Evernham Motorsports today announced that it has agreed in principle to form a partnership with Valvoline to create Valvoline Evernham Racing LLC, which will campaign the #10 Valvoline Dodge Charger for the 2006 season. Under the arrangement, Valvoline will be the primary sponsor on the #10 Valvoline Dodge Charger for a majority of the races and will be a major associate sponsor on the #10 Dodge Charger for the remaining races in the season. A driver and crew chief for the team will be announced at a later date. Much of the team personnel will transfer to the #10 team from Evernham Motorsports’ #91 team. “This is the next step in our quest for a championship,” said Ray Evernham, president and CEO of Evernham Motorsports. “In today’s competitive environment, you need a multiple-car team to win races and championships. When you have more race teams, it speeds your development and learning tremendously. With this expansion, we can compete more effectively against other multiple-car organizations. Having Valvoline as a partner – not just a sponsor – makes this an incredible program,” Evernham said. “They have been a tremendous supporter of mine for many years, and our relationship has now grown into joint ownership of a team. Valvoline has a great history in this sport, and a deep understanding of what it takes to be successful. I look forward to winning championships with them.” The third team will be housed out of the new third facility at Evernham Motorsports headquarters in Statesville, NC. It will lease engines and shop space from Evernham Motorsports and have full access to Evernham R&D. The team expansion allows Evernham Motorsports to continue to grow and advance its operations. The expanded stable also allows Evernham Motorsports to accelerate its R&D efforts, increase its test dates, enhance its ability to collect and analyze data, and make improvements more quickly and efficiently.
“This is a new era in Valvoline’s long racing tradition,” said Valvoline Designated Team Owner Jim Rocco. “As is the case with our current team, Valvoline will leave the running of the team – the competition, personnel, equipment – to our partner,” he said. “Valvoline’s expertise is marketing and we will continue to make our NASCAR Nextel Cup Series racing effort serve the needs of our family of brands which include: Valvoline, Eagle One and Zerex.” For more information on Evernham Motorsports, visit evernhammotorsports.com.(Clear!Blue / Valvoline PR)(7-1-2005)
MORE and IMAGES: Ray Evernham will add a third team to his stable for 2006. The team will be co-owned by Valvoline with Jim Rocco listed as the offical team owner. Evernham said that the team will have Chris Andrews as crew chief and will use teammembers alredy in place at Evernham Motorsports. The members will come from exisiting members who now work on the development teams. Evernham insisted that Erin Crocker, his star pupil at the moment isn’t ready to move up, but that he would be “very interested” in bringing Scott Riggs, current driver at MB2 on board. Rocco agreed and said that they would like to see Riggs, but that at this time no decision on a driver has been made.(Cup Scene Daily)
IMAGES: see images for the new #10 Valvoline Dodge Charger on my first 2006 Team schemes page #10.(7-1-2005)
