For Hendrick Motorsports, this Sprint Cup season seemed as easy as 1-2-3. But maybe it only looked easy.
No matter if Jimmie Johnson or Mark Martin leaves Homestead-Miami on Sunday with the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, Hendrick Motorsports -- which owns both cars -- will have plenty to celebrate. The title will be Rick Hendrick's ninth in NASCAR, tying him with Petty Enterprises for the most. And it will be his record-setting 12th overall, when adding three Trucks series titles.
But there's a piece of history still out there for Hendrick to chase.
Johnson, Martin and Jeff Gordon, who all race under the Hendrick flag, will enter the finale 1-2-3 in the standings. If they finish in those spots, Hendrick Motorsports would become the first team in NASCAR history to truly accomplish that feat.
"I hate to be greedy when you think about really wanting to be 1-2-3, but we're sitting there right now with one race to go," Hendrick said yesterday. "That would be so good for the organization. If it happens, it'll be just icing on the cake. We've all thought about it. We've all talked about it. That's our goal."
Has it happened before? That depends on perspective.
Buck Baker, Herb Thomas and Speedy Thompson finished in the top three spots in 1956 after a 56-race schedule. Baker and Thompson raced for Carl Kiekhaefer, as did Thomas for much of that season. But NASCAR records show that Thomas started that season listed as an owner-driver, and spent some time that year with Smokey Yunick as his team owner.
Technically then, Hendrick could stand alone.
"I'm actually living a dream," he said. "I grew up and all I knew was racing and cars and working on cars. You didn't get paid to do it. You did it because you loved it, and you take whatever you made to do it. So to be able to look back and see what we've been able to accomplish, I've just been really fortunate being around a lot of great people."
The results show that whatever is going on in the Hendrick garage tops what everyone else is doing.
At 50, Martin is having what he calls the happiest season of his life. Gordon will most likely finish fourth or better in the final standings for the 10th time. And Johnson is on the brink of history, needing only a 25th-place finish to clinch his fourth straight title and break the record he shares with Cale Yarborough.
Johnson often tells how Hendrick once sat across the table from a team of Lowe's executives, convincing those potential and eventual sponsors how the driver really would be good enough to win someday. Johnson never forgot the faith Hendrick showed that day, and he has paid it back many times.
"Somehow, some way, what he possesses in connecting with people, looking for the right skills, the desire, the drive that an individual may have to perform well and do well, there's something that he can see and recognize," Johnson said. "I think it speaks volumes to the company and the success of the company. He can pick something up, pick something out ... piece everything together."
The respect level the drivers have is clear. Even Martin, an elder statesman in NASCAR, calls him "Mr. Hendrick."
Hendrick said: "I want to go on the record, I'm only 10 years older than he is. I want it to be Rick."
Hendrick's life only seems the stuff of Hollywood now.
Hendrick's cap will be turned backward in Victory Lane on Sunday, a tribute to his son Ricky, one of 10 people killed when a Hendrick plane crashed in 2004. Rick Hendrick always tried to get his kid to wear his cap the right way; his son rarely listened on that point.
There has been other drama along the way, too. A rare form of leukemia, which Hendrick beat.
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