ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 30, 1997 TAG: 9701300046
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
CREW CHIEF RAY EVERNHAM, whose boss Rick Hendrick has leukemia, went through the same experience in 1992 when his son contracted the disease.
December 6 was supposed to be a day of triumph for Rick Hendrick, but Ray Evernham knew something was terribly wrong with the boss.
In the grand ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, Terry Labonte was be crowned 1996 Winston Cup champion, capping Hendrick's second straight championship as a car owner.
Two days before, Hendrick, the country's biggest car dealer, had been charged in a 15-count federal criminal indictment in connection with the American Honda scandal.
But Evernham, Jeff Gordon's crew chief, could tell something else was bothering Hendrick. The indictment was bad news, but not unexpected.
``I kept bugging him. I wouldn't leave him alone about it,'' Evernham said Wednesday from the Hendrick Motorsports complex in Concord. ``We read each other pretty good. We have a very close relationship. And I knew something was going on. And I knew it was something more than everything else that was going on.''
Finally, Hendrick sat down to talk with Evernham. Hendrick told Evernham he had leukemia.
Evernham could hardly believe what he was hearing. The coincidence was staggering.
In 1992, they had been through this before. Except the first time, it had been Evernham telling Hendrick that his son, Raymond John, nicknamed ``Ray J.,'' had leukemia.
Hendrick had come through for the Evernhams back then more generously than they ever could have imagined. Ray J.'s cancer went into remission and has not reappeared. On Wednesday, Ray Evernham vowed that he would try to do as much for Hendrick as Hendrick did for him five years ago.
Hendrick, who began chemotherapy Tuesday, likely will need a bone marrow transplant. Evernham already has a working knowledge of such things, having held a bone marrow drive in 1994 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Evernham, who joined Hendrick Motorsports in 1992, was the man Rick Hendrick hired to nurture Hendrick's new phenom, Jeff Gordon, to greatness. But he had barely even met Hendrick. This was the job of his lifetime. And now he had the terrible predicament of a son with leukemia.
But Hendrick had been there for him. Hendrick, on his own, had flown to New York to be with the Evernhams. Hendrick was one of the first outsiders to visit them in the hospital. He made things easier for Ray and his wife, Mary.
``I don't want you to worry about your job,'' Hendrick said. ``I don't want you to worry about money or doctor's bills or anything. All I want you to worry about is your son and getting him healthy.''
Recalls Evernham, ``For six weeks, while Ray J. was in the hospital, Rick flew me back and forth every week. I'd work four days at the shop and then he flew me back to New York every Friday.''
Since learning of Hendrick's illness, Evernham has experienced those small, special moments, sometimes filled with irony, that give him hope that everything will be okay with Hendrick, as it has been with his son.
``There is going to be a lot of emotion and hard times, but I really believe we can put this thing behind us and go on,'' Evernham said. ``I've got a 5-year-old son I look at every day. And they told me when he was a year old that I wasn't going to have him. So I feel like everything is going to be fine.''
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines KEYWORDS: AUTO RACINGby CNB