NASCAR Cup Series

Ray Evernham details in-race argument with Jeff Gordon on 'Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour'

Published Apr. 4, 2024 2:50 p.m. ET

NASCAR Hall of Famers Ray Evernham and Jeff Gordon had a legendary run together, with the former as crew chief and the latter behind the wheel. That said, any great tandem has its bumpy moments — and funny anecdotes.

Evernham shared a story with Kevin Harvick on "Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour" about when he and Gordon got heated on the radio during a race.

"We had a little blowout on the radio at Vegas, and it was kind of funny because we couldn't stay angry," Evernham said. "Like, after the race, he'd come in, and he'd look at me like a kid, like my little brother, and I would laugh, or he would laugh, so we would just start laughing. But that day, the Tauruses were kicking our butt. … We weren't used to that, and we're back there running like 11th. He's screaming this, that and oh my God, and I said, 'OK, then come in, and we'll pit.' [He says] ‘We can't pit. You know if we pit, we'll go a lap down.' I said, 'Well, then shut up and drive it because I can't run alongside it and fix it.' And then he didn't say another word to me.

"Afterward, I just laughed at him. I was like, ‘Bud, what do you want to do? They kicked out butt. We got beat. We didn't make a top-10 today.'"

Gordon finished his career with 93 wins (third in NASCAR history) and four Cup Series championships (1995, 1997, 1998 and 2001), putting him fourth all time. Three of those championships came with Evernham as his crew chief at Hendrick Motorsports; the two were partners in the Cup Series from 1992 to 1999.

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Evernham became a team owner in 2000 and later helped re-introduce Dodge cars to NASCAR. He sold majority ownership of "Evernham Motorsports" in 2007 and later returned to Hendrick Motorsports as a consultant for its competition department in 2014.

Gordon is now the Vice Chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, a position he has held since 2021. In-between his final race in the Cup Series (2016) and his new endeavor at Hendrick Motorsports, Gordon was a color commentator for NASCAR on FOX.

Evernham was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2018, with Gordon following him in 2019.

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