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CUP: Rick Hendrick Still Healing From Crash Injuries
Team owner Rick Hendrick won’t be in Las Vegas this week for season-ending activities…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted November 28, 2011   Charlotte, NC
Rick Hendrick is the team owner of four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
For the first time in the past six years, Rick Hendrick won’t have a place at the head table at the NASCAR Sprint Cup awards banquet.

In fact, Hendrick won’t be in Las Vegas at all this week as NASCAR observes Champion’s Week and officially crowns Tony Stewart as its new title-holder.

Hendrick, whose Hendrick Motorsports organization provides equipment and technical support to Stewart-Haas Racing, is still recovering from injuries suffered in a plane crash in Key West, Fla., a month ago. After being hospitalized for several days and sleeping in a chair for three weeks because of discomfort caused by broken ribs and a broken shoulder blade, Hendrick said Monday he plans to continue to take it easy for a while.

“Trying to sleep and move and get therapy takes most of the day,” he said. “I’m not a spring chicken anymore, but we’re doing OK. We just need a little more time.

“I’m looking forward to getting ready to start a new year. I appreciate all the cards and letters after the accident my wife and I had.”

Stewart ended Jimmie Johnson’s championship reign at five.

“I’m really proud of what they’ve accomplished,” Hendrick said of the 48 team. “I don’t know if anybody will ever do that again. Being able to win five of these things in a row is unbelievable.

“When you’ve been to the top of the mountain like they have and you don’t do it the sixth time, you start trying to figure out how you can be better. Definitely, the competition has gotten stronger and stiffer. Everyone knew it had to come to an end. The odds of you winning six years in a row, especially with the new format and the point system like it is, I think it’s going to be harder and harder for anyone to be able to do that.

“The bottom line is we were not as competitive as we needed to be.”

Hendrick put three drivers in the Chase but didn’t have anyone finish in the top five. Johnson was sixth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. seventh and Jeff Gordon eighth.

Earnhardt Jr. continues to be Hendrick’s biggest project. He has not won in the past three seasons.

“I’ve seen some really good runs, and we’ve also kind of fumbled the ball a little bit,” Hendrick said. “From where I sit, we have a good combination (Earnhardt and crew chief Steve Letarte). It’ll get better. I’m happy with the progress.”

Hendrick also said he has offered Darian Grubb, Stewart’s crew chief this season, a position at Hendrick Motorsports. Grubb formerly worked at Hendrick before joining Stewart when Stewart moved his driver’s seat to the Stewart-Haas team.

“He’s a pretty smart guy,” Hendrick said. “I know he’s entertaining a lot of offers. We don’t have a crew chief role open. We have an engineering role, but at the end of the day it has to be what Darian wants to do. We’d love to have him back in the organization, but I quite honestly don’t know where he’s going to end up.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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