At Martinsville Speedway, danger usually comes from the corners. But for Ray Hendrick, it once came from a prank that went a little too far. The man known as “Mr. Modified” did not just dominate short tracks; he also had a wicked sense of humor.

During a Firestone tire test in the mid 1970s, Hendrick pulled a stunt so convincing that his own car owner, Clayton Mitchell, climbed out of the car convinced he had just escaped a fatal ride.

Ray Hendrick’s story from modified days

Since Ray Hendrick is no longer in this world to tell the tales of his racing days, his grandson, Chuck Hendrick, unravelled an interesting backstory from the mid-1970s, when his grandfather went with the Firestone tire testing. Here’s what he said:

“So he was testing for Firestone tires down at Martinsville in ’74, ’75, and you know, went out there, made a run, couple of runs. Came on in and told Clayton Mitchell, they call Mitch, told Mitch, hey man, this car is making some crazy noises, and Mitch is like, what is it? He said, man, I don’t know, just hop in with me. You’ve got to see what this is. I’ve never heard anything like it.”

Following this, Chuck Hendrick, who was present at the 2026 NASCAR Hall of Fame presentation in North Carolina, further revealed how Hendrick got Mitchell inside his car, and went back to the track to drive down the pit road, and this was when Mitch grabbed the bars of the passenger seat as Ray Hendrick kept pushing at high speed.

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“So he comes down the pit road and gets out, and they’re like, Mitch, what was it?” Hendrick said. “He goes, “I don’t know, I just knew I had to get out of that car, cause I thought I was gonna die. So it was good to know, Good to hear that kind of side, just that he had a little bit of joke to him and someone, that was so serious with race all the time.”

Hendrick, who specialized in racing in the modified and Late Model Sportsman Series, gathered over 700 wins to his name. Respecting the accolades, NASCAR named him as one of its 50 and 75 Greatest Drivers, and honored him with the Hall of Fame in 2026.

Besides modified racing, Ray Hendrick also competed in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts and the Cup Series, participating in 7 and 17 races in the 1970s and 1980s. However, the driver from Richmond, Virginia, spent most of his racing days driving in the Busch Grand National Division.

Ray Hendrick drove for the team fielded by Jack Tant and Clayton Mitchell. Interestingly, Rick Hendrick, the owner of Hendrick Motorsports, served as a pit crew member, but had no direct relation, even though they share the same surname.

Ray Hendrick’s former NASCAR mate criticised the antitrust lawsuit

Rick Hendrick, the NASCAR veteran and team owner, called out the antitrust lawsuit by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, and slammed them for not treating Jim France and his family with ‘respect.’

In the lawsuit, 23XI and FRM alleged that NASCAR was being unfair in its revenue and charter agreements, claiming it coerced them into losing earnings. Speaking on this, Hendrick told Jenna Fryer of the Associated Press:

“They [the France family] built a heck of a business. They gave a lot of people opportunities to be racers and to make a living doing it, and they’re good people, and what was portrayed — the greed — I just feel like they got railroaded.”

While 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports filed the lawsuit, Hendrick Motorsports, owned by Rick Hendrick, refrained from doing the same. However, the lawsuit is now over after both parties agreed to a landmark settlement on permanent charters and increased revenue sharing.