Ray Evernham, chief of Dodge-backed Evernham Motorsports [#9, #19, #91], says chances are “better than 50%” that he will have a third Cup team in 2006. He said he has tentative agreements with significant sponsors, and he pulled up short when asked who would drive the car [Jayski Note: Brendan Gaughan has been rumored]. Evernham says he has constructed a building for the proposed new team and has personnel aboard. “I think you can get the team started and kind of take it from there. The sponsor is going to have to have realistic expectations. For a first-year team, to jump right up there and win races, there’s not too many people who do that. “I’m fortunate enough to say I’m one of the people who have done it, but it’s still very difficult. There are [drivers] out there that can win races, and the sponsor has to go into it realistically. Every sponsor says they want a top 10 car, top 10 driver, well, there’s 15 top-10 cars out there, which one do you want?(Speed Channel)(6-11-2005)
UPDATE: another rumor floating around has Casey Mears, current driver for #41 Ganassi Racing going to Evernham, with Reed Sorenson moving up from Busch into the #41 Target Dodge. And Scott Riggs, driver of the #10 MBV team could end up at Evernham.
AND Valvoline also apparently will become at least partial sponsor of a proposed third team out of Evernham Motorsports, with driver to be determined.(Speed Channel Notebook)(6-12-2005)
UPDATE 2 – Evernham Motorsports to make 2006 announcement on Friday, July 1st at Daytona International Speedway, announcing news for the 2006 season.(6-28/29-2005)….nothing to do with Allstate…see that announcement below. Looks for it to be Valvoline as the sponsor of a third team.
