Hometown:
Palmer Springs, Va.
Competed:
1984-PresentStarts: 2,995
Wins: 199
Poles: 180
The
founder and owner of Hendrick Motorsports, Rick Hendrick’s organization is
recognized as one of NASCAR’s most successful. A longtime racing enthusiast and
driver himself, Hendrick owned drag-racing boat teams that won three
championships before founding “All-Star Racing,” the team that would evolve
into Hendrick Motorsports, in 1984. Hendrick’s current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
stable includes drivers Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and
Kaey Kahne.
Hendrick
Motorsports owns an all-time record 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car owner championship
titles – five with Johnson, four with Gordon and one with Terry Labonte.
Hendrick also has 13 total NASCAR national-series car-owner championships, which
is also most in NASCAR history. Gordon and Labonte combined to win four
consecutive titles from 1995-98. In 2010, Johnson won a record-extending fifth consecutive
championship.
Some
of NASCAR’s most prominent drivers have driven for Hendrick. Geoff Bodine was
the first, snaring the organization’s first victory on April 29, 1984, at
Martinsville Speedway. The late Tim Richmond, three-time series champion
Darrell Waltrip and the late Benny Parsons, the 1973 series champion, also are
Hendrick alumni. Ricky Craven, Ricky Rudd, Ken Schrader, Joe Nemechek and Kyle
Busch are other well-known drivers who have driven for Hendrick.
Hendrick
and his wife, Linda, reside in North Carolina. Off-track, Hendrick is active in
promoting awareness for leukemia research. He successfully battled the disease
in 1996, establishing the Hendrick Marrow Program in 1997 to aid patients
nationwide suffering from leukemia and 70 other blood diseases.
This is the latest in
a series of GodfatherMotorsports.com biographies profiling the 25 nominees for
the 2012 class of the NASCAR Hall Of Fame. Each of the 25 candidates will be
profiled in the coming weeks, in alphabetical order.
Thats Kasey Kahne not Kaey...lol
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