Dale Earnhardt Sr rubbed elbows with a whole host of folks in his time, and his son, Junior, always had it in his heart to walk in his dad’s footsteps. But it wasn’t until fate dealt its cruel hand, taking Senior away, that Junior really started to peel back the layers and get to the heart of his father’s world.

In a recent chinwag with Ray Evernham, the new head honcho of IROC 2.0, Junior stumbled upon a nugget that knocked his socks off: there was a secret pact between the #3 car, his dad’s ride, and #24, helmed by Jeff Gordon. There’s talk about a bolt from the blue for Dale Earnhardt Jr!

Dale Earnhardt Sr’s untold partnership with the Hendrick Motorsports driver

Turns out, when Andy Petree and Ray Evernham were at the helm, they had a little insider’s club going on with Dale Sr. When Dale Jr got wind of this, his jaw hit the floor, and he let out a “Bullsh*t.” But Evernham laid it all out, saying this undercover partnership went on for a good two years before Petree set off on his own adventure. Then, for another year, it was just Evernham, Dale Earnhardt Sr, and Jeff Gordon, almost like they were playing on the same team but in secret.

Ray Evernham spilled even more beans, leaving Dale Earnhardt Jr gobsmacked. He talked about a time back in ’94 in Charlotte when he, the crew chief for the #24, whipped up a set of shocks for Dale Sr’s #3 car. “There was a time in Charlotte, 1994, October at Charlotte. I built the shocks for the #3 car,” Evernham confessed. “We had the #3 and the #24 were almost their own little teammates. […] I was a crew chief on the #24 and built a set of shocks for this green car. Unreal! But 94, we weren’t going to win the championship. And I think your dad was in the battle with Mark or somebody and we were like, okay, we’ll gear. Here.”

NASCAR even has a clip where Evernham shares how he never saw himself as crew chief material because he thought he lacked the chops. He just wanted to be the chassis guru. That’s when he and Petree decided to join forces for Jeff Gordon, figuring out their pit strategy like a secret handshake.

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By ’94, their cars were flying, and Dale Sr’s was lagging a bit. Evernham went the extra mile, crafting four shocks for Dale Sr’s ride, a move unknown to the big bosses at HMS. They had their own covert channel, chatting away during races, but when it came down to the wire, they let the drivers duke it out on the track—no secrets about tire pressures or anything.

Furthermore, during the talk with Dale Earnhardt Jr Evernham also touched on why he bowed out of the SRX series after just one season, adding another layer to this fascinating behind-the-scenes tale.

Ray Evernham cites the reason behind leaving SRX

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Ray Evernham’s exit from the SRX series was just as much a headline-grabber as his tales of secret NASCAR alliances. During a heart-to-heart on Earnhardt’s show, the spotlight turned to the SRX Series, which took the racing world by surprise by pulling the plug after just three seasons. Evernham, who had dreamt up the series alongside Tony Stewart, took everyone aback by bowing out after the inaugural season. He’d kept mum about the reasons until this chat.

He laid it out simply: “When you have a dream and you all agree this is the direction this is going to go and this is the funding that it’s going to take to do it. Here’s my job. Here’s your job. Here’s his job. At the end of the year, when there’s no moving forward financially or things like that, you have to have a hard conversation with the partners. Like, wait a minute, this is what we agreed on. This is what I think it’s going to take to be successful.”

Turns out, the other folks at the helm had a different route mapped out, thinking they could make it work without sticking to the original blueprint. Evernham wasn’t buying it. “I didn’t want to do that so I said, ‘OK, well, you probably need to have somebody else run this then because I don’t believe that that path that you’re going on will be successful.’ So I stepped aside.”