How Rick Hendrick Built A Motorsports Empire By Valuing People Over Profits

Over the last decade, one of the hottest sayings in business was to “fail fast.” If things aren’t working out — whether it is a shift in strategy or a new hire — the phrase suggests cutting ties and doing it quickly. But for Rick Hendrick — a man known for doing everything fast — the phrase holds no truth. “When you trade people in, you don’t know who you’re going to get. But you’re better if you can just try to try to work with and develop the people you have,” he told the Corporate Competitor Podcast.

Hendrick knows a little something about being “better.” A standout athlete at Park View High School in South Hill, Virginia, Hendrick considered an opportunity to play professional baseball before pursuing a co-op work-study program with North Carolina State University and Westinghouse Electric Company in Raleigh, N.C.

In 1976, the 26-year-old Hendrick took a chance by selling all he had to purchase a struggling franchise in Bennettsville, S.C., becoming the youngest Chevrolet dealer in the United States. As he built that business from one dealership to dozens, he became a force in stock car racing, first as a Winston Cup, Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series driver and then as an owner. In 1984, Hendrick founded All-Star Racing, which fielded a single NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now Sprint Cup) team with five full-time employees and 5,000 square feet of leased workspace.