Hendrick Motorsports 40 Years: NASCAR Racing’s Greatest Team Celebrates Four Decades

by Ben White, Jeff Gordon (Foreword), Rick Hendrick (Afterword)

Celebrate the NASCAR-champion team’s 40th anniversary with this officially licensed history featuring stunning photography, including rare images from the Hendrick Motorsports archive. Rick Hendrick built on a successful career in the automotive-retail business to launch NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports in 1984. Over the ensuing four decades, it has become one of the most successful and high-profile teams in the sport’s long history. Competing across NASCAR’s three race series, as of 2023, the team had posted the most Cup wins of any team (301) and the most Driver’s Championships (18).   Hendrick’s driver roster is a who’s who of the sport’s greats, including Champion drivers Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Terry Labonte, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Today the team fields four William Byron, Alex Bowman, and Cup champions Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson. Hendrick Motorsports even fielded a team at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023!  Hendrick Motorsportsrelates the team’s incredible history through 40 stories focused on team milestones since its founding in 1984. Stories and highlights   First win at Martinsville Days of Thunder involvement Jeff Gordon and the Rainbow Warriors 1-2-3 Finish at the 1997 Daytona 500 The seven championships of Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus Hendrick Motorsports and the Earnhardts Reaching 300 Wins at NASCAR's highest level Garage 56 Le Mans program Authored by long-time NASCAR journalist Ben White and illustrated with images from top NASCAR photographer Nigel Kinrade as well as photos from Hendrick Motorsport’s archive, Hendrick Motorsports offers the ideal 40th anniversary retrospective.

200 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 2024

About the author

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Reviews

[Ares · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have not been really invested in NASCAR, but I do like racing, so I wanted to pick this up nonetheless. I am a history geek and I really wanted to know about Hendrick Motorsports as I did not know much about them before reading this book. It did a great job at telling the story to the reader, the pictures picked to go alongside were fitting and interesting to look at.

I think this book is fitting for people who are already NASCAR and/or Hendrick Motorsports Fans, or new to the history.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book!

[Anthony Olivo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid 4 Stars. Very detailed, NASCAR fans will for sure love this! I would rate it five if it went into more detail about the chassis that went to Le Mans and that race day itself , as I consider the 24 Hours of Le Mans to be the most prestigious race of the year. Apart from that though the actual NASCAR information is great and there’s many pictures and a lot of information that you’ve very likely never seen before.

[Lance · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a NASCAR fan who’s been a Hendrick Motorsport fan for many years as my favorite drivers have come from that team (Terry Labonte, Jeff Gordon and now Chase Elliot), this book delves into the history of the most successful team in a way that even fans of other teams such as Joe Gibbs Racing will appreciate the rich history of the Hendrick team. Very good book.

[Beth Throlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative book about Hendrick Motorsports. Lots of history about the team and their time in sport. Nice pictures through out the book.

Thank you to Netgally for providing this ARC.