Younger Hendrick enjoying role as owner

CONCORD, N.C. -- Ricky Hendrick is a lot of things. Son, business owner, NASCAR Busch Series car owner, retired driver.

You could also call him a recruiter, since Hendrick was primarily responsible for bringing Brian Vickers to Hendrick Motorsports.

	Ricky Hendrick Credit: Autostock

But there's one word Hendrick doesn't want to hear from Vickers or from Hendrick's other Busch driver, Kyle Busch.

"If they ever referred to me as boss, I'd slap them," Hendrick said.

Hendrick may have hung up his driving helmet, but he still has his sense of humor. Retired from driving at the ripe old age of 22, Hendrick has remained in racing as Hendrick Motorsports' Busch Series car owner. He's also following in his famous father's footsteps by owning a dealership that sells motorcycles and off-road vehicles.

Hendrick retired from driving last September, crawling out of a race car for the last time after a race at Kansas Speedway -- the site of his Craftsman Truck Series victory a year earlier.

HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS  •  Team page  •  Brian Vickers' driver page

Hendrick was injured in a grinding crash at Las Vegas and soon decided it was better for someone else to drive the race car.

"Do I miss it? Yes," Hendrick said. "I miss racing. But if you look at the whole picture and you see what Brian's doing and what that team's doing, I feel like it's my child. It's something that I put together and something that I started four years ago. I created this great bunch of guys, and I wanted to handed over to someone who is going to be a championship-material driver."

Hendrick wasn't exactly a field-filler, posting one top-five and three top-10 finishes in 38 career starts. But seeing Vickers, who is sixth in the points standings, run well has been gratifying to Hendrick. And he knows he wouldn't have done as well in the car.

"I don't feel like I could ever be a champion in either one of those series," Hendrick said of Busch and trucks. "I feel like I could run very well in the Late Model series, I could be successful in the Truck Series. I feel like I could win a couple races here and there in the Busch Series.

"I feel like I'm going to be more of an expense than an asset in the race car. That's pretty much the bottom line. I feel like someone else could more of an asset than myself. We've proven that Brian is that asset."

ALSO  •  Busch Series Drivers  •  2003 Race Results  •  Driver Standings

His dad never pressured him to quit. But Ricky knew it was time. And there are no regrets.

"I'm better off out of the car," Hendrick said. "I thought for a while that I would love to run that inaugural truck race at Charlotte. I was raised at Charlotte, drove on the track when I was 13 years old in a Winston Cup car. I would have loved to do that.

"But after seriously contemplating that and after realizing that, hey, when I said I'm done, I'm done. That's it."

Rick Hendrick used to try to get Ricky to stop driving by promising gifts, like a car dealership. But Ricky always turned them down.

Once he did quit, Rick had a dealership ready for Ricky. But Ricky wasn't ready to sell cars. He wanted to start slowly. So he runs Performance Honda of Charlotte.

"I'm going to focus on the management side of things, stay involved in retail and go fishing all the time," Hendrick said. "That's what I'm going to do."