Rick Hendrick
Rick Hendrick
Joseph Riddick "Rick" Hendrick IIIis the current owner of the American NASCAR team, Hendrick Motorsports and founder of the Hendrick Automotive Group and Hendrick Marrow Program. He attended Park View High School in South Hill, Virginia, and began his career in auto racing at age 14. He is also a retired race car driver himself, driving in only four NASCAR races throughout the course of his NASCAR career. He is the father of the late Ricky Hendrick, a former NASCAR...
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth12 July 1949
CityWarrentown, NC
Ricky and I talked about it and designed a shop and put our offices in there. We got Brian Whitesell, who was the architect, really, of the 24 and 48 coming together and made him team manager. When we put the two teams together 5 and 25, we promised him a bonus when they won their first race.
I didn't know it would come together as quickly as it has this year.
We understand NASCAR's position. Our expectations for the team remain high. It's a deep, championship-caliber group and they'll step up this weekend.
We're really proud of the team and the effort.
You know, to see both cars run well this year, it's outstanding. It means a lot, because we know the equipment is the same. These guys have done an outstanding job.
It's hard to get four cars down here to run this well, and it's not with just a little bit of effort but with a lot of effort. This race will carry us - when you win the Daytona 500, it carries through the rest of the year.
It's good to see Richard walking with that step he had when I saw him in the garage area. I kind of bowed to Robbie and said, 'You're the man when I looked up on the board.' It's good for the sport. It's real good.
The momentum and the talent we have going into this year, we have never worked this close together, I'm really excited about this year.
I think that Ricky had so much confidence in Kyle and the structure of the 25 and the 5, and to see the two cars run like that tonight and Kyle to win the race and become the youngest guy, it's incredible,
Jim Hunter (NASCAR vice president) walked in our pits and said we're going to check the tire pressures, ... What I didn't understand in the beginning was if you blow a tire and hit the wall and your pressures were too low, we're going to take points. And I thought, 'well how are you going to check pressures in a right front after the wreck?' So then we were told they were coming through checking them and if your pressures were too low that they could take points.
For somebody to take a shot at him is totally disappointing and hurtful to my family, my mother, his wife and child. For Dianne to say we turned our back on her or nobody helped her. I paid Randy's bonus in '04. I paid him six months in '05. She got a BMW. I paid her insurance. When you attack my family personally when we've done everything we can, I was very disappointed in Diane and I thought it was uncalled for and inaccurate.
Perseverance: Try and try again until the goal is achieved. Never give up.