Full Throttle

“I don’t think it’s any secret that because of the personal relationship between Erin and I it hurt her career,” Evernham said.

D’OH!

It didn’t exactly help by waiting a year before acknowledging what was patently obvious a year ago either.

“The proper thing to do, and something her and I would like to do, is move her to another race team. I think the girl has a lot of talent. But if I sit here and say to somebody, ‘Look, she’s got a lot of talent, you should sponsor her,’ my credibility is not good because of the personal relationship.”

D’OH!

Again Evernham is a year late in coming to this shocking epiphany.

There isn’t much doubt Crocker has talent, whether that will take her to the Cup level is an unanswered question.

The unfortunate thing for both parties is the answer is muddled because of the relationship. No one can say with any certainty whether it impacted sponsorship opportunities or affected her on-track performance but it damn sure couldn’t help in any way.

Thankfully Evernham has apparently come to that conclusion also.

“I think the best thing for us to do is to help her go racing,” Evernham said. “We gave Erin a chance last year, and we probably moved her along too quick. … She’s a darn good race driver.”

I can concur, easily. She has shown a flash of outstanding talent at times in a very talent laden (and young) ARCA RE/MAX Series. And to be honest it has been done in what amounts to the fifth tier of the Evernham organization counting the three Cup teams and one Busch team. (and those four haven’t scorched any race tracks of late either)

She may not be the answer to NASCAR’s Diversity Dreams but she deserves a better shot than what has been afforded to this point.