Hendrick Motorsports: Information from Answers.com

Company Perspectives
All Hendrick race cars are constructed start-to-finish at the 90-acre complex, 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.
Key Dates
1984: Rick Hendrick forms All-Star Racing for NASCAR racing.
1985: Team is reorganized as Hendrick Motorsports, Inc.
1992: Jeff Gordon signs as driver.
1995: Gordon wins first championship.
2004: Several team executives are killed in airplane crash.
2007: Dale Earnhardt, Jr., signs to drive for Hendrick.

Incorporated: 1984 as All-Star Racing
NAIC: 711211 Sports Teams and Clubs
SIC: 7941 Sports Clubs, Managers & Promoters

Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Hendrick Motorsports, Inc. (HMS), is one of the top motor racing enterprises in the United States, focusing on NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) series. HMS runs four race teams in NASCAR's premier division, the Nextel Cup competition, as well as a pair of teams in the lower tier Busch Series. HMS drivers, including Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, have won six Nextel Cups and Winston Cups (the series sponsor before Nextel) in the company's first 22 years. Sponsor partners include CARQUEST, Chevrolet, Delphi, DuPont, GMAC Insurance, Georgia Pacific, Gillette, Goodyear, Pepsi, Quaker State, and Time Warner Cable. The company's base of operations is a 90-acre complex in Charlotte where all of the organization's race cars are constructed. Garages are modeled after Formula 1 shops in Europe that allow fans to watch mechanics work on the race cars. The complex also includes the Hendrick Museum and Speed Shop to further cater to visitors. In addition, HMS takes care of its own licensing, merchandising, and marketing in-house. HMS is owned by its chairman and chief executive officer, J. Richard (Rick) Hendrick III, who is also one of the United States' largest auto dealers.

Rick Hendrick, Tobacco Road Born: 1949

Rick Hendrick was born on a tobacco farm in Warrenton, North Carolina, in 1949. Because his father raced modified cars on the weekends, it was not surprising that Hendrick developed an interest in auto racing. When he was just 15 years old he rebuilt a 1931 Chevrolet with help from his father, and then set speed records at his local drag strip. He also proved his mechanical abilities by winning the regional portion of an engine building competition, the Chrysler-Plymouth Troubleshooting Content. Although Hendrick soon gave up dreams of becoming a race car driver, when his mother objected because of the dangers, to attend North Carolina State University, he did not relinquish his interest in cars. To earn spending money, on weekends he worked on cars at a local service station, where he soon met a wholesaler named Sear Sauls and began performing tune-ups for him. Hendrick quickly realized that he could make a lot more money by fixing cars to sell, and began doing a tidy business, helped by his mother who worked at a bank and could provide him with 90-day notes to finance the operation.

Sauls took Hendrick to an auto auction one day, and the young man began diagnosing car problems for some of the dealers. One of them was Mike Leith, a car dealer from the Raleigh, North Carolina, area who was so impressed with Hendrick that he offered him a job when he finished school. Thus, in 1971 Hendrick became the general sales manager of Leith's import division and a year later became the general manager of Leith's entire operation. When he was just 26, General Motors asked Hendrick to take over a struggling rural South Carolina dealership that was so small that it did not even have a showroom. Hendrick raised all the money he possibly could to acquire the dealership, and not only did he make a success of it, but General Motors also rewarded his efforts by giving him a chance to take over one of the largest dealerships in all of North Carolina, City Chevrolet in Charlotte, when its owner decided to retire. The dealership, which had never placed much emphasis on used cars or financing until Hendrick's arrival, quickly became a cash cow and served as a foundation for a mega-dealership, which included Chevrolet, Nissan, Honda, Toyota, and eventually Saturn dealerships.

With financial success, Hendrick was able to indulge his interest in racing. In the late 1970s he became involved in drag boat racing, and in the early 1980s his boats won three consecutive national titles. However, his passion for the sport came to an abrupt end in 1982 when one of his drivers, a friend, was killed in a racing accident. Hendrick looked for a place to store his boats in Charlotte. The man who would provide that storage space, however, was Harry Hyde, a longtime NASCAR crew chief who had left NASCAR a few years earlier after a dispute with his new owner. Hyde encouraged Hendrick to become involved in NASCAR and promised that if Hendrick built a car he would make sure it was a winner.

All-Star Racing: 1984

Hendrick eased into stock car racing by participating in the NASCAR Late Model Sportsman Series (today's Busch Series) in 1983. Late in the year he teamed up with C. K. Spurlock, and in 1984 they formed All-Star Racing. The former public relations head of a race track, Spurlock turned his attention to promoting musical acts and became Kenny Rogers' manager. He was going to bring in Rogers as a partner to All-Star Racing, and the great Richard Petty was supposed to be the driver. When those plans fell apart, All-Star Racing turned to a New York-born driver named Geoff Bodine, who had just completed his rookie year in NASCAR. He joined a shoestring operation with no sponsorship, little financing, and a crew chief that everyone considered to be over the hill.

All-Star Racing set up shop in a 5,000-square-foot boat shed leased from Hyde and five employees to work on the car. When the team showed up at the first race of the year in 1984, and the most important, The Daytona 500, the Bodine #5 car had no sponsored decals on it other than the business logo for City Chevrolet and an associate sponsorship from Northwestern Security Life. The team finished a respectable eighth at Daytona and posted other top ten results over the next few weeks. Yet Hendrick, who was far from a wealthy man at this stage, was not certain how much longer he would be able to bankroll the operation. Then, in only Hendrick's eighth race as a car owner, Bodine drove to victory lane at the race held at Martinsville, Virginia, and with it came a much needed $100,000 from NASCAR's Winner's Circle program. Bodine won two more races that year, capping off a stellar season with a win at Riverdale, California, on the final weekend. A major sponsorship deal with Levi Garrett tobacco soon followed and Hendrick's financial worries ended and he was able to devote his attention to building a solid organization.

Hendrick and Spurlock severed their ties, and in 1985 Hendrick Motorsports, Inc., was formed to run Bodine's Levi Garrett Chevrolet. Although the car ran strong it never captured a victory in 1985. Nevertheless, HMS announced that in 1986 it would field two cars, something that the NASCAR establishment said was foolhardy. The second driver, sponsored by Folger's coffee, would be Tim Richmond, who had participated in Winston Cup racing for several years. He would enjoy a stellar year with HMS, winning the most races of anyone, seven, although finishing third in the points competition for the Winston cup.

Still defying conventional wisdom, HMS added a third team in 1987, hiring one of NASCAR's top drivers, Darrell Waltrip. It proved to be a difficult season, however. Waltrip struggled all year, and Richmond's health began to fail, attributed to double pneumonia, and he was unable to compete at times. Veteran driver Benny Parsons was called on to take over Richmond's car several times, and even Hendrick raced it at Riverside at the end of the year. Richmond was soon diagnosed with AIDS, news withheld from the public but not from NASCAR. He attempted a comeback in 1988 but was banned by NASCAR for failing a drug test that only he among the drivers was subjected to. Although he passed a second test, Richmond was forced out by NASCAR, which would allow him to drive again only if he made all of his medical records public. Because of the stigma attached to AIDS at the time, he chose to retire, although word soon leaked out about his condition. Despite Richmond's shabby treatment by NASCAR in the opinion of many, his comeback would have been short-lived, regardless. He wasted away and died in seclusion in August 1989.

Driver Ken Schrader took over Richmond's car in 1988, with Hyde serving as his crew chief. At the end of the year Hyde, not happy with sharing the resources of a three-car team, left HMS. His relationship with Hendrick would soon be fictionalized when Hollywood decided to bring NASCAR to the screen with actor Tom Cruise playing a maverick driver learning how to win from a gruff crew chief, à la Hyde, played by Robert Duvall, and Hendrick was brought in to advise on the script. The result was Days of Thunder, released in 1990.

As HMS entered the 1990s it had three full-time race teams and a fourth car driven by Greg Sacks on a limited schedule. By 1992 Waltrip left HMS, leaving Hendrick with two drivers but three cars. It was then that a young driver named Jeff Gordon caught his attention, as he did many NASCAR teams. Gordon had been a racing phenomenon since his childhood in California. In order to allow him to start racing sprint cars at the age of 13, his family moved to Indiana, where laws were more lenient than in California. He soon moved on to midget racers and at the age of 18 relocated to North Carolina to become a Busch series driver in 1992, when he was named rookie of the year. Gordon was courted by a number of Winston Cup teams, but some balked at his demand that his Busch crew chief, Ray Evernham, had to accompany him to Winston Cup racing. Although the 38-year-old Evernham had never been a Winston Cup crew chief, Hendrick was willing to take the chance and signed Gordon.

Gordon Wins a Championship: 1995

Sponsored by DuPont Automotive Finish, Gordon ran the final race of the 1992 season. Then, bringing a fresh perspective to Winston Cup racing, Evernham created a race program. He designed the largest NASCAR race shop at 10,000 square feet at the HMS complex. He also assembled the sport's first professional pit crew, the Rainbow Warriors, an allusion to the car's DuPont paint job. They would work out together and practice pit stops with a purpose never before seen in NASCAR, and when fractions of a second saved in the pits translated into hundreds of yards of track position, the competitive advantage proved significant. Overseeing the crew was a Stanford graduate in organizational management. The first year proved an inconsistent one for Gordon's team, and it finished 14th in points. The team hit their stride in 1995, though, winning three of the first six races on Gordon's way to becoming the youngest Winston Cup champion. Another edge that benefited all of the teams was Hendrick's willingness to invest in the latest technology. In the early 1990s, for example, he agreed to spend $750,000 on a German-built, pioneering computer numerical control machine that was designed for hip replacements but HMS engineers converted to produce precise handcrafted parts needed to build an engine. Not only were the man hours needed to build the parts cut almost in half, the parts were more uniform and provided a boost in horsepower.

While Evernham delivered three Winston Cup championships with Gordon in the mid-1990s, he was not devoted to the team concept at HMS, and was reluctant to share information with the other HMS teams. That attitude changed after Evernham's departure in 1999 and Robbie Loomis became Gordon's new crew chief. Subsequent crew chiefs would be hired in large part on their ability and willingness to communicate with the entire group.

While Gordon was enjoying tremendous success and the other HMS drivers were also performing well, Hendrick was forced to step away from the operation for personal reasons. First, his dealership business became caught up in a kickback scandal related to American Honda executives giving preferential treatment to dealers in exchange for providing them with cars that had become extremely scarce, and therefore highly profitable, due to voluntary import restrictions. In December 1996 Hendrick was indicted on 15 counts of conspiracy, fraud, and money laundering, along with his brother and business associate, John Hendrick. The crux of the case was the allegation that Hendrick helped to finance a house for a Honda sales executive and then made regular deliveries of cash to help him pay off the house note. Just before the indictment, Hendrick was informed that he had chronic myelogenous leukemia, a type of bone cancer. In order to focus on his health, Hendrick reached a plea deal with prosecutors in August 1997 and several months later at sentencing he apologized for his conduct. He was fined $250,000, sentenced to three years of probation, and confined to his Charlotte home for 12 months. He was also not permitted to be involved with HMS or his auto dealerships.

Hendrick regained his health, and as the new century dawned, HMS continued to thrive. In 2000 HMS unveiled plans to construct a new 85,000-square-foot building to house the operations of both Gordon as well as driver Jimmie Johnson, a promising new driver who was set to join HMS for the 2002 season. He had a stellar rookie campaign, winning three races and finishing fifth in the final Nextel Cup standings. He would finish second the next two seasons before winning the championship in 2006.

While HMS was enjoying tremendous success in the early 2000s and establishing the standard for multicar operations, the operation also overcame tragedy. In October 2004 one of the HMS planes, beset with foggy weather on its way to a race at Martinsville, Virginia, crashed, taking ten lives, including Hendrick's brother John, Hendrick's son Ricky, team general manager Jeff Turner, engine director Randy Dorton, as well as John Hendrick's twin daughters, a DuPont representative, the pilot for driver Tony Stewart, the pilot, and copilot. It was a devastating loss both personally and for the HMS organization, yet everyone persevered. On the day of the crash, Johnson won the Martinsville race, and won again the following week at Atlanta.

In 2006 Johnson garnered his first championship for HMS. The following season, HMS and its four drivers dominated Nextel Cup races for the first four months, winning ten of 14 races, with Gordon and Johnson each winning four times. Hendrick's stable of drivers grew even stronger when Dale Earnhardt, Jr., son of the legendary Dale Earnhardt and NASCAR's most popular driver, agreed to join HMS for the 2008 season.

Principal Competitors

Joe Gibbs Racing; Roush Fenway Racing; Wood Brothers Racing Inc.

**Hendrick Motorsports**

Owner(s) Name(s)	Rick Hendrick Jeff Gordon Mary Hendrick
Racing Series	Sprint Cup Series
Number of Championships	8 Sprint Cup Series 1 Nationwide Series 3 Camping World Truck Series
Car Number(s)	#5, #24, #25, #48, #88
Driver(s)	Mark Martin (#5) Jeff Gordon (#24) Brad Keselowski (#25) Jimmie Johnson (#48) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (#88)
Primary Sponsor(s)	Kellogg's/Carquest (#5) DuPont/National Guard/Pepsi (#24) GoDaddy.com (#25) Lowe's/Kobalt Tools (#48) AMP Energy/National Guard (#88)
Shop Location	Concord, North Carolina
Homepage	Hendrick Motorsports

Sprint Cup Series

Car #5 History

2008 #5 Kellogg's Impala.

Hendrick Motorsports debuted in 1984 under the banner "All Star Racing" with the #5 Northwestern Security Life Chevy Monte Carlo, driven by Geoff Bodine. Running all 30 races, Bodine and the team won three times and finished ninth in points. Levi Garrett came on board to sponsor the #5 Chevy in 1985. Despite not winning a race that year, Bodine improved to fifth in points. The team briefly became a two-car operation when Dick Brooks drove the #1 Exxon Chevy at Charlotte Motor Speedway, in what proved to be Brooks' last NASCAR race.

Hendrick moved to a multi-car team full-time in 1986, with Bodine and Tim Richmond as drivers. Bodine won twice in the #5 and posted an eighth place finish in points. His younger brother, Brett, raced as a teammate in the World 600 that year. Bodine went winless again in 1987, finishing thirteenth in points. Bodine won one race each of the next two years before leaving for Junior Johnson in 1990. Ricky Rudd took his place, winning once and finishing seventh 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 points. On the final lap of that year's race at Sears Point Raceway, 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 won once each of the next two years, and then left to form his own team, taking Tide with him.

The #5 car as it looked from 1994 until 2000.

Rudd's replacement was 1984 Winston Cup champion Terry Labonte. The car received sponsorship from Kellogg's and their Corn Flakes brand. Labonte won three races each in 1994 and 1995, and defeated teammate Jeff Gordon for the 1996 Winston Cup championship by 37 points. Labonte won one race each of the next three seasons. The 2000 season 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. After an accident at New Hampshire 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, Jr. subbed for Labonte. His six-year winning streak was also broken as he failed to visit victory lane that year.

After a couple of low-key years, Labonte finished tenth in the points in 2003. He also revisited victory lane after a four-year drought, winning the final Southern 500 at Darlington. After slipping to twenty-sixth in points in 2004, Labonte announced his semi-retirement. He would drive a limited schedule for two years before officially retiring after the 2006 season. Hendrick tabbed Kyle Busch as his replacement.

Busch easily won the 2005 rookie of the year battle and made history when he took the checkered flag in the Sony HD 500 at California Speedway for his first win, becoming the youngest driver to ever win a Cup Series race at the age of 20 years, 4 months, and 2 days. Busch would win later that year at Phoenix. In 2006, Kyle won once and qualified for the Chase for the Nextel Cup, ultimately finishing tenth in points. In 2007, Busch grabbed a win at the Food City 500, the inaugural race for the Car of Tomorrow. On June 13, 2007 Hendrick announced that Kyle Busch would not return to drive the #5 car in 2008. On September 4, 2007 it was announced that Casey Mears would drive the #5 in 2008.

On June 22, 2008 ESPN.com reported that Mark Martin would leave Dale Earnhardt, Inc. to replace Casey Mears in the #5 car for the 2009 season.^[3] On Friday, July 4 at Daytona International Raceway, Hendrick and Mark Martin announced that Martin had agreed to a two-year contract in the #5 car.^[4]

Mark Martin scored his first career win with Hendrick Motorsports at Phoenix on April 18, 2009. He became the third oldest winner and fourth driver over the age of 50 to win a Sprint Cup Series race.^[5] The win was also the 36th victory and 400th top 10 of Martin's career. On September 18, 2009 Hendrick announced that Martin had extended his contract through the 2011 season and will race full-time with Godaddy.com as a primary sponsor.^[6]

Car #5 Career Statistics

Year	Car Number	Driver	Races	Wins	Poles	Top 5s	Top 10s	Season Rank
1984	#5	Geoff Bodine	30	3	3	7	14	9
1985	#5	Geoff Bodine	28	0	3	10	14	5
1986	#5	Geoff Bodine	29	2	8	10	15	8
1987	#5	Geoff Bodine	29	0	2	3	10	13
1988	#5	Geoff Bodine	29	1	3	10	16	6
1989	#5	Geoff Bodine	29	1	3	9	11	9
1990	#5	Ricky Rudd	29	1	2	8	15	7
1991	#5	Ricky Rudd	29	1	1	9	17	2
1992	#5	Ricky Rudd	29	1	1	9	18	7
1993	#5	Ricky Rudd	30	1	0	9	14	10
1994	#5	Terry Labonte	31	3	0	6	14	7
1995	#5	Terry Labonte	31	3	1	14	17	6
1996	#5	Terry Labonte	31	2	4	21	24	1
1997	#5	Terry Labonte	32	1	0	8	20	6
1998	#5	Terry Labonte	33	1	0	5	15	9
1999	#5	Terry Labonte	34	1	0	1	7	12
2000	#5	Terry Labonte	32	0	1	3	6	17
2000	#5	Todd Bodine	1	0	0	0	0	49
2000	#5	Ron Hornaday, Jr.	1	0	0	0	0	61
2001	#5	Terry Labonte	36	0	0	1	3	23
2002	#5	Terry Labonte	36	0	0	1	4	24
2003	#5	Terry Labonte	36	1	1	4	9	10
2004	#5	Terry Labonte	36	0	0	0	6	26
2005	#5	Kyle Busch	36	2	1	9	13	20
2006	#5	Kyle Busch	36	1	1	10	18	10
2007	#5	Kyle Busch	36	1	0	11	20	5
2008	#5	Casey Mears	36	0	0	1	6	20
2009	#5	Mark Martin	26	5	6	9	14	1

Totals			831	31	41	188	340

^[7]

Car #17 History

1989 #17 Tide Monte Carlo.

Darrell Waltrip left Junior Johnson's team following the 1986 season in order to end his relationship with Budweiser. Waltrip chose to join Hendrick Motorsports with Tide as his sponsor and 17 as his car number. The team stayed mostly constant for all of its existence. Waltrip finally won the Daytona 500 in 1989, a race that had eluded him for so many years. At the end of the 1990 season, Waltrip decided he wanted to start his own team, so he left, taking the #17 with him. The Tide sponsorship moved to the flagship #5 team with Ricky Rudd as the driver and remained there until the end of the 1993 season.

Car #17 Career Statistics

Year	Car Number	Driver	Races	Wins	Poles	Top 5s	Top 10s	Season Rank
1987	#17	Darrell Waltrip	29	1	0	6	16	4
1988	#17	Darrell Waltrip	29	2	2	10	14	7
1989	#17	Darrell Waltrip	29	6	0	14	18	4
1990	#17	Darrell Waltrip	23	0	0	5	12	20
1990	#17	Jimmy Horton	2	0	0	0	0	36
1990	#17	Greg Sacks	3	0	0	1	1	32
1990	#17	Sarel van der Merwe	1	0	0	0	0	78

Totals			116	9	2	36	61

^[7]

Car #24 History

2008 #24 Dupont Impala.

During its entire history, the #24 car has been driven by Jeff Gordon and has been sponsored by DuPont and Pepsi. Gordon debuted in the 1992 Hooters 500, qualifying twenty-first and finishing thirty-first following a crash. Almost symbolically, that race was the last for seven-time champion Richard Petty. The team went full-time in 1993 with crew chief Ray Evernham. Gordon won his Twin 125 qualifying race at Daytona and finished fifth in the Daytona 500. He finished fourteenth in points and took home 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 at Indianapolis. Gordon improved to eighth in the points that year. The following year, Gordon would go on to win the 1995 Winston Cup championship. He finished runner-up to teammate Terry Labonte for the 1996 championship.

Gordon won back-to-back championships in 1997 and 1998 and also tied Richard Petty's modern era record for most victories in a season with thirteen. Gordon won the 1999 Daytona 500, but the team struggled with consistency that year. Crew chief Ray Evernham announced he was leaving the team to help with Dodge's return to NASCAR that September. He was replaced by Brian Whitesell, who guided Gordon to wins in the first two races after Evernham's departure. At the end of the season, Gordon signed a lifetime contract with the team that gave him part ownership.

In 2000, Whitesell moved to a new position within the organization and was replaced by Robbie Loomis. Gordon picked up his fiftieth career victory at Talladega but finished ninth in points. He bounced back in 2001, winning his fourth championship. In 2002, Gordon became car owner for Jimmie Johnson and filed for divorce from his first wife Brooke. He finished fourth in points in 2003. In 2004, Gordon finished third in the inaugural Chase for the Nextel Cup. After winning three of the first nine races in 2005, his season fell into a downward spiral. Gordon finished eleventh in points that year, which was the first time since his rookie season that he finished outside the top ten in points. 2006 was Gordon's comeback year. With the help of new crew chief Steve Letarte, Jeff would rebound to make the Chase for the Nextel Cup and finish sixth in points. In 2007, despite winning six races and scoring a modern era record thirty top 10s, Gordon wound up finishing second in points to teammate Jimmie Johnson.

In 2008 Gordon returned to the Chase, but he failed to win a race for the first time since his rookie year. Despite that statistic, he managed to finish seventh in the season points standings.

At the end of the 2008 season, Gordon unveiled on The Today Show his new Firestorm paint scheme for 2009 and beyound. Gordon also broke a 47 race winless drought on April 4, 2009 at Texas. If he wins at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he will be the only driver to win on all current NASCAR Sprint Cup racetracks in use.

Car #24 Career Statistics

Year	Car Number	Driver	Races	Wins	Poles	Top 5s	Top 10s	Season Rank
1992	#24	Jeff Gordon	1	0	0	0	0	79
1993	#24	Jeff Gordon	30	0	1	7	11	14
1994	#24	Jeff Gordon	31	2	1	7	14	8
1995	#24	Jeff Gordon	31	7	8	17	23	1
1996	#24	Jeff Gordon	31	10	5	21	24	2
1997	#24	Jeff Gordon	32	10	1	22	23	1
1998	#24	Jeff Gordon	33	13	7	26	28	1
1999	#24	Jeff Gordon	34	7	7	18	21	6
2000	#24	Jeff Gordon	34	3	3	11	22	9
2001	#24	Jeff Gordon	36	6	6	18	24	1
2002	#24	Jeff Gordon	36	3	3	13	20	4
2003	#24	Jeff Gordon	36	3	4	15	20	4
2004	#24	Jeff Gordon	36	5	6	16	25	3
2005	#24	Jeff Gordon	36	4	2	8	14	11
2006	#24	Jeff Gordon	36	2	2	14	18	6
2007	#24	Jeff Gordon	36	6	7	21	30	2
2008	#24	Jeff Gordon	36	0	4	13	19	7
2009	#24	Jeff Gordon	26	1	0	12	18	6
Totals			571	82	67	259	354

^[8]

Car #25 History

The current #25 car debuted in 2003 as the #60 at the Pepsi 400 with sponsor Haas Automation and driver David Green. The car was originally formed as a partnership with Gene Haas, but the team evolved into Hendrick's R & D team, Haas CNC Racing. Green ran one additional race that year and Brian Vickers ran the #60 at the fall Charlotte race.

Kyle Busch took over the car the following season, which had been rebranded as the #84 Carquest Chevy. He made his debut at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and made five more starts that year with a best finish of twenty-fourth at California.

In 2005, Terry Labonte took over the car, which had been changed to the #44, his first number, and Kyle Busch moved to the #5. Sponsored by Kellogg's and Pizza Hut, Labonte drove the car in a limited schedule over the next two years before retiring. Hendrick did not run a fifth car until 2008, when they fielded the #25 Go Daddy Chevrolet for Brad Keselowski for a pair of races. Making his Sprint Cup debut at Texas Motor Speedway in the 2008 Dickies 500, Brad Keselowski started 37th and finished 19th in the #25 Chevrolet. In only his 5th start, Brad Keselowski won the 2009 Aaron's 499 in the #09 Miccosukee Indian Gaming & Resorts Chevrolet for Phoenix Racing. This car is classified as a research and development car (or R&D car). Brad finished 13th in his last start in this car in the Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway. He has now left for Penske Racing.

Car #25 Career Statistics

Year	Car Number	Driver	Races	Wins	Poles	Top 5s	Top 10s	Season Rank
2003	#60	David Green	2	0	0	0	0	60
2003	#60	Brian Vickers	1	0	0	0	0	49
2004	#84	Kyle Busch	6	0	0	0	0	52
2005	#44	Terry Labonte	9	0	0	0	0	40
2006	#44	Terry Labonte	10	0	0	0	0	41
2008	#25	Brad Keselowski	2	0	0	0	0	57
2009	#25	Brad Keselowski	5	0	0	0	1	40

Totals			35	0	0	0	1

^[7]

Car #48 History

2008 #48 Lowe's Impala.

The #48 car, co-owned by Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick, began competing in 2001 when Hendrick signed Jimmie Johnson, a second-year Busch Series driver for Herzog-Jackson Motorsports. Johnson made his debut at the fall Lowe's race, qualifying fifteenth and finishing thirty-ninth after crashing out. Johnson competed in two other races that year before moving to theCup circuit full-time in 2002. The 48 team was given all of the 24 teams old cars, while the 24 built all new cars for the 2002 season. He won three races and finished runner-up to Ryan Newman in the rookie battle. During his first season, Johnson became the first rookie to ever lead the points standings. He Finished fifth in points in 2002. He won three more races in 2003 and finished Second in points.

Johnson led much the 2004 season's points but suffered bad luck before the Chase for the Nextel Cup began, falling to second behind Jeff Gordon. After falling as far as ninth in points during the Chase, he rebounded with four wins in five races. Despite this, Johnson would lose the championship by only eight points to Kurt Busch in the closest final championship margin in Cup history.

Johnson led the points for much 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 and ultimately finished fifth in points that year. On February 19, 2006, Johnson won his first Daytona 500 while crew chief Chad Knaus was serving a four-race suspension for rules infractions. Johnson would go on to win the All-Star Challenge, Brickyard 400, and the 2006 Nextel Cup championship.

Johnson also won the 2007 Nextel Cup championship in a season that Hendrick Motorsports won eighteen of thirty-six races. Johnson won a staggering 10 races, including taking four in a row during the Chase for the Cup.

In 2008, Jimmie tied Cale Yarborough's record by winning his third consecutive Sprint Cup Series title.

Car #48 Career Statistics

Year	Car Number	Driver	Races	Wins	Poles	Top 5s	Top 10s	Season Rank
2001	#48	Jimmie Johnson	3	0	0	0	0	52
2002	#48	Jimmie Johnson	36	3	4	6	21	5
2003	#48	Jimmie Johnson	36	3	2	14	20	2
2004	#48	Jimmie Johnson	36	8	1	20	23	2
2005	#48	Jimmie Johnson	36	4	1	13	22	5
2006	#48	Jimmie Johnson	36	5	1	13	24	1
2007	#48	Jimmie Johnson	36	10	4	20	24	1
2008	#48	Jimmie Johnson	36	7	6	15	22	1
2009	#48	Jimmie Johnson	28	4	2	11	17	2

Totals			281	44	22	112	173

^[9]

Car #88 History

2008 #88 AMP Impala.

Car #88 was owned for many years by Rick Hendrick's father, the late Joe "Papa" Hendrick. It debuted as the #25 in 1986 with Folgers sponsorship and Tim Richmond driving. Richmond, who was teamed with veteran crew chief Harry Hyde, won seven times that year and finished third in points. He missed the beginning of the 1987 season due to AIDS, while publicly saying he was suffering from pneumonia. Benny Parsons and Darrell Waltrip were hired to drive Hendrick's second and third cars at this time. Richmond returned midway through the season and won twice, but it was obvious he wasn't going to get better anytime soon.

In 1988, Ken Schrader took over the ride. He won two pole positions, won the Talladega DieHard 500, and finished fifth in points. He won four more poles in 1989 and picked up a victory in the fall race at Charlotte. Kodiak replaced Folgers as the sponsor of the #25 for the 1990 season. Schrader didn't win a race in 1990, but he won the Daytona 500 pole for the third year in a row. He won two more races in 1991 and finished ninth in points. Schrader did not win again, but he finished a career-best fourth in points in 1994. After that year, Budweiser replaced Kodiak as the sponsor. Schrader left the team after the 1996 season and was replaced by Ricky Craven.

The #25 Budweiser car.

Craven helped Hendrick complete a 1-2-3 finish in the 1997 Daytona 500. After suffering a concussion at Texas, he missed two races. Jack Sprague and Todd Bodine filled in for him during the injury. The other highlight for Craven during the 1997 campaign was a Winston Open win. Craven ultimately finished nineteenth in points. In 1998, the car number was changed from #25 to #50 in honor of NASCAR's 50th anniversary. Shortly after the season started, Craven was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome, and he was forced to sit out several races while Randy LaJoie and Wally Dallenbach, Jr. filled in. Craven returned to driving at his home track, New Hampshire, and won the pole for the event. Despite his effort, Craven was unable to produce strong results and was replaced by Wally Dallenbach, Jr. full-time.

2004 #25 Ditech/GMAC Monte Carlo. The hood design pays tribute to the people killed in the October 2004 plane crash.

Dallenbach, Jr. finished eighteenth in points in 1999, but it was not high enough to keep his job. Budweiser left at the end of the season as well, so Hendrick chose Jerry Nadeau to drive the #25 with new sponsor Michael Holigan Homes. Nadeau had a solid first year with Hendrick, finishing twentieth in points and winning the season-ending race at Atlanta. He improved three positions in points in 2001 with the UAW-Delphi sponsorship. After eleven races in 2002, he was replaced by Joe Nemechek. Nemechek won at Richmond in 2003 before leaving for MB2/MBV Motorsports at the end of the year.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. stands with Lt. Gen. Clyde Vaughn, director of the Army National Guard, and team owner Rick Hendrick.

After winning the Busch Series championship in 2003, Brian Vickers took over the #25 in 2004 with sponsorship from GMAC and Ditech. With a third place finish in the rookie points battle, his first season was somewhat of a disappointment. 2004 was a sad year for Brian Vickers and the #25 team. "Papa" Joe, long-time owner of the #25 car, died in July, while close friend Ricky Hendrick perished in a plane crash that also took the lives of nine others in October. Vickers improved to seventeenth in points in 2005. Midway through the 2006 campaign, Vickers announced he would leave Hendrick Motorsports at the end of the season. On June 9, 2006 Hendrick Motorsports announced that Casey Mears of Chip Ganassi Racing would take the spot of Vickers in 2007. Vickers collected his first career win later that season at Talladega.

In 2007, the Army National Guard joined forces with longtime Hendrick Motorsports partner GMAC to sponsor the #25 Chevrolet driven by Casey Mears. Mears piloted the #25 to his first career win at Lowe's in the Coca Cola 600.

On June 13, 2007, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. announced he would join Hendrick Motorsports for the 2008 season. On September 14, 2007 it was announced that he would drive the #88 car. The #88 replaced the #25, and AMP Energy and the National Guard stepped up to sponsor the car. Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief and cousin, Tony Eury, Jr., also made the move to Hendrick Motorsports. However, this partnership only lasted until April, 2009 when Tony Eury, Jr. was replaced by Lance McGrew, a technical advisor and part-time crew chief with HMS for the #25 car.

Car #88 Career Statistics

Year	Car Number	Driver	Races	Wins	Poles	Top 5s	Top 10s	Season Rank
1986	#25	Tim Richmond	29	7	8	13	17	3
1987	#25	Tim Richmond	8	2	1	3	4	36
1987	#25	Rick Hendrick	1	0	0	0	0	107
1988	#25	Ken Schrader	29	1	2	4	17	5
1989	#25	Ken Schrader	29	1	4	10	14	5
1990	#25	Ken Schrader	29	0	3	7	14	10
1991	#25	Ken Schrader	29	2	0	10	18	9
1992	#25	Ken Schrader	29	0	1	4	11	17
1993	#25	Ken Schrader	30	0	6	9	15	9
1994	#25	Ken Schrader	31	0	0	9	18	4
1995	#25	Ken Schrader	31	0	1	2	10	17
1996	#25	Ken Schrader	31	0	0	3	10	12
1997	#25	Ricky Craven	30	0	0	4	7	19
1997	#25	Todd Bodine	1	0	0	0	0	52
1997	#25	Jack Sprague	1	0	0	0	0	68
1998	#50	Ricky Craven	8	0	1	0	1	46
1998	#50	Wally Dallenbach, Jr.	16	0	0	0	3	38
1998	#50	Randy LaJoie	9	0	0	1	3	49
1999	#25	Wally Dallenbach, Jr.	34	0	0	1	6	18
2000	#25	Jerry Nadeau	34	1	0	3	5	20
2001	#25	Jerry Nadeau	36	0	0	4	10	17
2002	#25	Jerry Nadeau	11	0	0	0	1	37
2002	#25	Joe Nemechek	25	0	0	3	3	34
2003	#25	Joe Nemechek	32	1	0	2	5	25
2003	#25	Brian Vickers	4	0	0	0	0	49
2004	#25	Brian Vickers	36	0	2	0	4	25
2005	#25	Brian Vickers	36	0	1	5	10	17
2006	#25	Brian Vickers	36	1	1	5	9	15
2007	#25	Casey Mears	36	1	1	5	10	15
2008	#88	Dale Earnhardt, Jr.	36	1	1	10	16	12
2009	#88	Dale Earnhardt, Jr.	26	0	0	2	5	21

Totals			751	18	33	119	244

^[7]

Other Car History

Benny Parsons drove for Hendrick in 1987 as a replacement for Tim Richmond. Hendrick kept the #25 available for Richmond to run a limited schedule, so Parsons drove the #35 car instead.

Jeff Gordon had to avoid finishing last in the 1995 NAPA 500 in order to win the championship, so Jeff Purvis drove the #58 car in that event to ensure the first championship for Hendrick Motorsports.

Other Car Career Statistics

Year	Car Number	Driver	Races	Wins	Poles	Top 5s	Top 10s	Season Rank
1985	#1	Dick Brooks	1	0	0	0	1	53
1986	#2	Brett Bodine	1	0	0	0	0	92
1987	#51	Jim Fitzgerald	1	0	0	0	0	79
1987	#35	Benny Parsons	29	0	0	6	9	16
1988	#18	Rick Hendrick	1	0	0	0	0	63
1988	#47	Rob Moroso	1	0	0	0	0	54
1989	#51	Bobby Hamilton	1	0	0	0	0	89
1989	#18	Tommy Kendall	1	0	0	0	0	N/A
1989	#42	Kyle Petty	1	0	0	0	0	30
1989	#46	Greg Sacks	1	0	0	0	0	32
1990	#18	Stan Barrett	1	0	0	0	0	74
1990	#18	Greg Sacks	12	0	1	1	3	32
1990	#46	Greg Sacks	1	0	0	0	0	32
1990	#68	Hut Stricklin	1	0	0	0	0	28
1990	#51	Hut Stricklin	1	0	0	0	0	28
1993	#46	Al Unser, Jr.	1	0	0	0	0	81
1995	#58	Jeff Purvis	1	0	0	0	0	47

Totals			56	0	1	7	13

^[7]

Hendrick Motorsports Sprint Cup Series Statistics

Starts	Wins	Poles	Top 5s	Top 10s	Titles
2642	183	164	719	1186	8

Nationwide Series

JR Motorsports and Hendrick Motorsports officially combined NASCAR Nationwide Series operations following the conclusion of the 2007 racing season. The No. 5 Chevrolets were fielded full-time under the JR Motorsports banner in 2008. The team will be fielded by JR Motorsports in parnership with Hendrick Motorsports.^[10] The partnership will campaign two full-time race cars under the JR Motorsports banner that utilize Hendrick Motorsports engines, chassis and vehicle engineering support. Rick Hendrick will be listed as car owner of the No. 5 team and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be car owner of the No. 88. JR Motorsports and Hendrick Motorsports will also collaborate in the areas of partnership development, sponsorship services, marketing and media relations. Jayski stated that JR Motorsports will field a third car, the #83, driven by Dale Earnhardt, Jr.^[11]