Dale Earnhardt versus Jeff Gordon was the culture clash NASCAR rivalry of the 90’s but it was only their respective fans that engaged in the back-and-forth.
For the most part, the two Hall of Famers became really close friends and occasional business partners, doing nothing to tell their fans that they shouldn’t root against the other side, while cashing in on the various perks generated by fan enthusiasm.
But as it turns out, there were much deeper ties between the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 and Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 teams dating back to their first years racing against each other.
Ray Evernham, who took Gordon to his first three Cup Series championships in 1995, 1997 and 1998, was the featured guest on the Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. Download this week and told the eponymous driver a tale that he didn’t even know regarding his father.
Evernham had a secret radio channel, back during the 1993, 1994 and 1995 seasons, with Earnhardt crew chief Andy Petree and Dale Jr. was really surprised by this revelation:
“Bullshit.”
“That’s the truth.”
“How long did that happen?”
“It went on for two years and then Andy went and got his own team and I think we did it for one more year when he had (Ken) Schrader.”
“No kidding.”.
“One hundred percent. You ask Andy. The 3 and the 24 were almost their own little teammates.”
“No one is going to believe that.”
Dale Jr and Ray Evernham on DJD
Evernham said he and Petree would go back-and-forth about their respective pit strategies and pick each other’s brains. Then Evernham really blew Earnhardt Jr’s mind by telling him that he even built shocks for Earnhardt one season while also serving as crew chief for Gordon.
“Bullshit!”
Earnhardt said it louder this time.
“That’s true. I was the crew chief on the 24 and built a set of shocks for the three car.”
Evernham.
Evernham said he really respected Petree and considered them the benchmark to aspire towards and considered it the greatest accomplishment to lead Gordon to the championship over them in 1995.
For what it’s worth, Petree shared some of these stories back in 2020 on The Scene Vault podcast with veteran NASCAR writer Rick Houston.
“What a lot of people don’t know, and I’ve said this recently too,” Petree said. “Ray and I were close friends and I helped get him into the sport. When he did, I knew how good he was, and we shared a lot of things back then.
“As a matter of fact, we were almost like teammates, and a lot of people don’t know that. During all that rivalry period, ’93, ’94 and ’95, Ray and I talked every Monday morning and we would exchange post-race notes.”
Everything?
“Everything and no one knew it,” Petree said.
It’s funny because Evernham said ‘go ask Andy,’ and Andy said the same thing.
“Go ask Ray,” Petree said. “If Richard Childress had known this, he’d probably gotten both of us fired. We had our own radio channel and we’d talk during the race. Most people don’t know this. Ray was one of these guys who brought a lot of fresh ideas and I really liked the technology, and I was trying to learn from him and Ray was trying to learn from my experience.
“We were really good for each other because ’93, ’94 and ’95, we were the only ones to win a championship.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.