Trophies and Scars: Ray Evernham

Trophies and Scars is the profoundly personal, sincere, and remarkably revealing story of the life and times of NASCAR Hall of Famer Ray Evernham. A son of the Jersey Shore, Evernham dedicated his life to fulfilling his boyhood dream of becoming a professional race car driver.

By age eighteen, he was banging fenders with good success on the Northeast short track circuit. When his dreams of becoming an Indy car sensation literally crashed and burned, he turned to Roger Penske's International Race of Champions (IROC), before another brutal crash forced him to give up his Indy dream for good.

It was time to change careers.

As a leader of a race team on the technical rather than the driving side, he discovered new skills critical to building successful racing organizations. A brief, ill-fated, and downright volatile stint on Alan Kulwicki's crew, turned into a "right place at the right time" scenario, sparking a seminal partnership with racing phenom Jeff Gordon. They would prove to be one of the most potent racing duos in history.

Evernham shares previously untold tales of how the duo led the No. 24 team to three championships in four seasons (1995, 1997, 1998) and a series-leading forty-nine wins, revealing in candid detail how and why their storied relationship came to an end.

The book also details Evernham's time spearheading the return of Dodge to NASCAR, building Evernham Motorsports into one of the most successful NASCAR teams, as well as his transformation into a TV personality with roles as a NASCAR analyst for SPEED, ESPN, ABC, FOX, and NBC and as host to his own TV series, AmeriCarna, on the Velocity channel.

Woven throughout all these stories recounting the many twists and turns of his life, he reveals how he buried himself in work to cope with his personal challenges: his son Ray J.'s battle with leukemia and later autism diagnosis, his controversial legal clash with Jeremy Mayfield, his divorce, and the scandal surrounding his relationship with second wife Erin Crocker. Many of these painful challenges ultimately brought rich rewards, such as the formation of the Evernham Family Racing for a Reason Foundation, funding for IGNITE, education and training programs for young adults with high-functioning autism or Asperger's syndrome, his loving marriage to Erin, and the birth of their daughter Caite.

You needn't be a racing fan to appreciate Evernham's inspiring journey of tireless persistence, radical determination, steadfast leadership, and fearless reinvention. For as he believes, a life lived to the fullest is packed with trophies--and scars.

Deemed "The Ken Burns of the written and recorded word" by talk show legend Larry King, six-time New York Times bestselling author Joe Garner took the publishing world by storm with the release of his seminal audio-and-hardcover book We Interrupt This Broadcast. Garner's inspired pairing of audio, photographs, and written word graced the New York Times Bestselling List for two consecutive years and sold over one million copies. Joe Garner is the author of Jeff Gordon: His Dream, Drive, and Destiny, the only authorized biography of the NASCAR Hall of Fame three-time champion. Academy Award winner Tom Cruise provided the foreword. The book became Garner's sixth New York Times bestseller.

Ray Evernham has more than four decades of experience in the automotive and racing industries. He has worked with the biggest names in motorsport history--including Jeff Gordon, Mario Andretti, A. J. Foyt, and Dale Earnhardt Sr.--was a vital force in resurrecting the International Race of Champions (IROC) series, won three NASCAR Sprint Cup championships as crew chief for Jeff Gordon, and partnered with Dodge to build Evernham Motorsports into one of the most successful teams in NASCAR. Evernham's career has branched into the television industry, where he served as a NASCAR analyst for SPEED, ESPN, ABC, FOX, and NBC, hosted and produced his own television series, AmeriCarna, on the Velocity channel, and hosted Glory Road on NBCSN. He also served as a consultant and voice talent for Pixar's Cars 3. Evernham was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2018 and into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2023.

Most recently, Evernham co-created a made-for-TV motorsports property for CBS called Superstar Racing Experience (SRX), consisting of a six-race series with twelve legendary drivers from all forms of motorsport competing head-to-head in equally prepared cars on iconic short tracks across America. Evernham led the design and build of the cars and developed the exciting race format that put SRX at the top of American racing programs in just its first season.

Currently, Evernham is an avid car collector, consultant to motorsports and automotive related businesses, and is very active with his foundation, Evernham Family--Racing for a Reason, which funds community centers for young adults with high-functioning Autism or Asperger's Syndrome through his IGNITE program.