In the 1990s, there wasn’t a better rivalry in NASCAR than Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt. Ray Evernham is now shedding light on that. Apparently, the 24 and 3 teams were not such bitter rivals. At least, not all the time.
Ray Evernham was serving as Jeff Gordon’s crew chief, Andy Petree was his counterpart at RCR with Dale Earnhardt. Both drivers raced hard and had their heated moments on the track. Behind the scenes, they were working hand-in-hand.
On the latest episode of the Dale Jr. Download, Evernham told Junior about the “secret alliance” between the two teams.
“Andy and I had our own channel between the two of us when he was crew chief for your dad,” Evernham said. “We would talk amongst ourselves.”
“Bulls**t,” Dale Jr. replies, incredulously.
“That’s the truth,” Evernham continued. “It went on for two years and then Andy, you know went and got his own team and I think we did it for one more year when he had Schrader. 100% you ask Andy. We had, the 3 and the 24 were almost their own little teammates.”
Dale Jr. was in disbelief at what Ray Evernham was telling him. Then, it got even more wild.
Ray Evernham built shocks for Dale Earnhardt in 1994
As the conversation went on, Dale Jr. and Ray Evernham talked about how deep this alliance went. Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt were battling hard on the track, but these teams were inextricably linked.
Evernham went further, talking about building shocks for Dale Sr. ahead of the October race in Charlotte, 1994.
“That’s true. That’s 100% true. I’d talk to Andy on the box about pitting and he’d talk to me about this and that. There was a time in Charlotte, 1994, October in Charlotte, I built the shocks for the 3 car. That’s true. I was the crew chief on the 24 and built a set of shocks for the 3 car.”
For those keeping track at home, Dale Sr. won the championship in 1994, his seventh and final Cup Series title. In that Charlotte race, he finished P3 in the race after qualifying P38. Must have been the shocks.
“[In] 94 we [the 24 team] weren’t going to win the championship, and your dad was in a battle with Mark [Martin] or somebody and we were like okay, well, here.”
Dale Earnhardt would win the championship over Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin, and he had Ray Evernham to thank for it.
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