Hendrick Motorsports headquarters is getting a new addition on its campus. The state of the $70 million facility was already the gold standard for NASCAR teams. Recently, though, it has profited from a massive sponsorship deal. Owing to their partnership with Atrium Health, a new facility will be added to the headquarters in order to help the crew members train better and take care of their health and wellness. However, Rick Hendrick‘s words during the press release have suggested that the foundation for the same was laid long ago.

In fact, it was introduced by Ray Evernham, who was once a celebrated crew chief in Hendrick Motorsports. So how did Ray Evernham bring forward a major change like this in 2026, even though he is no longer a part of the team’s day-to-day operations?

Rick Hendrick credits Ray Evernham for the revolution that changed NASCAR forever

When you watch any car come in for a pit stop, what do you see? The pit crew is running like their life depends on it as they change the tires and fuel up the car. They look like they are at the peak of physical health, with a body almost similar to an athlete’s. So imagine what things would be like if they were not physically fit for the job.

Rick Hendrick recalled the same conditions during the press conference while talking about Ray Evernham’s most important contribution to the team.

“I came down the hill and there was a bunch of young guys running through this field and I thought, ‘What in the world is this? Is something wrong? Why are these guys running?'”

“And come to find out, it was Ray Evernham and he was running our pit crew guys and he had young guys, athletes, and I’d never seen anything like it. Our guys changing tires had big tummies, smoking cigarettes … and that’s the way pit crews went. You just picked somebody that was on the team and, ‘Hey, you’re changing tires today.'”

Ray Evernham was the person who introduced the idea of the pit crew being physically fit and healthy. As Rick Hendrick recalls, the other guys and the other teams were still calling forth people from the crew randomly to help change the tires. The precision and efficiency of Evernham’s idea were immediately noticed in an upcoming race.

“Jeff was reminding me, we went to Daytona and there was a pit stop and we were four seconds quicker than everybody. It was Ray Evernham. It was his idea, his baby. He talked us into it and started recruiting people and this is where it is today.”

If it weren’t for Evernham, the Hendrick Motorsports team would be left behind. So in a way, the current NASCAR pit crew and entire crew working for a driver during a race are so efficient and quick, because Evernham decided that he wouldn’t want to ruin his team’s pit stops.

What about Evernham, though? It is safe to say that the former Hendrick Motorsports crew member was emotional after the team’s tribute to him. He was present with the team during the press conference and later inaugurated the conference room that was built in his name.

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A peek inside the state-of-the-art Atrium Health Motorsports Athletic Center

The newly unveiled facility is everything that a team would need to train or take care of themselves. It has the best medical facilities benefitting from the $1.4 billion Atrium Health’s expertise in the medical field. The facility is built on a 35,000 sq-ft area equipped with a high-performance gym and the latest training equipment.

The entire facility is equipped with basic yet necessary amenities like a red light therapy room, barbershop, weight room, hot and cold tubs in the locker room, with saunas in between. Rick Hendrick is taking his people’s health and wellness very seriously. It also echoed in his words.

“People are the foundation of our organization, and supporting their health and performance is essential to our success. Our new partnership with Atrium Health brings best-in-class clinical and performance resources directly to our campus. There’s no facility like this in the world of auto racing. It’s a game changer.”

With a facility like this, it is no wonder that Hendrick Motorsports is among the most dominant NASCAR teams. They are able to take care of their employees and crew members, in turn letting them perform at their highest level without fatigue. The other NASCAR teams can also benefit from implementing similar ideas in their own headquarters.

What are your thoughts about this new addition to the Hendrick Motorsports headquarters?