THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 30, 1997 TAG: 9701300576
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 72 lines
It was supposed to be a day of triumph for Rick Hendrick, but Ray Evernham knew that something was terribly wrong with the boss.
In a few hours, in the grand ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria, Terry Labonte would be crowned 1996 Winston Cup champion, capping Hendrick's second straight championship as a car owner.
Two days before, Hendrick, the nation's biggest car dealer, had been indicted on federal charges of conspiring to bribe Honda executives. But Evernham 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. ``We read each other pretty good. We have a very close relationship. And I knew something was going on.''
Finally, Hendrick sat Evernham down and told him he had leukemia. Evernham could hardly believe what he was hearing. The irony was staggering.
They had been through this before, in 1992. 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 could have imagined. Ray J's cancer went into remission and has not reappeared. And on Wednesday, Ray Evernham vowed that he would try to do as much for Hendrick as Hendrick had done for him.
``With Jeff's help, we're going to turn this into a good thing,'' Evernham said. ``We're going to help bring attention to the disease and raise money to help other people with leukemia.''
Hendrick, who began chemotherapy Tuesday, likely will need a bone-marrow transplant.
The shock of Ray J's leukemia could not have come at a more tumultuous time for Ray and his wife, Mary. She was still living at their home in New Jersey. Ray already had worked for three different teams during that 1992 season and it was only July. He had been at Hendrick Motorsports all of five weeks when he was called to the phone. It was July 20, 1992.
``I'll never forget it,'' Evernham said. ``They called me here at shop on that Monday and told me my son was sick. I flew home. I can't even begin. . .
Evernham was the man Rick Hendrick hired to nurture Hendrick's new phenom, Jeff Gordon, to greatness. But he had barely even met Hendrick. To make matters worse, Hendrick wasn't certain about the status of his medical insurance.
But Hendrick had been there for him. Hendrick flew to New York to be with the Evernhams.
``I don't want you to worry about your job,'' Hendrick said. ``I don't want you to worry about money or doctors' bills or anything. All I want you to worry about is your son and getting him healthy.''
Since learning of Hendrick's illness, Evernham has experienced those small, special moments that give him hope that everything will be OK with Hendrick, as it has been with his son.
At the banquet in New York on Dec. 6, Gordon was named True Value Man of the Year, which included a $25,000 prize and a $25,000 donation to Gordon's designated charity, which happens to be the Leukemia Society of America.
When Gordon stepped up to the podium, he said he was giving his $25,000 prize to the society as well. Evernham sat there stunned, wrapped in the emotion of Hendrick's revelation and the irony that no one else, not even Gordon, knew about it.
``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.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
NASCAR car owner Rick Hendrick, battling leukemia, began chemo this
week.