CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Rick Hendrick sat with drivers Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin situated to either side of him at a long table on an elevated stage Thursday at the posh Hyatt Regency hotel.

The special occasion Thursday afternoon was the Cup Series championship contenders press conference, and folks were there to talk mostly about history.

“

I've never known an organization that wants to win more for the boss. It feels like to me they want to win more for him than they even do for themselves.

”

-- MARK MARTIN

Yes, Jimmie Johnson almost certainly will make some Sunday in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He needs only to finish 25th or better -- regardless of what Martin does -- to secure an unprecedented fourth consecutive championship.

And if Johnson somehow slips up and Martin erases the formidable 108-point deficit he is facing heading into Sunday's Ford 400, Martin would make history by becoming the oldest driver in history to win a championship.

But Hendrick was the only one on stage Thursday already assured of putting his name and his organization on a new page in the NASCAR record book. With both Johnson and Martin in his employ at Hendrick Motorsports, Hendrick already knows that his ninth Cup championship is in the bag -- as well as his 12th overall championship in NASCAR's three national touring series.

Only the former Petty Enterprises has won as many Cup titles, and no one has won more overall. Hendrick entered this season tied with Richard Childress Racing for most overall NASCAR championships.

"I would have to say this is probably as good as it gets," Hendrick said. "You know, to have the three cars in the points where they are right now [Jeff Gordon, another Hendrick driver, is third behind Johnson and Martin], having the championship as owner going into Homestead already secured, we've won a lot of races ... this has got to be as good as any season we've ever had."

It comes, remarkably, in Hendrick Motorsports' 25th season as an organization. What began as a one-car operation that appeared it might not be long for NASCAR's top series in 1984 has through the years transformed into what legendary driver Bobby Allison insisted Thursday was the greatest of all time.

Asked after Thursday's news conference where Hendrick Motorsports ranked amongst all the racing organizations that have fielded teams and won championships throughout NASCAR's 61-year history, Allison didn't flinch with his answer.

"First of all, Rick Hendrick is leading. He's first," said Allison, who won one championship, in 1983, while driving for several different owners from 1961 through 1988. "He's done an incredible job. I can only wish I had driven for Hendrick somewhere along the way. I would like to think if I had, I would have done better than I did -- and to begin with, I did pretty good.

"Hendrick has the people skills where he could have been a real big help to me. If you go back and look at my career, I won races and got fired -- several times. Some of that was my fault. Not much, but at least a little, tiny bit. And Rick probably could have helped me with that part of it."

That is, after all, what everyone says about Hendrick and why they think he has been so successful. He is a people person to a Superman's degree. Martin said last weekend at Phoenix that he believes he sees "a little bit of Rick in everyone who is employed at Hendrick Motorsports."

On Thursday, Martin further explained that astute observation. He said it is all about communication with and respect for each other -- and about wanting to please the man in charge because no one wants to let him, or anyone else in the organization, down.

"I've never known an organization that wants to win more for the boss," Martin said. "It feels like to me they want to win more for him than they even do for themselves. You know, that's just a testament to what a guy Rick is."

Johnson added: "Rick has had to make a lot of decisions for a variety of employees at every level. Somehow, some way, what he possesses in connecting with people, looking for the right skills, the desire, the drive that an individual may have to perform well and do well, there's something that he can see and recognize. I think it speaks volumes to the company and the success of the company.

"He can pick something up, pick something out, know how to weave it into a group of guys that are all very good at what they do as well, and kind of piece everything together."

Hendrick said he traces the current level of success for his organization back to 1999, when Ray Evernham, who had been the highly successful crew chief for Jeff Gordon, left Hendrick Motorsports to start his own team. Gordon had won three championships with Evernham, but the other teams in the Hendrick fold had often struggled to keep up (despite Terry Labonte also winning a championship).

"I told 'em all that we were going to start working together more in 1999 when Ray Evernham left. I said, 'We're going to work together; this is the way we're going to do it. If you want to do it here, fine; if you don't, that's OK but you'll have to leave because that's the way we're going to do it,'" Hendrick said.

"I had been sick [with leukemia], and Ray went out to do his own thing. We had one Cinderella team, and the other guys were just kind of on their own. Teams were located in buildings that were on the same property, but they didn't work together."

That was about to change, and did rather quickly. Soon the teams that now are the No. 24 of Gordon and then No. 48 of Johnson were working closely together out of one shop, and the ones that now are the No. 5 of Martin and the No. 88 of Dale Earnhardt Jr. were working out of another nearby in the same complex.

"Ken Howes, our director of competition, had been talking about how the engineers were really going to be leading the charge in the future and how we needed to put all the engineers in one place. You couldn't have them cubby-holed up with one team or another," Hendrick said.

"I'm not taking all the credit for this idea, mind you. Don't misunderstand me. But I was the enforcer."

Today Hendrick seems as proud that the two drivers sitting to either side of him on Thursday's stage are willing to work together amicably on a regular basis along with the other HMS drivers as he is that they are battling each other for a championship.

"I don't know anything other to say than I'm just like that kid who was given a football when he was 5 years old. He admired everybody, but never really thought he would play in a Super Bowl or win a championship," Hendrick said.

"I'm not a driver; I'm not a crew chief. But I've been able to experience championships with those guys. To see guys like Jeff come along and have the success he's had, and Jimmie. I get a lot of joy out of watching those guys reach the success level that they have. And a guy like Mark Martin, I just wish I had [employed] him about 10 or 15 years ago."

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