Hendrick adjusting to life outside the cockpit

HAMPTON, Ga. -- In this brief moment, Ricky Hendrick is an average 22-year-old.

He's kicked back on the couch on a gloomy Saturday afternoon watching Eminem spew acrimonious lyrics through the speakers of his television, bobbing his head to the beat beneath a baseball cap pulled just low enough to conceal a pair of droopy, blue eyes.

His relaxation is palpable. His limp body sinks heavily into the corner of his seat. His mood is easy and unassuming.

For the first time in months he is at peace with himself and his chosen path.

No longer must he face the fear of admitting he's lost the edge. No longer must he direct a 3,300 pound missile deep into Turn 3, terrified that something might break loose and alter his course straight into a concrete wall at 190 mph.

No longer must he dread painful injury -- or worse.

And now, as his mouth opens to reveal publicly for the first time what his brain has been thinking, it becomes obvious just how atypical this particular 22-year-old is.

	Hendrick scored six top-15 finishes in his 22 starts this year. Credit: Autostock

"Every time I'd enter the turn and have to go that extra distance, I was real uncomfortable," said Hendrick, who shocked the NASCAR world by retiring from racing earlier this month.

"It's something I think a lot about. If I were to hit again on my right shoulder would they be able to fix it? I don't know. When I hit (at Las Vegas), the doctors weren't sure how they were going to fix it and if I'd ever have full usage back. I still don't have full usage."

Hendrick's violent accident at Vegas resulted in a separated right shoulder that required arthroscopic surgery and forced him out of the seat for two months. When he did finally return, he admittedly wasn't the same driver.

"Mentally, I can't get it to go away. It's a ghost and it haunts me," said Hendrick, slowly choosing his words. "You can't attack it. You don't know how to make it go away. It's just there. I thought for a while, maybe I'll grow out of it.

"Maybe I'll get over it. And I might get over it some day. Maybe two years down the road I could be racing and not think about it, not care about it, not worry about it.

"But do you take that risk? Is it worth running two years like junk trying to figure out if it's going to go away? In my mind, I'm not that type of person. I feel like I'm too competitive. I'm too blunt sometimes.

"When I want things done, I want them done. I don't sit around and hope. I felt like I'd put this deal long enough and it was time for me to go do something that I could be number one at my game in. I just didn't feel like I could do that in a racecar."

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So, as the team paused for lunch while testing at Atlanta Motor Speedway in early October, Hendrick hopped out of the car, gathered his troops and informed them of his plan to retire.

Though shocked and confused, no one questioned the decision. Their leader had stood up and admitted what few drivers ever would: he couldn't get it done anymore.

"It was just something that I felt like I was hurting the team's performance and felt like the team could do better," Hendrick said. "It was hard to step out as a driver, but I decided that I needed to pull myself out and put someone else in that has got the edge that I lost after I wrecked.

"It's probably the toughest decision I've ever had to make in my life, but it's something I felt like I had to do and was the right thing to do."

Having shelved his helmet for good, Hendrick now comes to the track armed only with a cell phone and an oversized daily planner.

He's a businessman now, having recently opened Performance Honda/Suzuki of Charlotte -- a self-owned and operated motorcycle shop -- and jumped headfirst into the day-to-day operation of his Busch team.

"When he made that decision it surprised me," said Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson. "I just didn't know what to think at the beginning. But to see how happy he is and how he instantly dove into the management side of the motorsports program with all the teams, and also he has some other things he's involved in, too.

"He's got a huge day planner now, planning out stuff and looking like a businessman. It's kind of scary. I'm not used to him carrying a day planner. I'm used to him carrying a helmet."

Hendrick awakes each morning to a lengthy list of phone numbers -- clients, sponsors, family -- and spends most mornings tending to their needs. In the coming years, he hopes to grow his motorcycle shop into multiple franchises and become more involved in his father's motorsports empire.

	Team owner Rick Hendrick Credit: Autostock

"It's horrifying," laughed Hendrick about his business. "But I feel like I've put myself with people that have been successful in this business. They know what they're doing. They understand the industry.

"I feel like with these guys, it's going to be very hard for us not to succeed and be very successful."

Where motorcycles are concerned, Hendrick has never been averse to testing the waters.

"I've had a bike since I was three years old. My parents hated them, threatened to kill me one day because I bought a bike behind their back and they threatened to take everything away from me," he laughed. "It's something I have a passion for.

"I'm fortunate. When I felt like I needed to get out, I was able to get out. I promised my father I'd never do this just for the money and I'd only race cars because I love racing cars. And I still love racing cars, but there's a problem in the equation I couldn't fix.

"Sometimes I wonder if other people had the option, what would they do? A lot of them were very positive. A lot of people said it took a lot of guts, but to me it was just the truth."

Though no longer the driver of the GMAC Chevrolet, Hendrick still plans to do appearances and fulfill other sponsorship obligations in his new "kind of owner-oriented" role, as he puts it. He is determined that the team will run up front, and so far they've done well with driver David Green at the wheel.

One of the toughest aspects of the job for Hendrick is separating business and friendship. Telling someone who has been his friend for years to step it up a notch or listening to the problems certain team members may be experiencing is often a daunting prospect.

"That's what I'm trying to learn now, and it's going to take time, but I'll learn along the way," he said. "I do know these guys from racing so I feel like already have some amount of respect here. And I'm not the type of person to come in and start laying the law down or anything like that. That's just not me.

"I'm not going to just come in and start making decisions. That's not what I do and that's not the way this organization is run. That's not the way my father runs things. I'm a friend and an owner, and we're going to do as a team whatever it takes to win races."

Hendrick never won a Busch Series race, but holds no reservations about removing himself from the driver's seat. His parents, who have long lobbied for him to make such a decision, are relieved. But he maintains they had little say in his decision.

RICKY HENDRICK  •  Driver Page  •  2002 Stats

"The thing with them is, I know I have their support no matter what I decide," Hendrick said. "That's where they played into my decision making. I knew that they wanted me to quit and I knew that they were scared, but I know they wouldn't want me to make a decision because of them.

"They never have. So I never made a decision because of them. But I know they're happy now that I've quit and I'm pursuing other things."

Hendrick feels as if his new role will bolster his relationship with his father, Winston Cup champion owner and automotive dealership mogul Rick Hendrick. They talk on the phone more these days, and have more in common.

"I think it's going to help our relationship more even than it already was between father and son, because now we're kind of in it together," he said. "I talk to him every morning.

"With my motorcycle shop, I really need him to bounce ideas off of. I guess I'm growing up a little bit, with that day planner and all. I feel pretty organized. I can't rely on other people to tell me where to be or when to be there anymore. I have to be responsible enough to do it on my own."

Judging by his recent rationale, that shouldn't pose much of a problem.