Erin Mary Crocker Evernham is married to team owner, Ray Evernham who she married on the 26th of August 2009. Born on the 23rd March 1981 in Wilbraham, Massachusetts Erin first started to race at the age of seven. She started racing quarter midgets in the Custom Quarter Midget Club in Thompson and the Meriden’s Silver City Quarter Midget Club in Connecticut gaining the title "the Most Improved Novice" in her first year of competition.

Erin Crocker Shot by The Daredevil at Daytona during Speedweeks 2008 (Courtesy or Wiki Commons)

From 1993 to 1996 she won several awards as well as three Northeast Regional Quarter Midgets of America championships. In 1997 she became the youngest and the first female to win at Whip City Speedway whilst running Mini Sprints. She moved to the Eastern Limited Sprint Series in 1999 and was named "Rookie of the Year".

Whilst studying for her degree in Industrial and management engineering at the Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York she started racing professionally in the World of Outlaws and she signed with Woodring Racing in 2002 to drive a 360 winged sprint car. She won five feature events as well as twelve heat events to earn her the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Outstanding Newcomer Award. She changed to 410 Dirt Sprints in 2003 and became the first woman to qualify for the Knoxville Nationals and she became the 410 division "Rookie of the Year" honour at the end of the season. She joined the Ford Motor Company driver development programme and that season she tested a Ford sprint for Bob East and Steve Lewis. She joined the development programme for Evernham Motorsports in 2005. She took part in the RCA RE/MAX Series and earned three Top 5 positions, three Top 10’s and two poles in six starts. Driving the #6 County Crock Dodge in the Busch Series she made her NASCAR debut at Richmond International Raceway when she started at 42nd position and finished, after a crash, at 39th.

At Dover International Speedway she qualified 9th but crashed on the eleventh lap after being tapped by Justin Labonte. A cracked rib on this occasion forced her to sit out of some of her scheduled races but she ran two more races that season as well as two Truck races for Bobby Hamilton Racing at Phoenix and Homestead-Miami Speedway, her best finish being at the Homestead-Miami Raceway at 30th. Erin drove full time in the Truck Series in 2006 where she finished 25th in the Craftsman Truck standings driving the #98. At the end of the season Evernham decided to close the #98 team. In 2007 Erin ran a number of ARCA Series events and although she won the pole for the seasons opening event she struggled and finished 20th in the race.

It was during this year that a dispute broke out between Ray Evernham and Jeremy Mayfield with Jeremy Mayfield accusing Ray Evernham of inattention to his #19 team and giving too much focus on his personal relationship with an unnamed female driver and as Erin was the only female driver employed by Evernham Motorsports it was obvious who it was. Ray Evernham confirmed that a relationship does exist and that it had affected Erin’s career. After the Autumn ARCA race at Talladega Superspeedway in 2008 it was confirmed that she had left Evernham Motorsports. She ran a limited two race schedule in the Truck Series for Morgan-Dollar Motorsports before being replaced by Red Bull drivers, A.J. Allmendinger and Scott Speed. She joined the broadcast booth for SPEED Channel on the 6th September 2008for the ARCA/REMAX race. So it’s watch this space.

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