"I didn’t even know he liked racing": When Linda Hendrick realized Rick Hendrick's passion for speed

In 2017, Linda Hendrick, the wife of Rick Hendrick, penned about her journey with the billionaire NASCAR mogul. Through a column on the Hendrick Motorsports' official website, Mrs. Hendrick also wrote about the highs to lows about their life. Interestingly, in the column, she also revealed that she was unaware of her husband's passion for speed during the initial days of their relationship.

Hendrick is currently one of the most renowned names in NASCAR. He is the owner of NASCAR Cup Series' most successful team, Hendrick Motorsports, and a co-owner of another NASCAR team, JR Motorsports. He has a net worth of over $1 billion (via Celebrity Net Worth)

The 75-year-old often arrives at the racetrack together with wife Linda for Cup Series races. On one such occasion, they attended the NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2017, and this was when Mrs. Hendrick shared an interesting story about her husband.

"When I first met Rick, I didn’t even know he liked racing. Obviously, it didn’t take long to find out his passion for cars, and how much he loved the speed and competition. He would race anything that you gave him. But it began as a hobby – to think that we could even afford to be in the business of racing was the furthest thing from our minds."

During his early days, Rick Hendrick was a drag racer. From there, he raced in the Cup Series, Xfinity Series, and Truck Series four times. After his driving days ended, he switched to entrepreneurship in everything automotive.

Rick Hendrick's reach and impact are not just within the sport, as outside of it, he holds the ownership of Hendrick Automotive Group, one of the largest privately held dealership groups in the United States of America.

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Linda Hendrick shared experience of early days of marriage with Rick Hendrick

In the same column on Hendrick Motorsports' official website, Linda Hendrick also touched upon the experiences of her early days of marriage with Rick Hendrick. Here's what she wrote:

"When Rick and I got married, we were just like all young people – we didn’t have any plans of our own. We never could have imagined what was to come. It’s just not something we talked about – that we were going to start a race team or car dealerships."

"We just took it one step at a time and one day at a time. Looking back, where we started, how things have progressed and where we are now, it’s like a dream that we just happened to be a part of," she further added.

NASCAR Hall of Famer and team owner Rick Hendrick and wife Linda Hendrick - Source: Getty

The Rick Hendrick-owned team, Hendrick Motorsports, is the winningest team in the NASCAR Cup Series with 313 Cup Series wins and 14 Cup Series owner and driver championships.

Hendrick Motorsports currently fields four drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series. They are Kyle Larson in the #5 entry, Chase Elliott in the #9 entry, Alex Bowman in the #48 entry, and William Byron in the #24 entry.