Engagement News and Rumors: Jamie McMurray and Ray Evernham

Jamie McMurray
It was announced on ABC's pre-race show that Jamie McMurray got engaged this last week.

I'm guessing he's in a pretty good mood and could this possibly explain his exuberant start on the front row. Shannon Spake from ABC / ESPN didn't pursue this line of thoughts while interviewing Jamie in the truck during the pre-race.

I can't find anything under the NASCAR banner, sooooo,

Jamie proposed to his girlfriend, Christy Futrell, last Monday at the Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona.

He said in an interview that he felt kind of corny, questioning the "getting down on one knee" thing. Jamie... score the points and don't start with a deficit.

Her reaction was crystal clear: ''Are you kidding? Are you serious?'. LOL... my wife did that too.

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Ray Evernham
Rumors seem to be aswirl that Ray Evernham got engaged to Erin Crocker.

This relationship has had quite a bit of history, from when Jeremy Mayfield socially shot his driving career in the foot when in 2006, he spouted, in a lawsuit of all things, about the team being hurt from Evernham spending too much time with Crocker, and the issues with leaving his wife.

It's been reported that Erin Crocker's Facebook account has been updated from Being in a Relationship, to Engaged. I can't confirm it because I am not a "friend" of Erin's. So is it Ray? I'm thinking Erin's Facebook page image might be a fair clue.


Her website doesn't have any news either, her news page is empty, but is loaded with online ads. Huh. In fact the info on the main page seems to be a report from a news site instead of an update from the driver. Is the lack of news on her website indicative of her driving development or just an oversight?

In case you were curious:
Ray Evernham was born Aug 26th, 1957.
Erin Crocker was born Mar 23rd, 1981.

You do the math!!

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Related Bits Link.
Source: McMurray News: ABC telecast, source; Evernham News: source, Facebook screenshot, erincrocker.org.

Evernham and Crocker

Ray Evernham thinks his relationship with Erin Crocker has hurt her career! (YA THINK?)

Team owner Ray Evernham says the best thing for developmental driver Erin Crocker is to find a new race team because if he tells someone else she has talent (Driving that is), they think it's a biased statement. Thus he thinks she needs to find another race team to develop in her own shadow.

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?seriesId=99&id=2951523

Evernham Racing Article

Came across a great, in-depth article on the state of the sponsors and interesting insights here, at http://www.speedtv.com/articles/nascar/nextel/38749/.

Here are some paragraph headers from the article:

-Evernham’s partnership agreement with Canadian investor George Gillett, Jr., is expected to close next week;
-The sale of Chrysler Group to investment-banking firm Cerberus Capital Partners
-Cerberus, an investor known for sharp cost-cutting of the companies it acquires
-There are other options for Kahne beyond Budweiser.
-Another sponsor said to be looking closely at Kahne’s car is Coca-Cola
-As far as Sadler’s No. 19 car, the leading candidate is candymaker M&M’s

Budweiser and Evernham

It may seem, according to Ray Evernham, that the rumors of Evernham Motorsports being close to signing a deal with Budweiser for next season are unfounded.

"We have talked to Budweiser, but they have also spoken to five or six other teams in the Nextel Cup garage."

See DaveMoody's blog for the entire snippet.