by Joe Garner
First published 2024
Ray Evernham opens this memoir with his early racing days on modified cars along the Jersey shore. He details his turbulent time working on Alan Kulwicki's crew before forming his career-defining partnership with young driver Jeff Gordon. Together they built the No. 24 team into a championship machine, capturing three titles in four years between 1995 and 1998 while racking up forty-nine race victories. Evernham reveals the behind-the-scenes dynamics that made their collaboration so successful and explains why it eventually fell apart. He chronicles his next chapter building Evernham Motorsports from scratch, then his shift into television with stints at major networks and his own show AmeriCarna on Velocity. Throughout, Evernham emphasizes the persistence and reinvention required to succeed across multiple careers. He argues that a complete life accumulates both victories and setbacks, both trophies and scars.
Genres: autobiography, sports, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: career-retrospective, perseverance
Setting: Jersey Shore
Period: 1990s
543 pages · Kindle Edition · Octane Press