How did Rick Hendrick get his start? Exploring the NASCAR legend's rise to motorsports dominance

Rick Hendrick, born Joseph Riddick Hendrick III, is the owner & founder of the NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports. As of 2024, Hendrick Motorsports has won 14 NASCAR Cup championships.

They are currently home to drivers Chase Elliot and Kyle Larson who have each won a NASCAR Cup Championship in 2020 & 2021 respectively. In 2024, Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron competed in the final four for the NASCAR Cup.

But this all began with Rick Hendrick, chairman of the Hendrick Automotive Group, who had his start on a tobacco farm in Palmer Springs, Virginia. He was quoted as saying about this phase of his life (via The Charlotte Observer):

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do in life, but I knew that wasn’t it.”

He got his start in racing by visiting local race tracks & volunteering as a crew member. At 26, he transformed a failing Chevrolet dealership in Bennettsville, South Carolina, into one of the most profitable ones, which eventually led to his founding of the Hendrick Automotive Group. What started as a private dealership company has now generated more than $12.2 billion in revenue (according to the Hendrick Motorsports website, figures from 2022).

While he was building the automotive dealership side of his business, Rick stayed close to his passion for racing. He began his career as a team owner in the 1970s with the formation of a drag boat racing team which went on to win three national championships.

At the age of 35, Rick Hendrick founded the NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports, which is currently the most successful team in the sport and holds the record for having won a race in every single season starting from 1986, which is 38 consecutive seasons.

Hendrick Motorsports & Rick Hendrick have been host to the who's who of NASCAR drivers including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and more.

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40 years later, Rick Hendrick reflects on founding HMS

2024 will mark the 40th anniversary of the formation of Hendrick Motorsports, and in August of this year, NASCAR's Hall of Fame unveiled an exhibit dedicated to the team's time in the sport. At the private opening of the exhibit, Rick Hendrick said in an official press release:

“Once you’ve been to the top of the mountain, you don’t want it to end, I feel like I’m just as competitive or more competitive now than when I was 30 years old. I want to keep it alive."

Hendrick Motorsports, started by the son of a tobacco farmer, now has 16 drivers' championships, 339 race wins, and 298 poles across the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, and NASCAR Truck Series.