By The Commish

The recent merger between Richard Petty Motorsports and Yates Racing switching to Ford means, for all intents, that the Dodge Decade is over. That decade, and the Dodge re-entry into Cup, started in Jeff Gordon's garage, and its ramifications are still being felt. After the successful 1998 championship season, Gordon's crew chief Ray Evernham grew restless. He was definitely the most successful team leader in the garage, but he wanted new challenges and more responsibility. Over the winter of 1998-99, Daimler-Chrysler approached him about leading the Dodge move back to Cup, and Evernham was intrigued.

At the same time, Jeff Gordon was renegotiating his contract with Hendrick Motorsports. He'd been offered the opportunity to test in Formula 1, he was on top of his sport, and he was the most desired driver in the garage. Offers from a number of teams had already arrived on his desk. He said in his biography that he was thinking toward his future, wanting to be more than just a contract driver. "I wanted a plan for my future that would extend beyond being just the driver," Gordon said.

Owner Rick Hendrick didn't want to break up the most successful team in motorsports, but he knew that Evernham wanted to be more than a crew chief. He made Evernham a job offer, which was rumored but never confirmed to be the newly-created position of Vice President for Competition. When Evernham declined the offer, Hendrick stepped back and allowed the process to run its course. Later Hendrick would comment that, "Sometimes it is best to help someone with their ambitions, even if it may not be what you would hope at the time."

Gordon knew that Evernham wanted him to come to Dodge with him. Evernham knew that a driver with Gordon's talent and star power would draw sponsorship and media attention and give the new organization a great chance for success on the racetrack. However, Gordon had serious reservations about starting a team from scratch and what that would mean. In addition, he was deeply loyal to Rick Hendrick, who was still recovering from leukemia and rarely able to support the team at the track.

Rumors flew throughout the summer, and the garage was sure that Evernham and Gordon were leaving Hendrick together. The story came to a head in Richmond, where Evernham visited Gordon in his hotel room to lay a contract from Dodge before him. What Gordon didn't know was that Evernham had already tried to recruit John Bickford, Gordon's stepfather, away from his job with Action Performance to head the business side of Dodge Motorsports. Bickford declined the offer, not wanting to damage his friendship with Evernham by putting it on a business footing.

Gordon told Evernham that he was happy for his friend's opportunities, but that he couldn't leave Rick Hendrick. "Ray and I shook hands and wished each other luck," he said. "It was one of the oddest feelings I've ever had." After 47 wins and 3 championships in five seasons, the dream team disbanded. A disastrous finish in Richmond followed the next night. Gordon flew home to Charlotte and arrived on Hendrick's doorstep before breakfast on Sunday morning. He broke the news to Hendrick that Evernham had signed with Dodge. "We've got to find a new crew chief," the driver told his owner. "I'm staying, but Ray's leaving." Evernham was reportedly so angry at Gordon for breaking the news to Hendrick before he had a chance to speak to his boss that he didn't speak to his driver for over a week.

Evernham's final race atop the pit box for Gordon came the next weekend at Dover. By then, team engineer Brian Whitesell was the de-facto crew chief. A few days after Dover, Evernham took an early leave from Hendrick Motorsports under a non-compete, non-hire clause. Meanwhile, Whitesell stepped up to lead the #24 team. With many of his Virginia Tech classmates watching, Whitesell engineered tire strategy at Martinsville that led Gordon to victory lane in their first race together. "I've never wanted to win so bad in my life!" Gordon said. Dale Earnhardt, who finished second, wasn't surprised. "Just proves that Gordon wins no matter who's crew chiefin," Earnhardt said.

Evernham had mixed emotions, too. "With what I've got coming up, I probably should be the happiest guy in the world," he said. "(I should be) doing all kinds of back flips. But it's hard to be doing back flips when you've just left a tremendous driver like Jeff Gordon and a tremendous owner and a great friend like Rick Hendrick. I look at this thing as professional sports, and I felt like I was a damn good quarterback when I was a quarterback, but I'm not a quarterback anymore. My knees are worn out and I don't feel like playing the game. It's time to do something else."

Hendrick moved quickly to secure the future of his racing organization. On October 7, it was announced that Gordon had signed an unprecedented contract to keep him with Hendrick Motorsports for the remainder of his driving career and give him an ownership stake in his raceteam. "I always hoped that Jeff would be here and race with me forever," Hendrick said. "From my standpoint, anyway, we never had any idea of this not happening." Gordon acknowledged he fielded other offers, but not seriously. "There was never really anything close," Gordon said, adding he never again wanted such distractions. "I came to Rick and said, 'Hey, I want to be here forever.'"

The team won their second straight race at Charlotte the following week and finished the year 6th in the points standings. In December 2000, Robbie Loomis was brought on as crew chief and would lead the DuPont team to its fourth championship in 2001. Evernham's adventures with Dodge were uneven at best, and he finally was bought out in corporate maneuverings in 2007. With Richard Petty taking the remnants of Evernham's team to Ford, the great Dodge adventure seems over -- at least for now. In the meantime, Jeff Gordon remains at Hendrick Motorsports, having nearly doubled his win total since Evernham left and secured in his position both as driver and part-owner of another championship team under his roof.

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