AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Jimmie Johnson was the first one down the stairs in a diving competition at Tony Stewart's birthday party. He playfully tossed mini hamburgers across a suite Denny Hamlin...
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — If Kyle Larson had been a true free agent available to the highest bidder, Rick Hendrick doubts he would have entered the game.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Noah Gragson won his first career Xfinity Series race when Saturday's opener was stopped on the final lap by a crash well behind the winning JR Motorsports Chevrolet....
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla (AP) — The last chance to appreciate Jimmie Johnson leading the field at the Daytona 500 may come during the pace laps.
Shortly after President Donald Trump gives drivers...
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — NASCAR is off to an intriguing start and the season has barely begun.
In the first 48 hours, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Erik Jones, a pair of drivers with something...
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — In his den overlooking the 14th hole at Quail Hollow, there are a handful of reminders of Felix Sabates' 30 years in NASCAR — a photo of the team owner at one of his first...
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Jimmie Johnson sat down next to Jeff Gordon at a 2001 driver meeting and asked the champion if he had time to offer any career advice.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Rick Hendrick minced no words at the start of the season, when the NASCAR team owner dismissed the previous year as one of the worst in the history of his mighty...
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Blunt Larson will try to be a bit more delicate with his words in the future.
Kyle Larson personally apologized to team owner Rick Hendrick this week after jokingly saying...
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Michael Annett stretched the Speedweeks streak of first-time winners to three with a victory Saturday in the Xfinity Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway.
Annett won for the first time at NASCAR's national level, a career that spans 345 races in three series. He gave JR Motorsports, owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr., his sister and sister and Rick Hendrick, its fourth in five years at Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Rick Hendrick was telling the truth when he insisted this year was going to be much improved from last season, the worst in team history.
He moved personnel and split up seven-time NASCAR Cup champions Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus. He had a Navy SEAL deliver an inspirational speech to all of Hendrick Motorsports, met with all four of his teams and held luncheons and team-building events.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The most anticipated race for Hendrick Motorsports this season is still on the table: team owner Rick Hendrick vs. 2018 Daytona 500 pole winner Alex Bowman.
Bowman and Hendrick have let a scheduled drag race between them in their Corvettes linger for a year. Hendrick joked last year he was ready to go head-to-head with bragging rights and sports cars on the line against Bowman.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Rick Hendrick worked too hard building NASCAR's top organization to tolerate mediocrity. If his teams had simply been average last season he might not rate it as one of the worst in team history.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Latest on the NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony (all times local):
9:45 p.m.
Jeff Gordon has been inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
The four-time NASCAR champion was the headliner of this 10th class and was elected by 96 percent of the vote in his first year of eligibility. Gordon ranks third on the all-time list with 93 career victories.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — Jimmie Johnson walked into a Hendrick Motorsports family reunion on pit road. Hall of Fame driver Jeff Gordon chatted near the No. 48 car while Johnson's wife cradled crew chief Chad Knaus' baby boy.
They needed baby wipes as much as a checkered flag.
"It's all about this moment right now," Gordon said.
MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) — Rick Hendrick, a car dealer at the end of the day, pulled off another sales job of Jimmie Johnson to preserve the branding of the seven-time NASCAR champion.
TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — Times were already changing long before Jimmie Johnson strolled through a Las Vegas casino unnoticed, full firesuit and all. It was the start of NASCAR's playoffs and the seven-time champion, wearing a flame-retardant billboard, was surprised that he failed to garner even a quizzical stare.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — There will not be an eighth NASCAR title for Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus.
Hendrick Motorsports will split the driver and crew chief — the longest pairing in NASCAR — at the end of a disappointing season. Johnson has not won a race in 17 months and was knocked out of the playoffs in the first round. Johnson and Knaus won their record-tying seventh championship in 2016 but have slumped in the two years since.
LONG POND, Pa. (AP) — Jimmie Johnson had been plucked from NASCAR's farm system to drive for owner Rick Hendrick with a resume so ordinary the team wondered if it made the right call on the California kid.
Until Johnson could join Hendrick Motorsports in late 2001, he plodded along for a second-tier team on the brink of closing and had flashed just the occasional spark of future stardom.
His early 2001 results hardly seemed worthy of a teammate about to be paired with NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Lowe's, one of the last remaining corporate giants in NASCAR, announced Wednesday that it will not sponsor seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson after this season, an ominous sign for the nation's top racing series.
For Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports, it means the best NASCAR driver of his generation has a blank slate of "inventory" for the first time in nearly two decades.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Never before has one race displayed NASCAR's rapidly changing look more than this year's Daytona 500.
Three drivers under age 25 will start in the first two rows, new rules will make the cars difficult to drive and NASCAR's longtime most popular driver will watch from the sidelines.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — His nickname is Bowman the Showman, yet that did little in helping Alex Bowman to get Rick Hendrick to remember his name.
Bowman was a journeyman driver who had already washed out of the Cup Series once when he found himself inside mighty Hendrick Motorsports with the opportunity of a lifetime. Perform well in a Hendrick car, and Bowman just might land a full-time job with one of NASCAR's top organizations.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Rick Hendrick threw a glamorous party last fall when he formally introduced his 2018 driver lineup.
It was a lavish car unveiling that used lasers, spotlights and an emcee to celebrate a Hendrick Motorsports roster that had undergone a dramatic makeover.
Each of the four drivers was paired with someone for the event. Chase Elliott was joined by his Hall of Fame father, Bill, who helped uncover the new No. 9 his son will drive this year in his honor.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — Dale Earnhardt Jr. got the best retirement gift he could have asked for when William Byron won the Xfinity Series championship for JR Motorsports on Saturday, one day before Earnhardt's final race as a full-time driver.
AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) — A rag-tag pit crew led William Byron to his fourth victory of the season.
He also was one of the four drivers to qualify Saturday for next week's Xfinity Series championship finale.
Byron, Justin Allgaier, and Elliott Sadler — all from JR Motorsports — and Daniel Hemric took the four spots in all-Chevrolet race for the Xfinity Series championship.
LOUDON, N.H. (AP) — Jimmie Johnson smacked the wall first and Chase Elliott quickly followed the champion's miscalculated route when his car slammed into about the same spot. The Hendrick Motorsports drivers traded their Chevrolets for John Deere golf cart rides to the medical center.
Even on routine laps in practice, the hits kept coming Friday at Hendrick Motorsports.
CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — Kasey Kahne is out at Hendrick Motorsports at the end of the season.
The Brickyard 400 winner was released from the final year of his contract, allowing him to pursue another Cup ride for 2018. Team owner Rick Hendrick did not immediately name a replacement for the No. 5 Chevrolet.
LONG POND, Pa. (AP) — Kasey Kahne was busy celebrating his win in the Brickyard 400 and missed his team owner state plans are not set for the No. 5 car next season.
You know, Kahne's ride. The one he's under contract to drive in 2018.
"I didn't hear that until I got home," Kahne said.
But there was little need for a spoiler alert warning on team owner Rick Hendrick's news.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Kasey Kahne proved he's still capable of winning races.
Now he must convince team owner Rick Hendrick he still belongs on one of NASCAR's strongest teams.
One day after 19-year-old William Byron won his third Xfinity Series races in less than a month, Kahne overcame dangerous heat, painful muscle cramps and a grueling, crash-marred, six-hour marathon Cup race to earn his first win in almost three years. It might take an even bigger effort to keep his job.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Rick Hendrick still prefers running with a four-pack.
If he has his way, all four of those cars will be racing next season.
On Sunday, the longtime owner of one of NASCAR's powerhouse teams tried to douse the debate over a possible downsizing with one short statement.
"The plan is to run four cars next year," Hendrick said just hours before the start of the Brickyard 400.
Hendrick Motorsports, like the Cup series, is in the midst of a major transition.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — William Byron got his second win of the season, and this time he got to do it in front of his bosses.
Byron won his second consecutive Xfinity Series race on Saturday by leading a 1-2 finish at Daytona International Speedway for JR Motorsports. Byron raced to his first career Xfinity victory last weekend at Iowa, but team owners Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Rick Hendrick weren't at the track to see him.
Junior's job is up for grabs.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s surprise decision to retire from the NASCAR Cup series at the end of the season will surely make his No. 88 Chevrolet the hottest ride in racing. But more than talent is needed to take the wheel for team owner Rick Hendrick.
The next driver will face added scrutiny that comes with replacing NASCAR's most popular driver, the sport's public face and a peerless pitchman who has done it all with few complaints over 18 years.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Rick Hendrick, owner of the most successful organization in NASCAR, grew up on a Virginia tobacco farm knowing that wasn't the life he wanted.
He took chance after chance chasing a NASCAR career, came close to folding his team more than once, but always found a way to persevere. It earned him a spot in the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Friday night.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Benny Parsons made it to the NASCAR Hall of Fame because of his victories on the track and his work as a broadcaster after he retired. He is there also because of one other factor - the kindness of his competitors.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — Dale Earnhardt Jr. should be medically cleared from his concussion in December and ready to race in the 2017 Daytona 500.
Team owner Rick Hendrick said Earnhardt recently sent a text that said he was just waiting for Daytona to return to the track. Earnhardt has not raced since July 9. The Daytona 500 opens the NASCAR season on Feb. 26.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Jimmie Johnson's quest to win a record-tying seventh championship has been burning for nearly three years at Hendrick Motorsports. Johnson wants that title. Chad Knaus wants that title. Rick Hendrick wants that title.
Oh, how easy it would be for No. 48 team to coast through the next two weeks, to look only at the Nov. 20 season finale and the opportunity they have to reach the top of NASCAR.
They won't. This is "can't stop, won't stop" time and these guys are on a mission.
CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — Dale Earnhardt Jr. has not been cleared by doctors to return to racing and will miss at least two more races — at Michigan and Darlington — as he recovers from a concussion.
Hendrick Motorsports announced Earnhardt's status Wednesday. Earnhardt was evaluated by doctors at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sports Medicine Concussion Program.
BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) — Keeping a dynasty seems even more challenging than creating one. Just ask Hall of Fame car owner Rick Hendrick.
The NASCAR titan has fielded 11 Sprint Cup champions over the past 21 years, won 242 Sprint Cup races and just two seasons ago had all four of his star drivers— Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne — in the 16-team championship chase.
BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) — Car owner Rick Hendrick said injured star Dale Earnhardt Jr. "looks great," but the organization will wait until the driver is 100 percent before he returns to the track.
Hendrick said Saturday that Earnhardt is scheduled for a medical check next week and that will help determine if he'll drive at Michigan next week. Earnhardt has missed the past four races and won't be driving at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night.
CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — Dale Earnhardt Jr. will miss at least two more races while he recovers from a concussion.
Earnhardt, who skipped the last three races, will sit out at Watkins Glen International on Sunday and at Bristol Motor Speedway on Aug. 20. Four-time series champion Jeff Gordon, who came out of retirement to fill in for Earnhardt the last two weeks, will remain behind the wheel in the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Dale Earnhardt Jr. will not race again this month because of concussion-like symptoms and the No. 88 car will be turned over to trusted former teammate Jeff Gordon for the next two weeks.
Hendrick Motorsports announced Wednesday that Earnhardt has not yet been cleared to drive by doctors and will miss Sunday's Brickyard 400 as well as next weekend's race at Pocono. NASCAR's most popular driver has been battling balance issues and nausea since a July 2...
LOUDON, N.H. (AP) — Team owner Rick Hendrick said he does not think the concussion symptoms that sidelined Dale Earnhardt Jr. are career threatening. Hendrick hoped to have NASCAR's most popular driver back in the car next week at the Brickyard.
Earnhardt, 41, sat out Sunday's race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway because he was not cleared to race. Alex Bowman drove the No. 88 Chevrolet on Sunday.
"If there was something major wrong, I think (doctors) would have...