Erin Mary Crocker Evernham is an American race car driver and broadcaster with the Motor Racing Network's Winged Nation. In the past, she played soccer, tennis, and varsity lacrosse on both her high school and college teams. Her motorsports career stalled due to poor results and a personal relationship between Crocker and her former boss, team owner and current husband, Ray Evernham.
Early career
Crocker first started racing quarter midgets at the age of 7 in the Custom Quarter Midget Club, based in Thompson, Connecticut, and the Silver City Quarter Midget Club from Meriden, Connecticut and was named the Most Improved Novice during her first year of competition. She then moved on to win several awards and three Northeast Regional Quarter Midgets of America championships from 1993 to 1996 while in middle and high school. In 1997, Crocker began running Mini Sprints at Whip City Speedway in Westfield, MA. She became the youngest driver and the first female to win a race at the track. In 1998 she again competed in a 1200cc Mini sprint at Whip City and also with the Central New YorkMini Sprint Association. In 1999, she moved to the Eastern Limited Sprint Series, and was named Rookie of the Year. Crocker started racing professionally in the World of Outlaws while attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in industrial and management engineering in 2003. In 2002, Crocker signed with Woodring Racing to drive a 360 winged sprint car. She won five feature races as well as twelve heat events, earning her the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Outstanding Newcomer Award. The following season, she switched to 410 Dirt Sprints, and became the first woman to qualify for the Knoxville Nationals. She won the 410 division's Rookie of the Year honors at season's end.
The following season, she left Ford to join Evernham Motorsports' driver development program. During the season, she raced in the ARCA RE/MAX Series and collected three top 5s, including a second-place finish, five top 10s, and two poles in six starts. She also made her NASCAR debut that season at Richmond International Raceway driving the No. 6 Dodge for Evernham in the Busch Series. She started 42nd after a wreck in qualifying, and proceeded to finish 39th after another wreck. In her next start at Dover International Speedway, she qualified ninth, but wrecked eleven laps into the race after being tapped by Justin Labonte. Crocker sustained a cracked rib from the incident forcing her to sit out some races she was scheduled to compete in. She ran two more races that season, one for Evernham and the other for FitzBradshaw Racing, her best finish coming at Memphis Motorsports Park, where she finished 29th for FitzBradshaw in the No. 40 Dodge Charger. She also ran a pair of Truck races for Bobby Hamilton Racing, at Phoenix and Homestead-Miami Speedway. Crocker crashed in both races.
2006
In 2006 Crocker drove the No. 98 full-time in the Truck Series. She finished 25th in the Craftsman Truck standings. After struggling during the 2006 season, Evernham decided to close the No. 98 team.
2007
In 2007, Crocker ran a select number of ARCA Series events. She won the pole for the season-opening ARCA race at Daytona International Speedway in 2007. She however struggled, finishing 20th in the race. During her tenure as a Truck Series driver, a dispute between then-Evernham Cup driver Jeremy Mayfield and Ray Evernham resulted in a series of lawsuits between Mayfield and Evernham. In Mayfield’s legal filings, he asserted that the No. 19 team’s lack of on-track success was due in large part to Evernham’s attention being focused on his personal relationship with an unnamed female driver. At the time, Crocker was the only female driver employed by Evernham Motorsports. Evernham confirmed in an interview with ESPN that the relationship exists and has hurt Crocker's career.
2008
Following the fall 2007 ARCA race at Talladega Superspeedway, 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 she was replaced by Red Bull drivers A. J. Allmendinger and Scott Speed. For the ARCA/REMAX race on September 6, 2008, she joined the broadcast booth for SPEED.
Personal life
Crocker and former boss/team owner Ray Evernham were wed on August 26, 2009 in Las Vegas. On July 25, 2015, Crocker gave birth to a daughter, Cate Susan Evernham.
