Hendrick makes it happen
LAS VEGAS – The night was supposed to be about Jimmie Johnson. It turned out to be about an idea, one bigger than four straight championships, $6 million paychecks and all the grandiosity the Las Vegas Strip has to offer, combined.
It came from the mind of Rick Hendrick, was relayed through the voice of Jeff Gordon, and told to several thousand inside a grand ballroom in the Wynn Las Vegas, where Friday night the NASCAR world gathered for its annual season-ending awards banquet.
"Rick, I don't know if you even know this, but you taught me something I'll never forget," Gordon said at the end of his four-minute speech. "You taught me to live big and small. Live big in your passion for what you do, what you believe in and in your successes, but be humble and appreciative and give thanks for all those things."
When Hendrick walked to the microphone a few minutes later to accept the Bill France Award for Excellence, NASCAR's highest honor for lifetime achievement, he showed exactly what Gordon meant.
"My speech, I don't think I'll be able to do it," he said, overcome by emotion. After a moment, he got to it. "You're humbled by loving something so much and being able to participate in it. And I never take it for granted."
From there, Hendrick proceeded to make it all about the people around him – from Johnson to Gordon and to every employee back at his race shop in North Carolina. He even recognized his fellow car owners, placing himself in the middle of that fraternity, not in front of it.
Yes, Hendrick is the hub in the center of American sports' greatest living dynasty, one that's won nine championships in 25 years, including a 1-2-3 finish in 2009. But he recognizes that the moment is bigger than any one person.
Three decades ago, NASCAR crowned its champion at a modest dinner the night before the Daytona 500. In 2009, it's a made-for-TV event complete with big-time musical acts – Brooks & Dunn opened this year's banquet – hosted by the most lavish hotel on the most lavish stretch of road in the entire world.
Some could argue that this isn't progress, but there's no denying that NASCAR is a bigger deal than it once was – and that's on the sweat of more than just one car owner's back.
This is why Hendrick was so choked up Friday night. Bill France was a hero to him. To be recognized as someone who's contributed to the advancement of a hero's dream – that's gratifying and it's humbling all at once.
"This award means so much to me because of the relationship I had with Bill France and the respect I had for him and what he's meant to this sport and to so many people here in the room," Hendrick said, at which point he broke down.
Three days before the season finale in south Florida, Mark Martin, in his first season with Hendrick, made the observation that the 500 or so employees at Hendrick Motorsports want to win more for the boss than they do for themselves. When Johnson crossed the finish line at Homestead-Miami Speedway three days later, becoming the first driver in NASCAR history to win four straight championships, Hendrick wasn't even at the track. He'd returned home to North Carolina to be with his niece, who was undergoing an emergency liver transplant.
As Johnson celebrated his history-making achievement, crew chief Chad Knaus held a small piece of yellow paper in front of a television camera. On it was a message that read, simply: "We couldn't do it without you!!"
Knaus is absolutely right. Johnson is the man who will go down in the record books as the one who made history. But Hendrick is the one who made it happen because he dared to dream big while living small in his successes.
