In 1984, Rick Hendrick, a 34-year-old car dealer from Charlotte, thought about NASCAR. That year, it wasn’t possible to be a car dealer in Charlotte and not think about NASCAR. Hendrick had a little money, so when the mercurial, supposedly washed-up crew chief Harry Hyde, who was renting a building to Hendrick so he could store his toys—boats and motors, mostly, as Hendrick was once a drag-boat-racing champion—told Hendrick he ought to start a NASCAR team, Hendrick listened.
On a shoestring, they started a team they called All Star Racing.
They needed a driver. Richard Petty, “the King,” agreed to drive for Hendrick. At the end of 1983, Petty announced he would leave Petty Enterprises, not long after his October 9, 1983, win at Charlotte, after which the team was fined a then-record $35,000 when post-race inspection revealed an illegal tire combination and a 382-cubic-inch V-8 engine, when the legal maximum was 358. Petty said he was shocked, shocked by the transgression, mentioning that he was “only the driver, and [didn’t] know anything about the motor or the tires.”
But just before Petty was supposed to sign with Hendrick, sponsor STP concluded that jumping ship along with the world’s greatest NASCAR driver to a team that had not yet turned a wheel in NASCAR Cup racing, with a crew chief who hadn’t won in seven years, was not a good idea. Petty ended up driving for California politician and record producer Mike Curb.
So Hendrick was driverless. He interviewed several potentials, among them Geoff Bodine, an edgy driver of modifieds from New York who managed to squeeze nine top-10 NASCAR finishes from an underfunded Pontiac in 1983 before losing his ride for the last two races of the season. Bodine told Hendrick how much he wanted the job, and Hendrick said, “Thanks, we’ll make a decision soon.” Bodine said, “Do you mind if I wait outside?” So they hired Geoff Bodine because he wouldn’t go away.
But like so many rookie owners before him, Hendrick underestimated the expense and the competition. The team was teetering on the brink of collapse when Bodine won the Sovran Bank 500 at Martinsville, Virginia, earning $29,880. It was the eighth race of the season and the first win for crew chief Hyde since 1977.
Subsequently, dozens of racers have driven for Hendrick Motorsports, in the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide, or Craftsman Truck series. A few got away. He says he wishes Richard Petty would have driven for him, and “Dale Earnhardt Sr. and I got pretty close a couple of times.” But overall, he has employed some of the best drivers and crew chiefs in the business.
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