Hendrick Motorsports
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| Owner(s) Name | Rick Hendrick Jeff Gordon |
| Racing Series | NEXTEL Cup Busch Series |
| Number of Championships | 6 NEXTEL Cup 1 Busch Series 3 Craftsman Truck Series |
| Car Number(s) | #5, #24, #25, #48 (NEXTEL Cup) #5, #48, #57 (Busch Series) |
| Driver(s) | Kyle Busch (#5-NEXTEL Cup & Busch) Jeff Gordon (#24 Nextel Cup) Casey Mears (#25, #57-Busch) Jimmie Johnson (#48-NEXTEL Cup & Busch) Adrian Fernandez (#57-Busch) |
| Primary Sponsor(s) | Kellogg's / Carquest (#5-NEXTEL Cup) DuPont / Pepsi / Nicorette (#24-NEXTEL Cup) National Guard / GMAC (#25-NEXTEL Cup) Lowe's (#48-NEXTEL Cup) Lowe's (#5, #48-Busch) |
| Shop Location | Concord, North Carolina |
| Homepage | Hendrick Motorsports |
Hendrick Motorsports is a group of NASCAR racing teams started by Rick Hendrick in 1984 under the name "All Star Racing", racing only Chevrolets, racing in both the Nextel Cup and Busch Series circuits. Hendrick Motorsports has garnered six Cup Series championships, three Craftsman Truck Series titles, and one Busch Series crown, making it one of stock-car racing’s premier organizations.
All Hendrick race cars are constructed start-to-finish at the 62 acre (250,000 m²) complex in Concord, North Carolina, and more than 700 engines are built or re-built on-site each year, with the team leasing some of those to other NASCAR outfits.
Hendrick Motorsports employs over 400 people, and day-to-day activities include management of the company's website, its 15,000 square foot (1,400 m²) museum and team store, marketing, public relations, sponsor services, licensing, show cars, and merchandising.
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[edit] The team
[edit] NEXTEL Cup
[edit] Car #5 History
Hendrick Motorsports originally debuted in 1984 with the #5 Northwestern Security Life Chevy, driven by Geoff Bodine. Running all 30 races, Bodine and the team won three times and finished 9th in points that year. They improved in 1985, finishing 5th in points despite not winning a single race in a car sponsored by Levi Garrett. The team also briefly became a two-car team when Dick Brooks drove the #1 Exxon Chevy at Charlotte Motor Speedway and finished 10th.
Moving to a multi-car team full-time in 1986, Bodine won twice and posted an eighth place finish in the points standings. His little brother, Brett, raced as a teammate to him at the World 600 that year, finishing 17th. Bodine went winless again in 1987, finishing 13th in points. Bodine won one race apiece over the next two years, before leaving for Junior Johnson in 1990. Ricky Rudd took his place, winning once and finishing 7th in points. For 1991, the team received sponsorship from Tide as part of the car's merger with Darrell Waltrip's old team. Winning one race that year, Rudd finished a career high second in the points standings. The most notorious part of that year was at Sears Point Raceway, when on the final lap, second-place Rudd spun out leader Davey Allison on the last turn and went on to win. NASCAR penalized the team for rough driving and awarded Allison the win. Rudd kept his streak of one win a year over the next two years, then left to form his own team, taking Tide with him.
His replacement was 1984 Winston Cup champion Terry Labonte. The car received sponsorship from Kellogg's. Labonte won three races each in 1994 and 1996, and defeated teammate Jeff Gordon for the 1996 Winston Cup championship by 37 points. After that, Labonte's won four races from 1997-1999. 2000 was a very difficult year for the team as two long streaks that defined Labonte's career came to an end. In the Pepsi 400, Labonte crashed his car and broke his leg. At first, it appeared that Labonte could be able to drive a couple of laps in the start of the race to earn points, but after an accident at New Hampshire International Speedway damaged his inner ear, Labonte was not capable of driving, and he ended up missing two races, bringing his streak of most consecutive races to an abrupt end. Todd Bodine and Ron Hornaday subbed for Labonte. The other streak broken was his 6-year winning streak, as he failed to visit Victory Lane at all that year.
After a couple of low-key years, Labonte finished 10th in the points standings In 2003, when he also won a pole at Richmond International Raceway in the spring event. More importantly, Labonte finally revisited victory lane after a 4-year drought, winning what turned out to be the final Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. The already-popular victory became even more memorable when the flagman dropped the checkered flag on the racetrack for Labonte to wave around in his victory lap. After slipping to 26th in points in 2004, Labonte announced his semi-retirement. He would drive a limited schedule for two years before retiring officially after 2006. Hendrick tabbed Kyle Busch as his replacement. So far, Busch has one pole position, six top-5s, and nine top-10 finishes to his credit, and won the battle for NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Rookie of the Year. Recently, he took the checkered flag for the Sony HD 500 at California Speedway for his first win, and in doing so became the youngest driver to ever win a Nextel Cup race at the age of 20 years, 4 months, and 2 days, beating the old record held by Donald Thompson by 4 days. Most recently, during 2006, Kyle Busch has won once (New England 300) and has made it into the Chase for the Nextel Cup. But he currently sits in 10th 146 points behind leader Kevin Harvick and can't afford any mistakes for the next 9 races.
[edit] Car #24 History
During its 13-year history, the #24 car has been driven only by Jeff Gordon and has only been sponsored by DuPont. All three debuted in the 1992 Hooters 500, qualifying 21st and finishing 31st following a crash. Almost symbolically, that race was the last for 7-time champion Richard Petty. The team went full-time in 1993, armed with crew chief Ray Evernham. Gordon won the pole position at the fall race at Lowe's, had eleven top-10s, and finished 14th in points, while also winning rookie of the year honors.
In 1994, Gordon won his first career race at the Coca-Cola 600 and also won the inaugural Brickyard 400. When that season was completed Gordon improved to eighth in the points. Despite all of this, Gordon struggled with DNF's, mostly due to crashes. Gordon would go on to win the 1995 Winston Cup Championship, but many considered it a fluke, despite the fact he won seven races. He followed that up with ten more wins in 1996, but finished runner-up to teammate Terry Labonte for the championship. However in this year, Gordon won at North Wilkesboro Speedway, the last year and last time that NASCAR would ever visit to the track that had been used for races for the past 50 years.
Gordon won back-to-back championships in 1997 and 1998, tying Richard Petty's modern era record for most victories in a season with 13 in the latter year. But 1999 marked the one of the toughest seasons he ever had to endure. He started out in typical style, winning the Daytona 500, but the team struggled with consistency, and would seemingly have a great finish one week, then would have DNF's or other struggles the following week. In September of that year, long-time crew chief Ray Evernahm, who had guided Gordon to so many victories and championships, shocked the sport when he announced he was leaving the team to help develop Dodge's return to NASCAR. He was replaced by Brian Whitesell. To the surprise of many, Gordon won the first two races after Evernham's departure at Martinsville and Charlotte. At the end of the season, Gordon, in addition to signing a lifetime contract with the team that gave him part ownership, had seven victories and was 6th in points. In addition to his post-Evernham victories, Gordon's most impressive win came at Infineon, when he was able to complete the gruelling track despite feeling quite ill.
For 2000, Whitesell moved to a new position with the organization, and he was replaced by the long-time crew chief for Petty Enterprises, Robbie Loomis. The chemistry was not evident at first, as Gordon went winless for a long time before picking up his 50th career victory at Talladega. Gordon won two more races that season and was 9th in points at the end. He bounced back in 2001, when he picked up 7 victories and won his 4th championship. 2002 brought about some big changes as he not only became car-owner for Jimmie Johnson's team, but ended up filing for divorce from his wife Brooke. He went winless the entire season until the Sharpie 500 at Bristol in August. Despite just three wins, he finished 4th in points.
In 2004, Gordon stayed in the Top 5 in points for nearly the entire year. By the time the Chase for the Cup started, he had not only won 5 races, but taken the lead away from teammate Jimmie Johnson. However, Gordon did not finish as high in as many races as he had before the Chase, and fell behind Johnson and Kurt Busch by the season finale Ford 400. Despite finishing 3rd in the race, Busch won the championship by 16 points over him. Johnson also finished 8 points ahead of Gordon in the season standings, placing him in third. With a fast start in 2005, it looked like he would have another successful season, as Gordon won three of the first nine races of the season. Soon, though, his season would fall into a downward spiral as he was caught in a bad and possibly costly slump. At one point, the four-time champion finished 30th or lower six out of eight races, and he dropped to 15th in the points standings. Gordon would be unable to make up this deficit before the cutoff point for The Chase, the first time in his NASCAR Cup career where he was not at least eligible to win the trophy. he did, however, finish 11th in the final standings which was worth $1,000,000 and a trip to appear at the awards banquet in New York. Currently Jeff has won twice so far in 2006. In the summer Gordon won the Dodge/Savemart 350 and the USG Sheetrock 400 two weeks later. After a few performances signaling some resurgence in the 24 team he sits in 4th in the standings.
[edit] Car #25 History
Car #25 was owned for many years by Hendrick's father, "Papa" Joe Hendrick. It debuted in 1986 with the Folgers sponsorship and Tim Richmond driving. Richmond, who was teamed with veteran crew chief Harry Hyde, won 7 times that year and finished 3rd in points. He missed the beginning of the 1987 season due to AIDS, but he claimed it was pneumonia. Benny Parsons and Rick Hendrick himself filled in. Richmond returned midway through the season, and won twice, but it was obvious he wasn't going to get better anytime soon.
For 1988, Ken Schrader took over the ride. He won two pole positions, won the Talladega Diehard 500, and finished 5th in the points. He won 4 more poles in 1989, and picked up a victory at the fall race at Charlotte. He didn't win in 1990, but he won the pole for the Daytona 500 for the third year in a row. He won two more races in 1991, and finished 9th in points. His only highlight after that was a career-best 4th in points in 1994. After that year, Budweiser replaced Kodiak as the sponsor. After 1996, Schrader left the team, and was replaced by Ricky Craven. He missed two races in 1997 after suffering a concussion at Texas. He would be filled in by Jack Sprague and Todd Bodine. Despite this he won the Winston Open and finished 19th in points. In 1998, he realized he returned to the sport too soon when he was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome. He sat out several races with Randy LaJoie and Wally Dallenbach Jr. filling in. He turned at his home track at New Hampshire and won the pole, but he struggled, and was soon out of the car. Dallenbach replaced him full time.
Dallenbach had a career year in 1999, putting together 6-top finishes and was 18th in points at the end of the year. But early in 1999, Hendrick tabbed Jerry Nadeau to drive the car, with Michael Holigan Homes as sponsor. Nadeau had an impressive year, finishing 20th in points, posting 5 top-10s, and winning the season-ending race at Atlanta. He had ten top-10 finishes and improved three positions in points the next year, this time with the UAW-Delphi sponsorship. After 11 races in 2002, he was replaced by Joe Nemechek who posted three top-five finishes. Nemecheck won at Richmond in 2003, before leaving for MB2/MBV Motorsports at the end of the year.
Rookie Brian Vickers took over the next season getting sponsorship from GMAC and Ditech. He was the pick by many to win Rookie of the Year honors, but finished third to Brendan Gaughan,and Kasey Kahne. Vickers earned two poles and finished 25th in points. During the year, "Papa" Joe died, to the sadness of many fans. Vickers has come close to winning several times in 2005, and finished 17th in points.
On June 9, 2006 Hendrick Motorsports announced Casey Mears of Chip Ganassi Racing will take the spot of Vickers in 2007.
[edit] Car #44/60/84 History
The #44 car debuted in 2003 as #60 with Haas Automation as sponsor, and David Green driving. The car was originally formed as a partnership with Gene Haas and his Haas CNC Racing team, but the team evolved into Hendrick's R & D team. It debuted at the Pepsi 400, qualifying 21st and finishing 32nd. Green ran one more race that year, before Brian Vickers ran it at the fall Charlotte race.
Kyle Busch took it over the following season, this time as the #84 CarQuest Chevy. He made his debut at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, qualifying 18th but finishing 41st after being involved in an accident on lap 12. Despite failing to qualify for several attempts, he made my five more starts that year, his best finish was 24th at California.
In 2005, Busch and Terry Labonte switched rides, with Busch moving to the #5 and Labonte moving to Busch's old ride, which changed its number to 44. Sponsored by Kellogg's and Pizza Hut, Labonte was to drive the car in a limited schedule over the next two years before retiring. He stayed with the team much of the season until Jason Leffler was released by Joe Gibbs Racing mid-season, and he agreed to drive the #11 FedEx Chevrolet as part of a three-driver group. Labonte will split his 2006 season between the #44 car and Hall of Fame Racing's #96 car.
[edit] Car #48 History
The #48 car (with Gordon listed as its owner) began in 2001 when Hendrick signed Jimmie Johnson to drive a car. At the time Johnson was a second-year Busch Series driver driving for an underfunded team. He made his debut at the fall race at Lowe's in the #48 Lowe's Chevy, qualifying 15th and finished 39th after crashing on lap 193. After two more races, Johnson moved full time in 2002, winning 3 times and runner up to Ryan Newman for Rookie of the Year, and became the first rookie to ever lead the points standings. He won three more races in 2003 and finished second to Matt Kenseth in the championship standings.
Johnson led most of the 2004 season's points, but suffered bad luck before the Chase for the Cup, falling to second behind Jeff Gordon. After falling to 9th during the Chase, he rebounded with four wins in five races, vaulting him up to 2nd. Despite this, he would lose the championship by 8 points to Kurt Busch in the closest final championship margin in NEXTEL Cup history.
Johnson had led most of the 2005 season, but lost the points lead to Tony Stewart after the Brickyard 400 when he suffered a hard crash. He won four races this year in 2005 and finished fifth in points. On February 19, 2006, Johnson went on to win his 1st Daytona 500, while his crew chief Chad Knaus was serving a 4-race suspension for rules infractions. Later that year, Johnson would win his first Nextel Cup Championship.
[edit] Other Car History
Jeff Purvis drove a fourth Hendrick car in the NAPA 500 at Atlanta, the 52 car, to help ensure Hendrick Motorsports first championship in 1995.
Al Unser Jr. also drove a fourth Hendrick Motorsports entry in the 1993 Daytona 500, the 46 car, sponsored by Valvoline.
[edit] Aviation Tragedy
Main Article: October 2004 Martinsville plane crash
On October 24, 2004, ten people associated with Hendrick Motorsports lost their lives in a plane crash while en route from Concord North Carolina, to a small airport near the Martinsville Speedway. The plane crashed in heavy fog into Bull Mountain, seven miles from the Blue Ridge Regional Airport in Spencer, Virginia. While NASCAR officials learned of the crash during that day's Subway 500 race in Martinsville, they withheld that information from drivers until the end of the race. Hendrick driver Jimmie Johnson won the race.
All ten aboard the Beechcraft King Air 200 died:
- John Hendrick, president of Hendrick Motorsports; Rick Hendrick's brother
- Ricky Hendrick, Rick Hendrick's son
- Kimberly and Jennifer Hendrick, John Hendrick's twin daughters
- Jeff Turner, general manager of Hendrick Motorsports
- Randy Dorton, chief engine builder
- Joe Jackson, DuPont executive
- Scott Lathram, pilot for NASCAR driver Tony Stewart
- pilots Richard Tracy and Elizabeth Morrison
For the balance of the 2004 season, all of the Hendrick Motorsports cars and the #0 Haas CNC Racing car showed pictures of the ten Hendrick members on the hood.
[edit] Additional info
[edit] Other Sponsors
- Chevrolet
- Bosch
- Briggs & Stratton
- Clevite
- Club Car
- Delphi (auto parts)
- EMP
- Freightliner
- Gatorade
- Gillette
- GM Protection Plan
- Goodyear
- Haas Automation
- Hitachi
- Lay's
- Levi Strauss
- Lord Corporation
- Mac Tools
- Mechanix Wear
- Pella Windows
- Quaker State
- Simpson
- Spectrum Brands Spectracide
- Spectrum Brands Sta-Green
- Tropicana
- UGS
- Wix Filters
[edit] Former Nextel Cup Drivers for Hendrick Motorsports
- Geoff Bodine
- Ricky Craven
- Wally Dallenbach
- Jerry Nadeau
- Joe Nemechek
- Tim Richmond
- Ricky Rudd
- Ken Schrader
- Jack Sprague
- Brian Vickers
- Darrell Waltrip
[edit] Former Busch Drivers for Hendrick Motorsports
[edit] Former Craftsman Truck Drivers
[edit] Championships
[edit] NEXTEL Cup Championships
- 2006 Jimmie Johnson
- 2001 Jeff Gordon
- 1998 Jeff Gordon
- 1997 Jeff Gordon
- 1996 Terry Labonte
- 1995 Jeff Gordon
[edit] Busch Series Championships
- 2003 Brian Vickers
[edit] Truck Series Championships
- 2001 Jack Sprague
- 1999 Jack Sprague
- 1997 Jack Sprague
[edit] Sources
| Hendrick Motorsports | |
| Nextel Cup drivers | Kyle Busch (#5) | Jeff Gordon (#24) | Casey Mears (#25) | Jimmie Johnson (#48) |
| Partnerships and affiliations | Ginn Racing | Haas CNC Racing |
| Other | Rick Hendrick | Ricky Hendrick |
