Lost in the Brickyard weekend news shuffle last week was the "revelation" that Ray Evernham and Erin Crocker had a personal relationship.

In other headlines ripped from the pages of the obvious, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is joining Hendrick Motorsports, Tony Stewart is a smart aleck and Bill Weber is the worst announcer on television.

Evernham decided to "come clean" about the relationship, which everyone who spends anytime covering the sport knew about a year ago, only when his public relations minions decided to shuffle a few chosen media members away for a little personal chat last Friday.

Those mouthpieces, some at the World Wide Leader in Sports, if you catch my drift, then wrote stories about how Ray felt sorry for poor Erin and how moving to another team would better her career.

I'm sure Jeremy Mayfield spit Mountain Dew out of his nose in laughter when those stories hit the airwaves.

The bottom line is whatever Evernham and Crocker want to do in their private lives is their business. But here's a little tip, constantly being together in the garage, at functions, even holding hands at some points, is probably not the best way to keep any personal relationship a secret.

The way Evernham's team has performed this year is the bigger story in my mind, with total collapse probably the headline.

I have no interestest in whatever Ray and Erin want to do together that doesn't involve a race car.

Although I have to admit watching a prominent NASCAR team owner parade around with a woman less than half his age, both pretending nothing is going on and the relationship was purely professional, was just a little bit creepy.

Ray should be holding the hands of Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler and Scott Riggs as their seasons go down the drain.