Silver anniversary of gold mine

Owner Hendrick recalls his humble beginnings

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - NASCAR Sprint Cup car owner Rick Hendrick, standing on pit road at Daytona International Speedway, recently recalled the modest start of Hendrick Motorsports with equal parts incredulity and humility on the occasion of his team's 25th anniversary.

"I don't know how I made it back in those days," said Hendrick, whose team has compiled eight Cup championships, three Truck Series titles, one Nationwide Series crown, and more than 200 victories.

"We started with five people and almost pulled the plug after five or six races. And then to get lucky enough to get a sponsor and win a race and go on. Definitely, you couldn't be as competitive as we were back then with the competition level like it is today.

"I think back, though, and [crew chief] Harry Hyde was so sharp and Randy Dorton was so smart with an engine and Geoff Bodine was good with a chassis and he was a heck of a driver. So you've got to say that I was very fortunate to have the talent that I had assembled back then to have the real desire to do something."

Headquartered in Concord, N.C., Hendrick Motorsports now employs 500 and will field cars tomorrow in the 51st Daytona 500 for three-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson, four-time champion Jeff Gordon, the wildly popular Dale Earnhardt Jr., and 50-year-old Mark Martin, who put off thoughts of semiretirement to be paired with crew chief Alan Gustafson as driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet.

"What drove me to take this was Rick Hendrick, Hendrick Motorsports, Jeff, Jimmie, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.," said Martin, who will start tomorrow alongside pole-sitter Martin Truex Jr. "It was an opportunity to drive a blazing fast racecar that could win a race. That's why I did it."

Gordon has recorded several milestones for Hendrick Motorsports, delivering 81 victories, including the team's 100th. But Gordon felt one accomplishment stood out.

"I think winning the championship in '95, that was the first-ever championship for Hendrick and that was very, very special," said Gordon, who won his 150-mile heat in Thursday's Gatorade Duel. "Rick had been at it for a while and had been close with Ricky Rudd, but to give him that first championship, there's very few things that you can give Rick Hendrick for the very first time. He'd already gotten wins, he'd already had Daytona 500 wins, but he'd never had a championship before that, and that one probably means the most to me to give back to him."

Hendrick has suffered tragedies away from the track, the most devastating when a team plane en route to Martinsville, Va., crashed Oct. 27, 2004, killing 10 people, including Hendrick's son, Ricky; brother, John, the team's president; and two nieces.

Hendrick, though, led his team to three more titles, by Johnson (2006-08), who joined Cale Yarborough (1976-78) as the only drivers to win three in a row.

"I've been very fortunate with people," Hendrick said. "You've got to have good drivers and good crew chiefs and good people. We've been blessed to have people who have been there for 20 years. The young guys who come along, we have a good mixture of seasoned people and young people who are working hard together.

"I look back on it and I can't believe it, to do something in life that you would do for nothing and you spend whatever money you have to do it anyway. I've been blessed."

Asked if he would ever consider becoming NASCAR's first commissioner, the 59-year-old Hendrick said, "Uh-uh, no way. I don't like public companies. I like dictatorships."

Told he'd likely be viewed as a benevolent dictator, Hendrick replied, "Bill France was that. I got too much to do and I owe too much money in the car business and I have too many employees who depend on me. My plate's full. The older I get, the harder it is to do the two things I do, so I can't volunteer for anything else."

When Chip Ganassi Racing merged with Dale Earnhardt Inc. to form Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, it meant the demise of the team started by the late seven-time NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt Sr. Asked his feelings about the merger, Earnhardt Jr. said, "None. I guess [we] could probably sit in front of a psychiatrist and they could explain it, but I don't know why - I don't. It don't bother me. I've got my own little life going on, my own problems that I deal with that keep me pretty damn busy."

In addition to driving the No. 88 Chevrolet, Earnhardt fields a Nationwide Series team under JR Motorsports.

"I learned a long time ago when I was racing late models that when you meet somebody you like and you're working with them and you're having fun, you just assume they're going to be there forever and they're not," said Earnhardt, who engaged his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, in a contentious contract negotiation for control of DEI, only to leave to drive for Hendrick last year.

"Two years later, they're going to work for somebody else and that's the way the damn thing goes. People come and go in your life and you don't always get things the way you want them, and that's just another case of it."

If Matt Kenseth wins tomorrow's race in the No. 17 DeWalt Ford fielded by Roush Fenway Racing, it will come on the 20th anniversary of Darrell Waltrip's Daytona 500 triumph in the No. 17 Tide Chevrolet, which was the only one of his career and came in his 17th attempt. Waltrip, then 42, celebrated his victory by performing the Ickey Shuffle and spiking his helmet in Victory Lane. Waltrip stretched his last tank of fuel 132 miles to gain position, taking the lead with 10 miles to go. "I was screaming and hollering," Waltrip told the Daytona Beach News-Journal. "The fuel gauge is jumping around, the motor is popping and sputtering, and I'm not going to make it." But he did. "I was excited to win, but more than that, I was relieved. I had had 16 years of frustration, pressure, and doubt that just kept building and building," he said.

Tony Stewart, following through on a promise to his boyhood hero, had A.J. Foyt join him at Daytona for Stewart's first ride in his No. 14 Office Depot Chevy fielded by Stewart-Haas Racing. During Thursday's Gatorade Duel, in which Stewart finished as runner-up in his heat, Foyt was allowed to sit atop the pit box. "We actually had a special radio sitting there just for him," said Stewart, who finished third in the Budweiser Shootout last Saturday and in last year's Daytona 500. "It had a button on it and everything, but it didn't do anything when you pushed the button. Can you imagine having to sit there and drive with him yelling at you all day long? I've kind of done that in Silver Crown cars a little bit, but I've learned my lesson. I know better than to give him a radio he can yell into." Said Foyt, "It was nice just sitting there, all quiet, and not raising any hell."

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.