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.

In the process, he changed the sport. Suddenly, it wasn't just for former drivers and mechanics anymore. He changed the sport again when he put Gordon in a Cup ride before anyone else would, knowing that a champion lurked somewhere inside that kid who wrecked all those cars. He took the Joe Gibbs Racing model of merging two teams under one roof and perfected it, creating a 24/48 operation that's the envy of every other car owner.

"He's put a lot into it, and has helped take it to another level," Petty said. "He's been a big instigator of taking it out from being just all about racing and making into more of a business. He took it out into the business world. Back in '84 or whenever he got involved, he started looking at it strictly as a business. He was a racer. But racing was his hobby, not his job. He was able to take that hobby and get the right people in the right places and make it his job, and go out in win races. He went out and bought it."

Same but different

They share information, yet Jeff Gordon and the No. 24 team just can't catch Jimmie Johnson and it's because the two have completely different styles behind the wheel.

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He's respected throughout the garage because he treats his people well, as evidenced by his organization's relatively low turnover rate. He's respected because of his attention to detail, reflected in engine shop employees who tore up everything they'd built after a piston problem was detected in an 800-mile simulation run. He's respected because of the grace and class with which he's handled personal tragedies like the 2004 crash outside Martinsville, Va., that claimed 10 people including his brother and son.

"For a guy like him to go through everything he's gone through the last few years, and be his age and been in it this long, to still come to the racetrack, to still come to the test at Atlanta, to still travel around and see all his dealerships, people wonder why he still does that. But he does it because he loves it," said Steve Letarte, Gordon's crew chief, who started at Hendrick sweeping floors as a teenager. "He doesn't do it for the money; he doesn't do it for any other reason. That's why I'm in this sport. One day when I wake up and I'm not energized to come to the racetrack, I'll find another job."

He's renowned for spotting talent, and trusting the recommendations of others. He took Gordon's word that Johnson was ready for the Cup circuit. He took his late son Ricky's word that Brian Vickers was ready to move to a better team. He took GM Brian Whitesell's word that Knaus was ready to become a crew chief. Sure, he's raced cars, even built a few of them. But it's the old car salesman's ability to relate to people that has made his organization work.

"I know a little bit about all the parts in racing -- I built my own motors and stuff like that -- but I'm not good at anything," Hendrick said. "If there's anything I try to work the hardest on, my job is to keep all the people pointed in the right direction. Keep them motivated. If there's a problem, get it out on the table and talk about it, and at least try to keep harmony in the camp. That's hard to do when you're competing against each other and you're trying to beat each other and the guys have to get on the plane and ride home together. But our competition guys ... they get paid on every win, just like it was their team. When a guy on the 25 team sees Jeff Gordon win, he knows that's coming into his check the next week. It motivates them."

He's built an organization so deep, it barely missed a step in the aftermath of the executive reorganization following the 2004 crash. All the people Hendrick credits with making his team work, from engineer Rex Stump to vice president Doug Duchardt to new crew chief Tony Eury Jr. have one thing in common -- the man who hired them. Even people at other teams recognize it.

"One of the things I admire about Hendrick is that he's smart enough to hire the right people and put them in the right position, and then let them do their job," Petty said.

Still, getting Hendrick to take any credit is difficult. The philosophy he preaches at his shop is that no individual is bigger than the team. That includes the man at the very top.

"The plan has worked," Hendrick said. "I just lead them to the water. They have to drink."

The opinions expressed are those solely of the writer