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Special Report

Empire still getting bigger and better

BILL FRANCE JR.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
RICK HENDRICK

Hendrick is at forefront of racing’s growth.

Rick Hendrick likes to tell the story of his racing empire's humble beginnings: a 10,000-square-foot shack at the top of a hill. He used half of it to hammer on stock cars and half to store his boats.

"That's all we had," Hendrick said, pointing to a tiny spot on an aerial photograph of his sprawling stock car empire. "And we still were able to win three races and three poles."

Eighteen years later, the ramshackle race shop that Hendrick opened with crew chief Harry Hyde has grown into Hendrick Motorsports, a manufacturing complex that encompasses 400,000 square feet on 62 acres along the county line north of Charlotte — a structure the size of a 40-store shopping mall.

This year, Hendrick will field four entries on NASCAR's Winston Cup circuit, along with two Busch teams and a truck team.

What once was a hobby, sport or odd job has grown into an industry, a bona fide economic engine that has spawned operations that generate revenue approaching $50 million — and, in the case of Hendrick's shop and one or two others, likely exceeding it.

Hendrick, who owns a $2.3 billion auto dealership chain that is the nation's seventh largest, has been at the forefront of that growth.

Last season brought his fifth Winston Cup championship as an owner. It was his fourth with Jeff Gordon, the driving prodigy whom he unearthed and helped develop.

Hendrick won his 100th Winston Cup race in 2001, something no other car owner has done in the modern era. And he won his third Craftsman Truck Series championship, another first.

As Hendrick's operation has gotten bigger, it has gotten better.

"I never would've dreamed it would get this big," said Hendrick, who employs more than 300 at his race operations. "You used to have three cars: a speedway car, a short-track car and an intermediate car. And you had backups. Now, you've got 16 to 18 cars [per Winston Cup team].

"In most businesses, you create equity and it feeds off itself and grows. In this business, the only way to do it is to keep getting better people and facilities."

Hendrick didn't plan it that way. But after two years of operation, he saw the potential rewards that might come from growth. Hendrick believed that running additional cars would generate more in new sponsorship revenue and prize money than it did in cost.

He was right. What began as an exception has evolved into the rule. Cars from multicar stables dominated last year's Winston Cup standings, taking the first 11 positions and 19 of the top 20 spots. Multicar teams have won all but two of the last 109 Winston Cup races dating back to September 1998.

"Once you've got the land and the [manufacturing equipment] and the manpower, the rewards that are out there for you if you run two or three or four teams out of that shop outweigh the additional expense," Hendrick said.

"People were hesitant to do it this way for a while because they worried that you couldn't work together and still have teams compete against each other. If you did run more than one team, you were supposed to keep them apart — either on opposite sides of a creek or a ditch or of town.

"I think we've all found that the benefits of being in one place outweigh those concerns."

When Hendrick had success in the late '80s, other owners began to expand. Each time an owner launched another team, he hired more engineers, mechanics, crew members and support staff; typically about 25 new employees for each new team. The entire industry grew.

Hendrick's teams also blazed trails in the way they used personnel, bringing specialization to NASCAR. His was the first team to hire and train pit crew members who spent the week in the gymnasium rather than under the hood.

"It used to be that if a guy who was short and fat worked on the cars, you'd let him change tires," Hendrick said. "Then, we started looking at the pit times more closely and all of a sudden we were hiring athletes who didn't know anything about cars. Now, we've worked our way back to something in between."

Hendrick's operation continues to evolve.

"If you're going to compete, you're going to have to grow and you're going to have to change," Hendrick said. "We're all out there looking for an edge that's going to get us where we want to be on Sunday.

"In some ways, it's a lot of monkey-see-monkey-do in this business — and I'm just as guilty as anyone of it. But if you really want to succeed, you're also going to have to be willing to try to come up with something new."

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