Hendrick Motorsports
|
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| owner | Rick Hendrick , Jeff Gordon |
| Racing series |
Sprint Cup Nationwide Series |
| Championships | 9 Sprint Cup 1 Nationwide Series 3 Craftsman Truck Series |
| Start number (s) | # 5, # 24, # 25, # 48, # 88 (Sprint Cup) # 5, # 24, # 48 (Nationwide Series) |
| driver |
William Byron (# 24 - Sprint) Chase Elliott (# 9 - Sprint) Jimmie Johnson (# 48 - Sprint & Nationwide) Alex Bowman (# 88 - Sprint) |
| Manufacturer | Chevrolet |
| Place of the workshop | Concord , North Carolina |
| Homepage | www.hendrickmotorsports.com |
Hendrick Motorsports is a group of NASCAR teams founded in 1984 by Rick Hendrick under the name All Star Racing . Originally only Chevrolets were used in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series . Hendrick Motorsports has won nine Sprint Cup championships, three in the Craftsman Truck Series and one in the Nationwide Series since its inception . It is one of the top teams in US touring car racing.
All Hendrick vehicles are built on the 250,000 m² complex in Concord , North Carolina . Hendrick Motorsports also builds over 700 engines per year, which are also leased by other NASCAR teams. Hendrick Motorsports has a total of over 400 employees.
team
Sprint Cup
Car # 5
Hendrick Motorsports originally made its debut in the 1984 season with the number 5 Chevrolet Monte Carlo sponsored by Northwestern Security Life and driven by Geoff Bodine . After all 30 races of the season, Bodine and the team won three times and finished the season ninth in the championship. In the 1985 season they improved with Levi Garrett as the new main sponsor to fifth place in the championship despite only one victory. The team briefly became a two-car team when Dick Brooks started the Exxon Chevrolet with starting number 1 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and finished tenth.
After the team became a true two-car team in the 1986 season, Bodine won twice and finished eighth in the championship. His younger brother Brett became his teammate at the World 600 and finished the race in 17th place. The following year, Bodine was again unable to win a race and was 13th in the championship. In 1988 and 1989 Bodine won a race each before moving to Junior Johnson in the 1990 season. As a replacement came Ricky Rudd , who finished seventh in the championship of the 1990 season with a win. In 1991 the team merged with the former team from Darrell Waltrip and took over Tide as a sponsor. Rudd won a race and was second in the championship. Particularly noteworthy was the race at the Sears Point Raceway , when Rudd turned Davey Allision, who had been the leader until then, off the track on the last lap and was the first to cross the finish line. NASCAR punished the team for rough behavior and awarded Allision the victory. In the following two years, Rudd scored one win per season before leaving the team to start his own. He took the sponsor Tide with him.
His replacement was 1984 Winston Cup Champion Terry Labonte . The car itself got a new main sponsor with Kellogg’s . Labonte won three races in each of the 1994 and 1995 seasons, beating teammate Jeff Gordon by 37 points in the battle for the 1996 season championship. In the following years Labonte won a total of four races. The 2000 season didn't go so well: Labonte broke his leg on the Pepsi 400 and injured his inner ear on the New Hampshire International Speedway and was unable to drive. Todd Bodine and Ron Hornaday Jr. jumped in as backup drivers. In addition, Labonte could not win this season for the first time in six years.
After two more bad years, Labonte finished the 2003 season in tenth in the championship and also achieved a pole position at the Richmond International Raceway in the spring race. But more important was the victory in the last Southern 500 , which ended a four-year dry spell. After he was only 26th in the championship in the 2004 season, Labonte announced that he would only start in selected races for the next two seasons in order to slowly withdraw from racing. As a replacement, Hendrick brought Kyle Busch into the cockpit, who immediately won the title of Rookie of the Year . He also won the first race of his career with the Sony HD 500 at California Speedway , making him the youngest driver to ever win a race in the Sprint Cup.
In the 2006 season, Busch won another race with the Lenox Industrial Tools 300 and made it into the Chase for the Nextel Cup . But things didn't go so well for Busch and he was only tenth in the championship. During the season, Busch won the first race of the Car of Tomorrow with the Food City 500 . On June 13, 2007, Hendrick Motorsports announced that Busch would no longer drive the car in the 2008 season. On September 4th, it was announced that Casey Mears will drive the car in his place from this season. After Mears had few successes, Rick Hendrick announced on July 4, 2008 that Mark Martin will take over the car from the 2009 season. Martin competed in all races of the 2009 season in car number 5 and at the end of the season finished second in the overall standings for the fourth time in his career.
Car # 17
After Darrell Waltrip decided at the end of the 1986 season to leave the Junior Johnson team because he no longer wanted to work with Budweiser as a sponsor, he switched to Hendrick Motorsports and brought Tide with him as a new sponsor. In the following four years Waltrip achieved a total of nine victories, including his famous victory at the Daytona 500 in 1989. At the end of the 1990 season, Waltrip decided to found his own team and took the number 17 with them. The team itself was merged with that of car # 5 and the sponsor was transferred accordingly.
Car # 24
Throughout its history, the number 24 car was driven exclusively by Jeff Gordon with DuPont as the main sponsor and Pepsi for the Pepsi 400 and the two races on the Talladega Superspeedway . Gordon and DuPont made their debut in the 1992 Hooters 500 with a 21st place on the grid and a 31st place in the race after an accident. In 1993 the team completed its first full season with crew chief Ray Evernham . Gordon took pole position in the autumn race at Lowe's Motor Speedway , the Mello Yello 500 , got eleven top 10 results, finished 14th in the championship, and won the title of Rookie of the Year .
In 1994 Gordon won the first race of his career with the Coca-Cola 600 and also won the first Brickyard 400 . This season he improved to eighth place in the championship. Despite all of this, Gordon did not always achieve his goal, mainly due to accidents. With seven wins in the 1995 season, Gordon won the Winston Cup for the first time . In the 1996 season he scored ten wins, but lost in the championship to teammate Terry Labonte .
After he got another sponsor with Pepsi, he won the championship in the two consecutive seasons 1997 and 1998 and set Richard Petty's record of victories in one season since the foundation of the modern era in 1972 with 13 wins . The 1999 season turned out to be one of the most difficult seasons. After winning the Daytona 500 , Gordon struggled with the consistency and could not build on the success of the previous seasons. In addition, his longtime crew chief Ray Evernham announced in September that he would be leaving the team to help Dodge get back into NASCAR. He was succeeded by Brian Whitesell. Despite Evernham's departure, Gordon won the following two races in Martinsville and Charlotte. At the end of the season, Gordon signed a contract that made him co-owner of the team for life. He also scored seven wins during the season and was sixth in the championship.
From the 2000 season, Whitesell moved to another position in the organization and was replaced by Robbie Loomis , who was crew chief at Petty Enterprises for a long time . The collaboration between Gordon and Loomis wasn't particularly good at the beginning and it was not until the DieHard 500 in Talladega before Gordon scored the 50th win of his career. With two more victories in the season, he finished the championship in ninth place. In 2001, Gordon found his old strength back and won his fourth championship with seven wins this season. After Gordon became the team owner of Jimmie Johnson's team in 2002 and had some hurdles to overcome in his private life, it was not until the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in August before he won another race. Despite only three wins, he finished the season in fourth place.
In 2004, Gordon was in the top five for almost the entire season. By the start of the Chase for the Nextel Cup , he had scored five wins and taken the lead in the championship from Jimmie Johnson. In the season finale, however, Gordon did not achieve as good results as in the regular season and fell behind Kurt Busch with 16 points behind and Jimmie Johnson with eight points in third place in the championship. The 2005 season started promisingly for Gordon with three wins in the first nine races. From then on, luck ran out and he finished six races in 30th place or worse. Gordon dropped to 15th place and failed to qualify for the chase. He finished the season in eleventh place, securing the $ 1 million bonus for the best non-chase participant.
The 2006 season was supposed to be Gordon's comeback. He made it into the chase with two wins in the regular season. In Chase itself things didn't go well for Gordon and he didn't finish in three consecutive races. After having no chances for the championship, he focused on helping his teammate Jimmie Johnson fight for the championship. At the end of the season, Gordon finished sixth in the championship. The 2007 season turned out to be one of the most successful years of his career with a total of 30 top 10 placements, but Gordon only finished second overall. Gordon also qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2008 and 2009. In 2008 he was seventh and in 2009 third in the overall ranking.
Car # 25/88
The number 88 car belonged to Hendrick's father Joe Hendrick for a long time. He made his debut in the 1986 season with Folgers as main sponsor and Tim Richmond as driver. Richmond and his crew chief Harry Hyde won seven times in the first year and finished third in the championship. He missed the start of the 1987 season because of AIDS , but claimed it was pneumonia . Benny Parsons and Rick Hendrick himself stood in to replace him. Richmond returned towards the middle of the season and won two races, although his health was apparently not getting better.
From the 1988 season, Ken Schrader took over the cockpit of the number 25. He achieved two pole positions, won the Talladega DieHard 500 and was fifth in the championship. In the following season, Schrader achieved four pole positions and won the autumn race in Charlotte with the All Pro Auto Parts 500 . In the 1990 season he did not win a race, but won pole position at the Daytona 500 for the third time in a row. In 1991 Schrader was ninth in the championship with two wins. His best result after that was a fourth place in the championship in 1994. After that year Budweiser replaced Kodiak as the main sponsor of the car. At the end of the 1996 season, Schrader left the team and was replaced by Ricky Craven .
Craven missed two races in the 1997 season after suffering a concussion at Texas Motor Speedway . Jack Sprague and Todd Bodine stepped in as reserve drivers . Still, Craven won the Winston Open and finished 19th in the championship. In the 1998 season the starting number was changed from 25 to 50 in honor of the 50th NASCAR season. Shortly after the start of the season, Craven realized that he had returned to the cockpit too early after being diagnosed with secondary damage from the concussion. He then had to pause further races and was replaced by Randy LaJoie and Wally Dallenbach jr. replaced. Craven returned and secured pole position at the Jiffy Lube 300 , his home race at New Hampshire International Speedway . Things didn't go well for him in the race and shortly after that he was finally replaced by Dallenbach.
Dallenbach achieved six top results in the 1999 season and was 18th in the championship. But already at the beginning of 1999 Hendrick had signed Jerry Nadeau as a new driver with Michael Holigan Homes as the new main sponsor. In the 2000 season, Nadeau scored five top 10 results and won the season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway . He finished the season as 20th in the championship. With UAW and Delphi as new sponsors, Nadeau improved in the 2001 season by three places to 17th. After eleven races in the 2002 season, he was replaced by Joe Nemechek , who achieved three top 5 results in the remaining races. In 2003 he won at Richmond International Raceway before moving to MB2 / MBV Motorsports at the end of the season.
Rookie Brian Vickers took over the car in the 2004 season with GMAC and Ditech as new sponsors. Vickers scored two pole positions and finished 25th in the championship. In the 2005 season, Vickers was close to victory several times and ended the season in 17th place.
On June 9, 2006, Hendrick Motorsports announced that Casey Mears would take over the Vickers car for the 2007 season. Later in the season, Vickers scored his first career win on the Talladega Superspeedway in car # 25 .
With the beginning of the 2007 season, the Army National Guard got involved as a sponsor for the starting number 25 at Hendrick Motorsports, which was taken over by Casey Mears. On May 27, 2007, he scored the first victory of his career at the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway . On June 13, 2007, Dale Earnhardt junior announced that he would drive for Hendrick Motorsports from the 2008 season. Hendrick Motorsports announced on September 14, 2007 that Earnhardt Jr. will take over the car from Mears and the latter will take over the car with starting number 5 from Kyle Busch . The start number of the car will be changed from 25 to 88 in this context. The new sponsor of the car will be Pepsi with the two brands Mountain Dew and AMP Energy by Mountain Dew as well as the US National Guard. However, so far there have been no notable successes. Earnhardt Jr. was able to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup in the 2008 season, but only finished twelfth overall. In 2009 it was only enough for 25th place overall. He also had no win and only achieved five top 10 placements.
Car # 44/60/84
The car with starting number 44 debuted in 2003 as starting number 60 with Haas Automation as sponsor and David Green as driver. The car and the team originally emerged from a partnership with Gene Haas and his Haas CNC Racing team , but subsequently evolved into the Hendrick Motorsports development team. The debut took place at the Pepsi 400 , where Green crossed the finish line from 21st position in 32nd place. After another race, Brian Vickers took over the car and drove it in the autumn race in Charlotte.
Kyle Busch took over the car in the 2004 season, which got the starting number 84 and CarQuest as sponsor. Busch made his debut at Las Vegas Motor Speedway , qualified in 18th and finished the race in 41st after being involved in an accident on lap twelve. Although he failed to qualify in some races, he started in five races. His best result was a 24th place on California Speedway .
In the 2005 season, Busch and Terry Labonte swapped cars and Labonte took over starting number 84, which was changed to 44. The car was sponsored by Kellogg’s and Pizza Hut . Labonte drove the car in selected races in the 2005 and 2006 seasons before retiring from active racing. In the 2007 season the number 44 switched to Michael Waltrip Racing .
Car # 48
The number 48 car has been in service since the 2001 season when Jimmie Johnson was signed as a driver by Hendrick Motorsports. The owner of the car is not Hendrick Motorsports himself, but Jeff Gordon . The car made its debut in the autumn race of the 2001 season with the hardware store chain Lowe’s as sponsor at Lowe's Motor Speedway , where Johnson qualified in 15th place, but after an accident on lap 193 the race only finished 39th. After two more races Johnson drove his first full season in 2002, in which he won three races and became the first rookie to lead the championship in the meantime. In the 2003 season he won three more races and was second in the championship behind Matt Kenseth .
Johnson led the championship for most of the 2004 season before dropping to second behind Jeff Gordon ahead of the Chase for the Nextel Cup . After initially falling back to ninth place in the Chase, he finished the season with four wins in five races and was second in the championship, just eight points behind Kurt Busch .
The 2005 season also saw Johnson leading most of the time before losing 400 points to Tony Stewart after a serious accident at Brickyard . With a total of four wins this season, he ended up fifth in the championship. On February 19, 2006, Johnson won his first Daytona 500 despite his crew chief being banned from four races. With further victories at Aaron's 499 and Brickyard 400, Johnson won his first championship in the Nextel Cup in the 2006 season, which he successfully defended in the 2007 season and secured his second title. He repeated this success in 2008, 2009 and 2010, making Johnson the first Sprint Cup driver to win the title for five consecutive years.
More cars
Jeff Purvis drove a fourth Hendrick Motorsports car with the starting number 58 at the NAPA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the 1995 season to secure the first championship, after Jeff Gordon just should not have been last in this race.
Al Unser Jr. also drove a fourth Hendrick Motorsports car, number 46, in the 1993 Daytona 500. The Indianapolis 500 winner of the season was less than 100 miles from the finish line in the top 10 when he and Bobby Hillin Jr. . and Kyle Petty collided.
Nationwide Series
Car # 5/7
Originally the team was JG Motorsports, which emerged from Gordon / Evernham Motorsports and belonged to Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick. It tried to participate in 20 races in the Busch Grand National Series in the 2000 season. Ricky Hendrick tried to qualify in 16 races and reached a starting position in eleven races. Gordon himself completed five races. The car was sponsored by Pepsi when Gordon drove and GMAC when Hendrick was behind the wheel.
After the 2000 season, Hendrick Motorsports bought the car and changed the starting number from 24 to 5. Ricky Hendrick drove three races with a 15th place at Kentucky Speedway as the best result. In the 2001 season, Hendrick became a full-time driver in the series. After an accident at Las Vegas Motor Speedway , Ron Hornaday Jr. replaced him for six races before Hendrick returned to Richmond. Towards the end of the season, Hendrick announced his retirement from active motorsport. David Green and Ward Burton then drove the final races of the season for the team.
Brian Vickers was then hired to drive car # 5. He won three races in the 2003 season and the championship in the Busch Grand National Series. After joining the Nextel Cup , Kyle Busch became the new driver of the car for the 2004 season. In his first year, he won five races and finished second in the championship. Like Vickers, Busch then switched to the Nextel Cup, but still drove a few races in the series. He shared the car in the 2005 season with Adrián Fernández , who drove six races in the season and finished tenth in Mexico City . Other drivers of the car this season included Jimmie Johnson and youngsters Blake Feese, Boston Reid and Kyle Krisiloff, who completed a total of 18 races. In the 2006 season, Busch drove a total of 30 races, won in Bristol and finished seventh in the championship. When he skipped the race at Memphis Motorsports Park , he was replaced by Justin Labonte .
In the 2007 season, Kyle Busch and Mark Martin shared the car, which was sponsored by a number of sponsors over the course of the season. Busch won the Winn-Dixie 250 at Daytona International Speedway . On July 30, 2007 it was announced that JR Motorsports would combine its involvement in the Busch Series with Hendrick Motorsports and provide a two-car team with starting numbers 5 and 88 for the 2008 season. The activities are controlled from the headquarters of JR Motorsports, the engines and the chassis are supplied by Hendrick Motorsports. The car with start number 5 was driven by Landon Cassill , Dale Earnhardt junior , Mark Martin, Adrián Fernández , Ron Fellows and Martin Truex junior in the 2008 season . In 2010 Danica Patrick made her NASCAR debut in the vehicle that was renumbered to start number 7.
Car # 24/57
The car with starting number 24 was first used in the Busch Series in the 2005 season under starting number 57. The start number came about through the sponsor Heinz and his 57 varieties. Brian Vickers made his debut with the car at Darlington Raceway with Pizza Hut and Ore-Ida as sponsors. He qualified in second place, but finished the race in 43rd place after an accident early in the race. His best result was a fifth place on Dover International Speedway . Kyle Busch drove another four races of the season with fifth place as the best result. The race at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis was driven by Boston Reid, who finished 23rd.
In the 2006 season, Vickers drove an additional eight races with Mountain Dew as a co-sponsor for individual races. His best finish was a runner-up in Daytona. Another driver was Adrián Fernández , who drove Watkins Glen International and Mexico City, finishing 17th and twelfth.
After Vickers left Hendrick Motorsports, the number was changed from 57 to 24 for the 2007 season. The driver was Casey Mears with his Army National Guard sponsor .
Car # 48
The number 48 car made its debut in the Busch Series in the 2004 season at Lowe's Motor Speedway . He was used in just one race with sponsorship from SpongeBob SquarePants , Jimmie Johnson was used as the driver . In the 2005 season, he drove five races and achieved pole position at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Johnson started in three races in the following season, 2006, and drove both races at Lowe's Motor Speedway and the Ameriquest 300 at California Speedway . He achieved his best result with a seventh place in the Carquest Auto Parts 300 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. In the 2007 season Johnson contested three races in the Busch Series, in 2008 he took part in four races in the series.
Craftsman Truck Series
Truck # 17
The number 17 truck made its debut in the Craftsman Truck Series in the 2000 season with Ricky Hendrick as driver and GMAC and Quaker State as sponsors. He drove six races and finished four of them in the top 10. In the 2001 season, Hendrick started every race, won the O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway and finished the season sixth in the championship. After the 2001 season, the truck was no longer used.
Truck # 24
The number 24 truck made its debut in the 1995 season with Scott Lagasse as driver and DuPont as sponsor. In the first season Lagasse scored two top five results and finished ninth in the championship. The team also temporarily used the number 25 truck, which was driven by Rick Hendrick and Roger Mears . Jack Sprague joined the team around the middle of the season and finished the rest of the season with the number 25, taking pole position at the Phoenix International Raceway . In the 1996 season he switched to the number 24 truck with Quaker State as the main sponsor. He won five races and finished second in the championship. With three wins, Sprague won its first championship in the Craftsman Truck Series in the 1997 season.
After the season, Quaker State dropped out as a sponsor and GMAC became the new main sponsor. Another race sponsor was Big Daddy's BBQ Sauce. Sprague won another five races in the 1998 season but lost the championship by three points and finished only second. He won his second championship in 1999, before slipping to fifth the following season. With NetZero as the new main sponsor, Sprague won its third title in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2001. After Sprague moved to the Busch Series, Ron Hornaday Jr. drove the truck for a race at Daytona International Speedway , where he finished twelfth. After that, the team was disbanded to focus on efforts in the Busch Series.
Plane crash
On October 24, 2004, ten people associated with Hendrick Motorsports were killed in a plane crash near a small airport on Martinsville Speedway while en route from Concord , North Carolina to Martinsville. In heavy fog, the aircraft flew into Bull Mountain, about seven miles from Blue Ridge Regional Airport in Stuart , Virginia . On the day of the accident, the Subway 500 was held at Martinsville Speedway, and when NASCAR found out about it, it withheld the information from the drivers until the end of the race, which was won by Hendrick driver Jimmie Johnson .
The ten victims aboard the Beechcraft King Air 200 were:
- John Hendrick, President of Hendrick Motorsports and Rick Hendricks brother
- Ricky Hendrick , Rick Hendrick's son
- Kimberly and Jennifer Hendrick, John Hendrick's twin sisters
- Jeff Turner, General Manager of Hendrick Motorsports
- Randy Dorton , chief engine developer
- Joe Jackson, DuPont board member
- Scott Lathram, pilot of NASCAR driver Tony Stewart
- the pilots Richard Tracy and Elizabeth Morrison
For the remainder of the 2004 season, all Hendrick Motorsports racing cars as well as the number 0 car from Haas CNC Racing showed pictures of the ten victims who died in the plane crash.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ NASCAR.com: Martin signs two-year deal with Hendrick for the No. 5
- ↑ JR Motorsports & Hendrick Motorsports to combine Busch Series operations ( Memento from November 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
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