by Lowe’s #48 crew chief Chad Knaus from the time he led the Hendrick group) this one stood out:
“We know how rough the road will be – How heavy here the load will be. We know about the barricades that wait along the track.
But we have set our soul ahead upon a certain goal ahead and nothing left from hell to sky – shall ever turn us back.”
I got goose bumps on that one. Each member of the teams signature is etched below the saying and it’s hard to believe that one group of young men could be as committed to winning and excellence as that team. But you’ll have that in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing and you could almost feel the passion given in the prime years of the guys on that team led by Evernham to being number one.
Today, Evernham is happy and doing things on his terms. It’s not time for champion crew chief Chad Knaus to stop and enjoy what he has built and achieved – he’s still on his game, Evernham said. One day Evernham may return to Sprint Cup racing – but today it’s Evernham’s turn to reflect, collect and share with young racers and up and comers and whomever the heck he wants to share his knowledge with. He’ll help set the land speed record, He’ll create racing opportunities for young stars, host on ESPN, serve as new owner of East Lincoln Speedway and continue to build the museum at REE.
The place was incredible -beyond description. Inside the building, a diner, an antique Texaco gas station store front, bar, and the vehicles…amazing. Check out the photo at right. Impressive Ray!
NASCAR Hauler Driver Meets Dakar Rally LIVE on “Dialed In”
I want to thank Randy Rodriguez the Sprint Cup Series hauler driver for Robby Gordon Motorsports for calling me the first week of January from the Dakar rally when I was on the air on Sirius NASCAR Radio. Not everyone knows that Randy is married to Robby’s mom and he’s a right guy.
I received a phone call as clear as talking to your neighbor and here it was a call from Randy in Argentina. What a story! He talked about the guys, including Robby sleeping in tents, and roll overs and near misses and the crowds that lined the streets and the throngs that welcomed them to South America. His story was so compelling. Once Rodriquez and the team returned he sent me some photos of the trip – (see the photos in the blog sidebar to the right). Enjoy! Rodriguez is a man of his word. He said he would call and he did – he had a special international cell phone and it was a real special surprise to be able to take my listeners LIVE to the Dakar Rally camp of Gordon’s team. Thanks Randy!!
Stay tuned for more excitement and unpredictable calls and inside stories on Dialed In.
I am going to begin posting regular for the season as I leave for Daytona and coverage of the 2009 Daytona 500.
Enjoy the day!
Claire B
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Kyle Busch’s Team Not Changing Motor Today October 21, 2007
Posted by claireblang in Breaking News, Crew Chiefs, Teams.add a comment
I’m here in the garage at Martinsville Speedway – and getting IM’s from some of you who wonder if the #5 Hendrick team was changing a motor this morning. They were working o
on their race car this morning in the garage – and some folks thought they saw a motor change. They are not changing a motor – I walked into the garage a few minutes ago to check with crew chief Alan Gustafson….
CBL: It looked as if you were changing a motor but you are not, correct?
#5 Crew Chief Alan Gustafson: “Well we were practicing here at Martinsville the Kelloggs Carquest Chevy had some bumper issues. Had some contact with the 16 here on Friday and bent our bumper bar back so thats in pretty close proximity to the radiator so … we all know there’s going to be a little beating and banging here today so we just had to pull the radiator out and fix that front bumper bar and do some work on the nose that’s pretty much it. A little more (work) than usual but not too out of the ordinary for Martinsville.”
CBL: I guess some folks thought they saw you changing the motor on the TV shot
“We had the car backed in here to work on it cause we didn’t want to get a bunch of debris here in the garage and all over these other guys cars here so we had the car nosed out of the garage which is usually the way you’d have it when you change motors.”
It’s amazing how on top of things the race fans are. Great job to those of you who asked about this today.
Claire B
CBL NEWS: Tony Junior Will Leave DEI Early for Hendrick Motorsports September 21, 2007
Posted by claireblang in Breaking News, Crew Chiefs, NASCAR.6 comments
I just talked with Tony Eury Junior – He is leaving DEI before the end of the season to go to Hendrick Motorsports.
CBL: Is it true you’re leaving early?
Tony Junior: “I’ll go over there the Monday after Talladega. My deal is I’ve got to get acquanted with all the people over there you know and I’m going to hang around and look at the shops just get to know everybody and just see how they do things. You know I’m interested in going to the meetings with Grubb and Allan and seeing how they do their meetings and see what they’re after I mean. It’s going to be definately a new role for me and…I got a bigger learning curve than Dale Junior. Dale Junior just got to do his own gig and I gotta make a car go fast. So I gotta go over their and figure out their deal and I just gotta get ready.”
CBL: Did you ask the guys at DEI for a release. It’s probably good for them too:
Tony Junior: Yea when I first talked about getting out of my contract told Max I’m like ‘Look’ I said, ‘We need to think about it. If we make the chase, I’ll work with you till November and if we don’t at some point in time I think we need to well just go I’ll go do that deal and Gibson can step in and get a hand on his game so it’s a benefit for both of us. Pretty much the reason we picked the time frame was just because I think I’ll have everything in line by then. You know these guys I wasn’t going to ditch them and leave them in a hole so all the cars should be lined up in the shop pretty much ready to go except for putting motors in so we’re not going to put these guys in a bind in any way shape or form its just a matter of when things were ready over here and things were good over there then I can go.”
Eury Junior confirmed that he’s going to take four guys from his team as I reported to you earlier this week.
CBL: Will Dale Junior test early (for HMS) or run a Busch car for Hendrick this year?
He probably won’t run any Busch races. We have talked about testing some. Ah, we don’t need to cause any problems. If it will help Regan can drive his car at Atlanta and if we can drive their car then that’s what we’ll do. We’ll do a lot of our winter testing at Kentucky I am sure in November and December but we’re not going to push the envelope too bad to create any more problems than’s already out there.
