Rick Hendrick, who will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Friday in Charlotte, N.C., grew up on a tobacco farm near Palmer Springs, Va., in the southern part of the state near the N.C. border.
And he hated working on the farm.
When Rick and his brother John were teenagers, their father made each of them responsible for working a quarter-acre of the farm, earning a nominal amount of money from their dad for their efforts.
"I didn't know what I wanted to do in life, but farming wasn't it," Hendrick said. "Working tobacco is the toughest thing to do, the hardest work. In the summertime it's hot and you get the wax on your arms during the harvest. I just couldn't stand it."
When Hendrick was 16 in 1965, he came up with an idea on how to get out of working on the farm. A section of Interstate 85 was being built near Palmer Springs and Hendrick saw that maintenance was needed on some of the construction equipment. Hendrick was skilled at working on engines: That same year he would win the Virginia division of an engine-building contest sponsored by Chrysler-Plymouth.
So Rick approached his dad, known as "Papa Joe," with an idea.
"I told him I'd like to go over there and be a mechanic's helper," Hendrick said. "If I hire somebody to work in my place on the farm, can I go work on the construction site and make more money? Dad said, sure."
Hendrick found somebody to take his place on the farm while he helped fix engines on construction equipment.
"I used my sales skills back in those days to get out of farm work," Hendrick said. "I had to pay the guy, but I netted more than him. And my dad got better labor!"
More than 50 years have passed since that summer. Hendrick, now 67, has prospered on two parallel paths _ as owner of Hendrick Motorsports and a chain of successful auto dealerships.
"I grew up loving automobiles," Hendrick said. "The two companies work really close together. That's been something that I'm so proud of."
On the NASCAR side, Hendrick drivers have won 16 championships across the sport's three national series, including a record 12 in Cup racing (won by Terry Labonte, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson). The most recent came in 2016, when Johnson won a record-tying seventh Cup title.
"We won our first championship in 1986," said Richard Childress, another team owner who will be inducted in the Hall of Fame on Friday. "And that was about the time Rick came in. He's said (to me) before, 'Hey, man, you were the goal we were shooting for.' And today they are the goal we all are shooting for."
