Looking for where the problems start at EMS? Look to the owner.

It’s hard to stop an open wound from bleeding with a mere Band-Aid. It’s going to take a little more care and consideration to stanch the flow and bring the situation under control. Never hurts to have another helping hand to make sure everything is going smoothly.

This weekend at Indianapolis, Evernham Motorsports owner Ray Evernham attempted to cover the ugly eyesore his team has become with a temporary Band-Aid until his helping hand can be secured.

First, Evernham opened up about something that has been common knowledge within the garage for more than a year: his “personal” relationship with ARCA driver Erin Crocker. Crocker came to the team as a bright-eyed winner and she was thrust onto the ARCA, Truck and Busch circuits without much time to let her get settled in any series. Then, as the 2006 Summer of Unrest rolled around and Jeremy Mayfield knew his time was about up, he publicly aired Evernham’s dirty laundry for all to see.

Mayfield claimed that Evernham was spending so much time with Crocker that his absenteeism caused the team as a whole to go into a sharp decline. There was a quickly settled lawsuit and Elliott Sadler came to pilot the No. 19. Things seemed to calm down. At the season-ending Cup banquet, Evernham’s date was young Crocker, effectively acknowledging their relationship without saying a word.

Fast-forward to mid-summer 2007. The Evernham teams are foundering. Not a win among the three cars; Crocker lost her Betty Crocker sponsorship a long time ago and the team was reassigned within EMS. The 19 has posted one top ten finish at Daytona (No, not in July. In February.). The No. 9 is still flirting with being dangerously close to the bottom of the top 35. The No. 10 is now consistently having to qualify on time, and more often than not, going home.

Things have been going on behind the scenes, too. Earlier this year Evernham announced that it was absolutely necessary he have a business partner who would infuse the team with a pile of cash and let Evernham be more involved with the teams like the crew chief he used to be.

Enter Montreal Canadiens owner George Gillett. All year there have been rumblings that EMS would soon close a deal with the rich businessman, a move that would shore up the blundering teams. The NASCAR news sites counted down the months until only speculative weeks remained before the deal was done.

Here we are at the motor racing capital of the world, better known as Speedway, Ind. It’s a time when teams traditionally announce big news as part of the hoopla that always surrounds the Brickyard 400. Ray Evernham stood in front of his hauler and told the world that his girlfriend Crocker no longer had the credibility she had when she first came into the sport.

She had to find another race team, he said, so she could prove herself. It’s funny, but I haven’t heard much about Crocker trying to find a team on her own. It’s possible the pair has only just decided that there’s a dearth of credibility (and in this writer’s opinion neither of them have much left), but I don’t think that’s the case.

Here we have Mr. Gillett, a mere two weeks away from agreeing to buy a major portion of EMS, and this announcement comes. Many reporters have conjectured that the Gillett camp has requested Crocker’s removal before any deal was completed. As long as it lingered as a black eye over the organization, Gillett probably didn’t want any part of it. It’s all conjecture, mind you, but image is everything in the new NASCAR. Remember, Betty Crocker pulled their support not long after last year’s summer debacle, but EMS insisted it wasn’t related. Of course not.

So now that the potentially embarrassing girlfriend is conveniently punted out of the way, Evernham made another announcement actually concerning his race team. Faulty aerodynamics data, he said, was to blame for nearly all of the season’s poor performances. According to Evernham, data that had been acquired after several early testing sessions were not calculated into computer programs the team used to build and test its chassis.

Because of this glaring and fatal omission, the lead engineer was placed on a “leave of absence.” In desperation, all EMS cars went back to the golden notes of 2006 to try and go back to square one. All three cars were taken out of contention by wrecks. So much for the 2006 noses and notes.

This writer was flabbergasted when she read the engineering news. The legions of EMS fans had been watching their flagship team become a laughingstock. It is far too easy to armchair quarterback, but why didn’t the teams’ poor performance trigger warning bells sooner in Evernham’s analytical mind?

The man is unquestionably one of the greatest crew chiefs ever to grace the NASCAR garage. He was Chad Knaus before there was a Chad Knaus. Many new fans don’t remember that. Older fans wonder why something drastic hasn’t been done by now.

Certainly Evernham is wearing multiple hats right now. Boyfriend, owner, crew chief and spotter for the No. 19, dealmaker. His time has been taken up by the Crocker situation (not to mention having to explain it to her personally), trying to land a megabucks deal to bring money and business management expertise into his company, and figure out why his cars have been running in the bottom twenty week in and week out.

It’s been an ugly year for EMS, and as a fan, this writer hopes that the Gillett deal will put Ray back where he belongs and longs to be: on top of the pit box. Perhaps the completion of the complicated partnership will free up some valuable mental resources that Ray needs to share with his teams. He’s been coming back into the fold as part of the No. 19’s team, and it has been welcome to hear him on the radio and interacting with Sadler.

With Ray ensconced in the crew chief’s position once again, this writer believes nothing but good can come from it. But it will take dedication and concentration, and for the rest of the year, those values must be focused directly on the EMS teams and nothing else.

Questions and comments may be sent to samanthamaynard@sportsgrumblings.com