Hendrick Motorsports

Craftsman Truck Series, information from Wikipedia.org

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Truck #17 history

The 17 Craftsman Truck Series team made its debut in 2000 with Ricky Hendrick driving with GMAC/Quaker State sponsorship. He made six races that season and finished in the top-ten four times. In 2001, Hendrick won his only career Truck race at Kansas Speedway and finished sixth in points, runner-up to Travis Kvapil for Rookie of the Year honors. The team did not run after 2001.





Truck #24 history

The 24 truck debuted with the Truck Series in 1995 with Scott Lagasse driving and DuPont sponsoring. Lagasse posted two top-fives and finished ninth in the standings. The team also fielded the 25 Budweiser Chevrolet part-time with Hendrick Sr. and Roger Mears driving. Midway through the season, Jack Sprague came on board to finish out the season for the team, winning a pole at Phoenix International Raceway. In 1996, he moved to the 24 full-time with Quaker State sponsoring. He won five races and was second in the points. The following season, he won three times and clinched his first NASCAR championship.

The team lost the Quaker State sponsorship after 1997, but signed GMAC Financial as a sponsor after a one-race deal with Big Daddy's BBQ Sauce. He won an additional five races, but lost the championship by three points. In 1999, Sprague won the championship again but fell to fifth in 2000. In 2001, NetZero came on board as the team's sponsor, and Sprague won his third championship. After Sprague moved to the Busch Series, Ron Hornaday drove the 24 in a one-race deal at Daytona, finishing twelfth. The team closed after that race to focus on its Busch Series efforts.

On October 24, 2004, ten people associated with Hendrick Motorsports lost their lives in a plane crash while en route from Concord North Carolina, to a small airport near the Martinsville Speedway. The plane crashed in heavy fog into Bull Mountain, seven miles from the Blue Ridge Regional Airport in Spencer, Virginia. While NASCAR officials learned of the crash during that day's Subway 500 race in Martinsville, they withheld that information from drivers until the end of the race. Hendrick driver Jimmie Johnson won the race.

All ten aboard the Beechcraft King Air 200 died:

    * John Hendrick, president of Hendrick Motorsports; Rick Hendrick's brother
    * Ricky Hendrick, Rick Hendrick's son
    * Kimberly and Jennifer Hendrick, John Hendrick's twin daughters
    * Jeff Turner, general manager of Hendrick Motorsports
    * Randy Dorton, chief engine builder
    * Joe Jackson, DuPont executive
    * Scott Lathram, pilot for NASCAR driver Tony Stewart
    * pilots Richard Tracy and Elizabeth Morrison

For the balance of the 2004 season, all of the Hendrick Motorsports cars and the #0 Haas CNC Racing car showed pictures of the ten Hendrick members on the hood.

Source: Wikipedia