The owner of Hendrick Motorsports, Rick Hendrick spoke about his late son's role in taking over the business and handling it before his untimely death. Rick Hendrick's son, Ricky died in a plane crash along with other family members in October 2004.
What did Rick Hendricks say about his son's unfulfilled plans?
Before Ricky's death in 2004, he competed in both Xfinity and Truck Series. While driving for Hendrick Motorsports, he won the 2001 Kansas Speedway Truck Series race. But soon after he retired from the competition as it took a toll on his mental and physical health. He changed his roles within the company as he now owned two Xfinity cars for Hendrick Motorsports.
While talking to the Charlotte Observer, Rick elaborates on his son's aspiration to take over the business. He also claimed that Ricky would have done a better job than him.
"He would have done a better job at this than I did. ... Ricky stepped out of the car in ‘03 when he had a wreck in Vegas, and it tore everything in his shoulder and pinched some nerves in his neck. ... He said: “I think I need to get out of the car and put Brian Vickers in.” And Brian won the [Xfinity]championship," Rick said.
"Ricky had tremendous people skills, and he loved racing. Everybody here really enjoyed being with him. ... I built his office right next to mine [at Hendrick Motorsports]," Rick added.
Hendrick Motorsport was founded way back in 1984 and is celebrating its 40th anniversary. It is the winningest team in NASCAR with 14 Cup Series championships and more than 300 race wins to its name.
Since the addition of former great drivers such as Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, the team hasn't gone more than four years without a Cup Series championship title.
Rick Hendricks's views on continuing the winning trend
Hendrick Motorsports has been the most convincing team this season. Kyle Larson has won six races followed by William Byron with three. Chase Elliot and Alex Bowman have one race win each.
In a post-race interview, Rick was asked about his team's motivation for the ongoing season having missed the title in the past couple of seasons.
"Nothing fuels you more than get to that final race and not being able to close the deal. You go to the offseason thinking about you got two cars there, and you didn’t get to close a deal. So every race this year the crew chiefs are talking about Phoenix, and they’re talking about wanting to get back and kind of have another shot," Rick further added.
"Not trying to get ahead of where we are, but knowing if we get there, we want to finish the job," Rick concluded.
