Through each challenge, Hendrick became stronger

MIAMI -- Rick Hendrick was tired of listening to them bicker. It was late in the 2005 season, and the once-promising title hopes of Jimmie Johnson, who fell from first to fifth in the final five races, had crumbled. The once-unshakable relationship between the young driver and Chad Knaus, his intense crew chief, had developed fractures. One day in the Hendrick Motorsports shop the two were clashing again, and their championship car owner had heard enough.

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So he called them up to his office, where he set out a box of cookies and a gallon of milk. If they were going to act like children, then they were going to be treated like children. The message delivered, he sat them down and brokered a truce. Johnson learned to speak up. Knaus learned to cool down. And the bond between the two, now on the brink of their second consecutive championship in NASCAR's premier series, improved as a result.

"I'd been down that road before, with Harry Hyde and Geoff Bodine and countless other drivers and crew chiefs," Hendrick said Thursday during interviews previewing Sunday's Nextel Cup season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. "But it's probably the first time I've seen one that was going that far south turn and do that well."

It did so because of the car owner, a kindly gray-haired man who sets the standard in NASCAR for excellence. He's been faced with challenges since the earliest days of his professional career, when he risked everything to turn around the lowest-producing Chevrolet dealership in the Carolinas. He's faced off against federal prosecutors, battled leukemia, and dealt with the tragic deaths of family members and team executives in a plane crash. Through it all Rick Hendrick perseveres, smiling and shaking hands in Victory Lane, building an empire that's 23 years old and only just reaching its peak.

Now he comes to South Florida guaranteed a seventh Cup title, with Johnson leading teammate Jeff Gordon by 86 points and everyone else out of the running. The most popular driver in North America, Dale Earnhardt Jr., moves to his stable next season. Hendrick Motorsports has never been stronger. Ask the team owner how it happened, and he'll rave about engine department heads Jeff Andrews and Jim Wall, compliment executives like Marshall Carlson and Ken Howes, laud the driving talent of Jimmie and Jeff. The only person he won't give credit to is the one who put it all together, who signed all the checks and took all the risks, who built it all up from a single-car outfit called All-Star Racing back in 1984.

Himself. Other people have to do that for him.

"He's a plain ol' country guy from somewhere up there in Virginia who started out with nothing," said friend and seven-time champ Richard Petty. "He got him a used-car lot and then a dealership, and he's worked for everything he's got. So he deserves everything he's got, and he's good people on top of that."

The King nearly drove for Hendrick, striking a deal with the car owner for that inaugural 1984 season, but longtime sponsor STP wouldn't go along. But the Hendrick story really began much earlier, when Chevy hired him to turn around a dealership in Bennettsville, S.C., that was selling six cars a month. He had 18 employees, hardly any inventory, no showroom, and a facility that bordered a cotton field. In less than two years, he was moving 125 cars a month. The brass in Detroit took notice, and moved him to their regional superstore in Charlotte. Suddenly he had the cash and the connections to pursue his dream of running a race team. (Continued)