Dale Earnhardt Jr Completed Hendrick ‘Dream Team’ Akin to Michael Jordan’s as Kyle Busch Paid the Price

What would happen if you lumped Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo on the same team? Or are Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen on the same team? What if Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were on the same side? For the fans, these prospects are positively mouthwatering. In 1992, NBA fans got exactly what they wanted with the US Men’s basketball team for the 1992 Olympics. Once upon a time, something similar happened in NASCAR, all thanks to Hendrick Motorsports.

At the 1992 Olympic Games, the United States got a chance to field active professional NBA players. Thus, the Dream Team was born, and they utterly demolished the competition. The roster included, Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, Utah Jazz’s John Stockton and Karl Malone and LA Lakers’ Magic Johnson.

Also joining them were Boston Celtics’ Larry Bird, New York Knicks’ Patrick Ewing and Golden State Warriors’ Chris Mullin. Finally, San Antonio Spurs’ David Robinson, Philadelphia 76ers’ Charles Barkley, and Portland Trail Blazers’ Clyde Drexler completed the line-up, along with Christian Laettner from Duke University.

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What line-up did Hendrick Motorsports field to earn a Dream Team tag?

Back in 2008, the organisation recruited Dale Earnhardt Jr to race for them after Kyle Busch’s departure. Earnhardt would join the likes of Coca-Cola 600 winner Casey Mears, 4-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon and reigning champion Jimmie Johnson. Johnson would later go on to amass an astounding 7 Cup Series titles, but that’s a different story.

It is also worth mentioning that just a year earlier, rising star Kyle Busch was also a part of the team. Just imagine, there could have been a time when we had Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr and Kyle Busch. In the end though, the stars for that particular combination, never aligned, not that Casey Mears was complaining.

Coming to Dale Jr’s recruitment, a large part of it was down to his relationship with Rick Hendrick. According to the driver, the Hendrick Motorsports owner always had his best interests at heart, over the years. Dale Earnhardt Jr knew that he cared about all of his employees and wanted to work with somebody like that.

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