by Frank Taylor
NASCAR team owner Ray Evernham announced Thursday night in Lincolnton that he is in advanced negotiations to purchase the East Lincoln Speedway and plans to retire from NASCAR.

Evernham and partner Bob Mack of Cornelius-based RPM Group Holdings said they had hoped to have the keys to the speedway in their hands when they appeared at the Lincolnton-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce’s Business After-Hours event to make the announcement, but were prevented from doing so as negotiations continued.

Evernham said he has already sold off most of his interest in the Gillett-Evernham Motorsports race team and is ending his career with NASCAR.

“I want to get back into grassroots racing,” he told the gathering of area community leaders and businesspeople.

Contacted by the Times-News Friday morning, current track owner Ralph Nantz said he couldn’t “talk much about it right now,” but confirmed that “serious” negotiations with Evernham were under way.

“You might say he is showing some interest,” Nantz said.

He said he visited the East Lincoln Speedway and was impressed with the atmosphere at the track, located on Mariposa Road in southeastern Lincoln County, near Lowesville. He watched as kids drove and families gathered in the stands.

“It’s a nice Saturday night place,” Evernham said. “That’s my plan: to keep it a nice Saturday night place.”

A native of New Jersey, the veteran motorsports competitor said he’s been alarmed by what’s happened to small tracks in his home state and elsewhere.

“Racetracks across America are disappearing quick-ly,” he said, describing calls from old friends in New Jersey who said the state was down to only two remaining tracks.

Only about 14 short tracks remain in North Carolina, with only a few hundred nationwide out of what was once a much larger number.

Evernham said he and partner Mack are “going to have a little fun.”

They are optimistic about the role smaller tracks play. They hope that perhaps one of the next big racing stars can get a start at the track they are buying.

While the pair could not go into detail about the still-uncompleted deal, or about their plans for the venue, Evernham hoped making the announcement would “dispel rumors” about what his future plans might be. As for the track, he said, “First thing, we’re going to do there is see what everybody needs.”

Mack emphasized that their goals would include safety and family entertainment. He said the track had not publicly been up for sale prior to the beginning of their talks with the current owners.

The East Lincoln Speedway has been in operation since 1991 and is a 3/8 mile clay oval track.

In an interview with the Times-News earlier this year, former track spokesman Terry Brotherton noted that the track has sometimes been plagued by noise complaints from neighbors, prompting efforts to wind up events at an earlier time. In the same interview, Nantz described a balancing act amid the rapid residential population growth in the area, with newcomers adding to ticket sales, but also potentially wanting to limit racing as the area becomes more populated.

Nantz said Friday that Brotherton is no longer with his organization.

He predicted that Evernham’s ownership would be positive for the community.

“It would certainly do something for local racing,” Nantz said. “I think if things go as planned, a lot of people are going to be really excited. When you do something like this it directly or indirectly affects a lot of people.”

Evernham has worked in NASCAR as both a driver and a mechanic, though he has especially made his mark as a crew chief, first with Jeff Gordon and later with his own team, which is based in Cornelius. He was voted the greatest NASCAR crew chief of all time by sportswriters in 2006.

On his NASCAR team’s Web site, the 51-year-old Evernham offers the following from Vince Lombardi as his favorite saying: “I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour – his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dead – is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and he’s exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.”

Times-News staff writer Olin Ericksen also contributed to this article.

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