Darrell Waltrip / AllWaltrip.com
Folks, the first thing I want to tell you is I am not on the Hendrick Motorsports payroll. I don't work for Hendrick Motorsports. But Rick Hendrick is a dear friend of mine. That friendship stems from our relationship back when I went to drive for him and the Tide team in 1986. We became very good friends, and we remain that way today.
I have so much respect for him and admire him because he's a man of his word. He's a man of integrity, and he's a man you can trust. When he shakes your hand, and he tells you that's the way it's going to be, you can take it to the bank. People say the secret to Hendrick Motorsports is the cars, the drivers, the resources and the technology. It's all of those things because Rick Hendrick was a visionary. In the middle '80s, Rick really got interested in Cup racing. He wanted to field a team, and he did as All-Star Racing with Geoff Bodine.
He started off with crew chief Harry Hyde and driver Tim Richmond joined in 1986. Rick had some incredible crew chiefs and drivers in the early years. He was not going to be a follower; he was going to be a leader. From the beginning, he saw the value of having more than one team. That's not because he thought more cars meant more chances to win. He saw the value in sharing information and resources while working together at the shop and the track. That was his motivation for wanting to have more than one team. He knew it would make the whole operation stronger.
When I went to work for Rick, I learned so much. He's Bill France Jr., Junior Johnson and Roger Penske all rolled into one. He has an incredible knowledge of the sport, how it works and how you make it work. That's one of his big advantages; he understands the inner workings of NASCAR and how to get along with people. Rick is a people person. He always told me that you get the people first and then you build around them. That's been a big key to his success.
It takes a lot of people to race today. The restrictor plate program is a project in itself. These special cars and engines take special people. Then you're constantly taking the current car to the wind tunnel. Then you've got the Car of Tomorrow project, which Hendrick Moorsports has been working on since last year. That's a whole new car with a lot of special parts and a lot of testing, requiring a lot of people. It's a daunting task to put together a race car, take it to the racetrack and have the success they've had.
That's the kind of program that these teams have to have if they're going to be as successful as Hendrick Motorsports has been. That's where you've got to be proactive. You can't be reactive. You've got to be out there on the cutting edge, and that's the advantage that Rick and his company have right now. They're ahead of verybody in the sport right now because of hard work, good people and Rick's leadership. He saw that there were going to be 16 COT races this year, and better than any other owner, he knew the advantage his team could have is if they work this thing out and were the best team from the get-go. That's part of the reason for their dominance right now. They had a game plan, and they executed it.
From the beginning, Hendrick saw the value in building his own cars. He started his own chassis shop early on. I drove them, and they weren't all that great. But Rick's plan was to keep building and working on those cars. Gary DeHart, Eddie Dickerson and a couple of other buddies of mine worked day and night, night and day. They would keep changing cars, making them better and getting them where the drivers liked them. It took time and didn't happen overnight.
In order to be successful, Rick was convinced that an organization had to do everything itself. The same held true for the engine program. When I first drove for Rick, we had outside engine sources, but if he was ever going to be as successful as he wanted to be, Rick knew he needed to control every aspect of the business. With Randy Dorton, he started an engine company. I drove those engines, and they weren't all that great. But Rick didn't give up. He kept improving and working, and he just stayed in there until he had the best engines, best cars in the sport and best drivers in the sport. All of those things that he envisioned back in the '80s have come true.
Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and Casey Mears are great race car drivers, and they have great people working on their race cars. But success starts at the top. When people want to know what makes Hendrick Motorsports so good, they've got everything they need because Rick knows what it takes to be successful in this business. And he learned it at an early age from his father, Papa Joe, who loved to race. Rick saw the value in doing it right. Hendrick Motorsports doesn't accept mediocrity. He won't quit until he gets it right, and he motivates his people to be the same way. He can inspire you to do things that you didn't even know you could do yourself.
Rick made owning a race team look so easy, and he was so successful that he inspired me and others to do our own deals. I started my own team in 1991 with Western Auto, and I couldn't have done it without Rick. He provided me with engines for my cars and gave me all of the assistance I needed. For the first two years — 1991 and 1992 — I ran Rick's engines and won five races. At the end of the '92 season, I decided to do my own engines. Guess what? I never won another race.
Ricky Rudd drove for Rick and then decided to take Tide to do his own deal, winning six races from 1994-1998. Geoff Bodine won four races as an owner/driver, and former Hendrick crew chief, Ray Evernham, started his own Dodge team. Rick was such a smooth operator that it made me think anybody could own a race team. But when you have your own organization, you find out quickly it takes a lot of skill and leadership to put together the people. He helped all of us that wanted to go out and do our own thing.
Folks, the first thing I want to tell you is I am not on the Hendrick Motorsports payroll. I don't work for Hendrick Motorsports. But Rick Hendrick is a dear friend of mine. That friendship stems from our relationship back when I went to drive for him and the Tide team in 1986. We became very good friends, and we remain that way today.
I have so much respect for him and admire him because he's a man of his word. He's a man of integrity, and he's a man you can trust. When he shakes your hand, and he tells you that's the way it's going to be, you can take it to the bank. People say the secret to Hendrick Motorsports is the cars, the drivers, the resources and the technology. It's all of those things because Rick Hendrick was a visionary. In the middle '80s, Rick really got interested in Cup racing. He wanted to field a team, and he did as All-Star Racing with Geoff Bodine.
He started off with crew chief Harry Hyde and driver Tim Richmond joined in 1986. Rick had some incredible crew chiefs and drivers in the early years. He was not going to be a follower; he was going to be a leader. From the beginning, he saw the value of having more than one team. That's not because he thought more cars meant more chances to win. He saw the value in sharing information and resources while working together at the shop and the track. That was his motivation for wanting to have more than one team. He knew it would make the whole operation stronger.
When I went to work for Rick, I learned so much. He's Bill France Jr., Junior Johnson and Roger Penske all rolled into one. He has an incredible knowledge of the sport, how it works and how you make it work. That's one of his big advantages; he understands the inner workings of NASCAR and how to get along with people. Rick is a people person. He always told me that you get the people first and then you build around them. That's been a big key to his success.
It takes a lot of people to race today. The restrictor plate program is a project in itself. These special cars and engines take special people. Then you're constantly taking the current car to the wind tunnel. Then you've got the Car of Tomorrow project, which Hendrick Moorsports has been working on since last year. That's a whole new car with a lot of special parts and a lot of testing, requiring a lot of people. It's a daunting task to put together a race car, take it to the racetrack and have the success they've had.
That's the kind of program that these teams have to have if they're going to be as successful as Hendrick Motorsports has been. That's where you've got to be proactive. You can't be reactive. You've got to be out there on the cutting edge, and that's the advantage that Rick and his company have right now. They're ahead of verybody in the sport right now because of hard work, good people and Rick's leadership. He saw that there were going to be 16 COT races this year, and better than any other owner, he knew the advantage his team could have is if they work this thing out and were the best team from the get-go. That's part of the reason for their dominance right now. They had a game plan, and they executed it.
From the beginning, Hendrick saw the value in building his own cars. He started his own chassis shop early on. I drove them, and they weren't all that great. But Rick's plan was to keep building and working on those cars. Gary DeHart, Eddie Dickerson and a couple of other buddies of mine worked day and night, night and day. They would keep changing cars, making them better and getting them where the drivers liked them. It took time and didn't happen overnight.
In order to be successful, Rick was convinced that an organization had to do everything itself. The same held true for the engine program. When I first drove for Rick, we had outside engine sources, but if he was ever going to be as successful as he wanted to be, Rick knew he needed to control every aspect of the business. With Randy Dorton, he started an engine company. I drove those engines, and they weren't all that great. But Rick didn't give up. He kept improving and working, and he just stayed in there until he had the best engines, best cars in the sport and best drivers in the sport. All of those things that he envisioned back in the '80s have come true.
Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and Casey Mears are great race car drivers, and they have great people working on their race cars. But success starts at the top. When people want to know what makes Hendrick Motorsports so good, they've got everything they need because Rick knows what it takes to be successful in this business. And he learned it at an early age from his father, Papa Joe, who loved to race. Rick saw the value in doing it right. Hendrick Motorsports doesn't accept mediocrity. He won't quit until he gets it right, and he motivates his people to be the same way. He can inspire you to do things that you didn't even know you could do yourself.
Rick made owning a race team look so easy, and he was so successful that he inspired me and others to do our own deals. I started my own team in 1991 with Western Auto, and I couldn't have done it without Rick. He provided me with engines for my cars and gave me all of the assistance I needed. For the first two years — 1991 and 1992 — I ran Rick's engines and won five races. At the end of the '92 season, I decided to do my own engines. Guess what? I never won another race.
Ricky Rudd drove for Rick and then decided to take Tide to do his own deal, winning six races from 1994-1998. Geoff Bodine won four races as an owner/driver, and former Hendrick crew chief, Ray Evernham, started his own Dodge team. Rick was such a smooth operator that it made me think anybody could own a race team. But when you have your own organization, you find out quickly it takes a lot of skill and leadership to put together the people. He helped all of us that wanted to go out and do our own thing.
