Rick Hendrick’s life full of high, lows, and ultimately, class
“The true test of a real man is his ability to be down and grab your own shoe strings and pull hard and stand back up and say, ‘I woke up this morning, and I still have a job to do and thousands of people depending on me, and I have to be there for them,’ ” he said. Hendrick has done this over and over.
In 1997, he was fined $250,000 and sentenced to 12 months of home confinement (instead of prison, because of the leukemia) and three years of probation for allegedly bribing smaller dealerships for more inventory to sell in his Honda dealership. He was told to have no involvement with Hendrick Automotive Group or Hendrick Motorsports during the confinement. He took it all in stride, although many around him believed he got a raw deal. “A large part of that was bull—-,” Evernham said.
“That was wrong. There were people that used Rick as a scapegoat to save their own butts. He never complained. He held his head up and did his deal. “I’ve seen in the business over and over where Rick, even if he’s getting screwed, he deals with it and goes on. He’s a special guy and deserves all the success that he’s having.” Hendrick eventually was given a full pardon from then-President Bill Clinton in 2000, and rightfully so, according to Bickford.
“If you go back and do research, you had a couple of Honda dealers that were not as successful as Rick,” he said. “They were envious of his success. It inflated what was going on and exaggerated a lot of situations. For the most part, it was bogus.” Again, Hendrick handled it with class. “That’s the way he is about life,” Sabates said. Milk and cookies Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus were in the middle of one of their arguments, which were becoming increasingly detrimental to the team in 2005.