Team Owner
In the late 1970s, Hendrick founded a drag boat racing team that won three consecutive championships, as well as setting a world record of 222.2 mph (357.6 km/h) with Nitro Fever. He then moved to the NASCAR Model Sportsman Series (now Nationwide Series), which he earned one victory with Dale Earnhardt at Charlotte Motor Speedway. In 1984, he founded All-Star Racing (now Hendrick Motorsports). With five full-time employees and 5,000 square feet (460 m2) of work space, he fielded one NASCAR Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup Series) team. With Geoff Bodine the driver, his team managed to race in all 30 races to finish ninth in the final standings with three wins and pole positions. Throughout his career as a team owner, Hendrick has won 14 Drivers' championships (10 Sprint Cup Series, 1 Nationwide Series, and three Camping World Truck Series), 257 race wins (209 Sprint Cup Series, 23 Nationwide Series, and 25 Truck Series), and 245 pole positions (189 Sprint Cup Series, 35 Nationwide Series, and 21 Truck Series).
In the late 80s, Hendrick owned the Goodwrench IMSA GTP Corvette driven by Sarel Van der Merwe and Doc Bundy. The car was actually built by Lola but resembled later Corvette models and was powered by GM's twin-turbo V-6 engine. The GTP team was based in a tiny shop on Gasoline Alley (formerly Roena St.) in Indianapolis, Indiana and managed by Ken Howes of South Africa. The team experienced mixed successes, setting track records and winning many pole positions but few races. The project was abandoned after only a few seasons.
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Famous quotes containing the words team and/or owner:
“I also heard the whooping of the ice in the pond, my great bed-fellow in that part of Concord, as if it were restless in its bed and would fain turn over, were troubled with flatulency and bad dreams; or I was waked by the cracking of the ground by the frost, as if some one had driven a team against my door, and in the morning would find a crack in the earth a quarter of a mile long and a third of an inch wide.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I am the owner of the sphere,
Of the seven stars and the solar year,
Of Caesar’s hand, and Plato’s brain,
Of Lord Christ’s heart, and Shakspeare’s strain.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)