A portrait of Ray Evernham, crew chief for the #24 Hendrick Motorsports Du Pont Chevrolet talking with his driver Jeff Gordon during the1998 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Pepsi Southern 500 race on 6 September 1998 at the Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina, United States. Photo – Hulton Archive

Note: This is the fifth in a five-part series of features detailing the careers of each of the five inductees for the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2018. The inductees, who will be officially enshrined on Jan. 19 (8 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), are Red Byron, Ray Evernham, Ron Hornaday Jr., Ken Squier and Robert Yates.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Even before answering the first question from a ready group of racing reporters about his induction Friday into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Ray Evernham, 60, insisted on making an important point. Continue reading →