2016 Elegance at Hershey names Ray Evernham as Grand Marshall

Ray Evernham. Photo courtesy The Elegance at Hershey.

Ray Evernham may be best known to racing fans as Jeff Gordon’s long-term crew chief, or for his role in leading Dodge back into NASCAR as a team owner in 2001, or even for his role as the star of Velocity’s Americarna, a show created in collaboration with long-time friend Rick Hendrick. We know him best as a vintage hot rod fan, rolling up his sleeves (and the cuffs of his jeans) to run in vintage hot rods at The Race of Gentlemen, or more recently, to support his wife Erin Crocker Evernham at the 2015 Race of Gentlemen. Attendees at next year’s The Elegance at Hershey will get to know Ray in a new role, as he’s been selected as Grand Marshall for the 2016 event.

Ray’s early ambitions were to be a driver, but he soon found that his true talent was as a crew chief and driver manager. In 1990, he worked for a time as a chassis specialist for an up-and-coming driver named Jeff Gordon, and in 1992 Ray joined Hendrick Motorsports as Jeff’s crew chief. The paring produced a Winston Cup Rookie of the Year award for Jeff in 1993, and Winston cup Championships for the team in 1995, 1997 and 1998.

In 1999, Ray became a team owner, and the following year ran a limited Winston Cup schedule with driver Casey Atwood behind the wheel of a Ford. Around the same time, the Evernham Motorsports team was approached by Daimler Chrysler to lead Dodge’s return to NASCAR racing after an absence lasting almost two decades (Arrington Racing had last campaigned a Dodge Mirada in Winston Cup in 1982). In less than 18 months, Ray and his team developed an engine, a car and the parts distribution system necessary to bring Dodge back to stock car racing’s highest level. In February of 2001, driver Bill Elliott delivered a pole-position start and a fifth-place finish for Evernham Motorsports at the Daytona 500, a race sadly overshadowed by the death of Dale Earnhardt.

Ray stepped down from his role as a team owner in 2010, selling the last of his stake in Evernham Motorsports (then Gillett Evernham Motorsports) to Petty Enterprises. He didn’t remain idle for long, rejoining Hendrick Motorsport as a consultant in 2011. In the years since, Ray has been a television commentator for NBCSN, covering NASCAR, and for Discovery and Velocity, covering Barrett-Jackson auctions. There’s Americarna, too, and in his spare time, Ray designs and builds custom cars like For-Ply, a 1964 Plymouth Belvedere restomod exhibited at SEMA in 2012. As this 2014 video demonstrates, he’s also an avid car collector, with a passion for Mopars and vintage racing cars.

Steve Moskowitz, The Elegance board member, said of the selection, “We chose Ray not only for his great appreciation of fine automobiles and all forms of automobile racing, but because he is a “car guy” in every sense of the word. Ray is one of those people you instantly like and is the type of person we want to honor. We are most appreciative that he has taken time out of his busy schedule to join us for the weekend.”

The 2016 Elegance at Hershey will take place from June 10-12, 2016, on the grounds of the Hotel Hershey in Hershey, Pennsylvania. For additional details, visit TheEleganceAtHershey.com.