Rick Hendrick Opens Up About the Reason Behind His Extensive Portfolio in the World of Racing

NASCAR has, over the past 75 years, seen quite a few dominant teams with long stretches of success. None can hold a torch to Hendrick Motorsports, however. Without a doubt, they are the best in the business, with 14 Cup championships and 301 Cup wins to their name.

Though the team was founded in 1984, it was not till the mid-90s that Rick Hendrick & Co. set the tracks on fire. Now, the NASCAR Hall of Famer owns not just the winningest NASCAR team but also the largest privately owned dealership group in the country—the Hendrick Automotive Group.

Rick Hendrick says his recipe of getting smart people on the same page didn’t work

As part of the Race Industry Week 2023, Rick Hendrick was the Featured Speaker on the EPARTRADE channel. Among other things, he talked all things business with Jeff Hammond, the 2x Cup championship-winning crew chief of Darrel Waltrip and a presenter at FOX Sports. Hammond, who has worked at Hendrick Motorsports in the past, asked whether owning the dealership made him a better team owner or was it vice versa.

Mr Hendrick laid the groundwork, saying, “Well I think if you ask me what drove me to do multicar team: You know once we won a race and we got a sponsor for the second year … actually we picked up the sponsor for the half of the first year and then we got a sponsor for full-time—Levi Garrett—and then Folgers approached us and I had Tim Richmond sitting there that I wanted to begin with.”

He then went on to add how understanding how to run a business helped him, although getting people to work together in racing is a completely different deal. He said, “I think what I learned in the automobile business was if you’ve got great people you can—and in that time I had probably six deals … maybe six, seven deals. And I would learn to work together, and you get that many smart people—if everybody’s on the same page you can do good things, and you share information.

“So I thought, well in racing, here’s a guy I wanted—Tim Richmond—and here’s a sponsor, which was hard to get a sponsor. If I could get the two to work together, that was something I found pretty hard to get done.”

“I didn’t realize how hard getting people working together in racing was. Everybody doesn’t wanna share. I think it’s taken me 40 years to get that done, Jeff,” sagaciously, Mr H added.

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Despite his humility, Mr Hendrick has brought scores of people together over the past 40 years and helped them succeed in NASCAR. The latest success story is that of William Byron and his crew chief Rudy Fugle.

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Mr H believes William Byron and Rudy Fugle is the best relationship he has seen in a long time

William Byron was the one who marked Hendrick Motorsport’s historic 300th win in the Cup Series but had to be content with a 3rd place finish. But the bond between him and crew chief Judy is what fills Rick Hendrick with confidence of better results in future, despite the shortcomings.

“What a great combination and it’s confidence, its confidence in each other, he gives Williams confidence, Williams gives Rudy confidence that he’s gonna drive what Rudy wants him to… so it’s probably one of the best relationships car a driver and crew chief I’ve ever seen in a long long time.”

At 74, Hendrick is still the figure that his entire team looks up to. It can be said that the veteran owner knows a thing or two about how to handle the mind behind the wheels and his entire team. With him at the helm, one can certainly expect another championship around the corner.

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