Long before Rick Hendrick owned race teams, dealerships, or championship trophies, he was learning lessons on his family’s tobacco farm. Growing up in a community where neighbours depended on one another to get through the difficult times, he learned one thing: nobody succeeds alone. That belief stayed with him throughout his life, and in 2020 when it was put to the ultimate test. 

Businesses throughout America had gone into survival mode and more than 20 million jobs vanished in April alone. Companies were scrambling to cut costs and preserve cash. But at a time when dealerships shuttered and uncertainty spread across the racing industry, Rick Hendrick made a different call, one rooted in that long-held belief. 

“Actually, it was a Friday night and I went home and Linda and I were talking and it happened first in California. They shut down California first and I said, ‘I just cannot think of laying people off. I’m going to pay them as long as I can.’ So, we paid everybody 80% and we kept everybody together. Didn’t lay anybody off,” Rick Hendrick recently revealed on the Cars and Culture with Jason Stein interview.

It was not an easy decision. In 2020, Hendrick Automotive Group generated approximately $10 billion in revenue, sold 219,000 vehicles, and serviced 2.4 million cars and trucks across 95 dealership locations in 13 states, employing over 10,000 people. So, even for a billionaire, carrying that kind of payroll through months of uncertainty came with real risk.

“I had some sleepless nights, I won’t lie,” Hendrick admitted via Forbes. “But we kept our people working and had one of our best years ever.”

However, what stands out is that Hendrick has never presented it as generosity or charity. To him, it was trust. A belief that if he stayed loyal to the people, they would do the same for him. And he wasn’t wrong. Now, years later, he says employees still stop him while walking through dealerships to talk about those times.

“And to this day, when I walk through the dealership, I have uh, you know, teammates that say, ‘Thank you. You saved my house. You saved my family.'”

Hendrick then pointed to how that mindset was shaped early in his life. “I grew up on a farm, and you had to count on your neighbors. And so, you couldn’t uh do everything yourself. So, my mom and dad taught me that.”

His wife, Linda, reinforced that belief. Hendrick frequently discusses how Linda tried to assist children in orphanages well before their financial circumstances improved. He even revealed that many of the guests at their wedding decades ago were the kids under her care.  That perspective became part of how they built everything.

Rick Hendrick created traditions designed to reward people who stayed. One of the earliest examples was giving Rolex watches to employees who reached 25 years with the company. The culture that emerged from that mindset is visible across Hendrick Motorsports.

Chad Knaus joined Hendrick Motorsports in 1993 as a young tire changer under crew chief Ray Evernham. More than three decades later, he serves as Vice President of Competition, overseeing all four Cup Series entries, crew chiefs, engineering, fabrication, and assembly for the entire organisation. He and Jeff Andrews, between them, had over 50 years of combined experience at Hendrick Motorsports when they were elevated into senior leadership in 2020.

Then, Jeff Gordon first drove for Hendrick Motorsports in the final race of the 1992 season. He became an equity partner in October 1999, retired from full-time driving in 2015, and formally assumed the role of vice chairman and co-owner, Hendrick’s second-in-command.

“In many ways, it’s my home and the people here are my family,” Gordon said at the time. And the tradition is being carried forward by drivers like Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott in the modern era.