Fire, Ice and the Kid : With an Owner Like Hendrick, This Is Truly a Team for the Ages

They’re Fire, Ice and the Kid.

Wonder Boy, the Ironman and Ricky.

NASCAR’s glamour driver, a throwback to tradition and a young man who figures he has finally gotten a break.

They are Team Hendrick, or actually Hendrick Motorsports. They drive under a banner that claims 65 Winston Cup victories over 14 seasons and could pass $40 million in earnings this weekend.

And they are three separate teams with three distinctly different drivers and three crew chiefs, but one owner they all pay homage to.

“He is the leader,” says Ricky Craven, “the Kid,” of Rick Hendrick. “I didn’t realize until I got here just how much of a presence he has. Now I understand why, in my opinion, Jeff Gordon will be here his entire career. Why Terry Labonte will probably end his career here. And why I hope to end my career here. It’s the place to be.”

Hendrick’s drivers are the scourge of NASCAR, disparaged in some garages, envied in most and a target every time they go onto the track.

“My teammates are my fiercest competitors,” says Gordon, dubbed “Wonder Boy” by Dale Earnhardt, then in derision but perhaps now in envy.

“There have been times when I’ve finished second to Terry, and there have been times Terry’s finished second to me. And Ricky Craven, he was right there at Daytona. And Ricky’s the new member.”

They are a compilation of talent, money and resources, with information shared in Tuesday meetings in Charlotte, equipment shared in the shop, chassis and engines from one place. But they’re not clones, and they don’t drive clones. In so many ways, they are much more different than the Chevrolets they will cruise around California Speedway on Sunday.

And that’s the way they want it.

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Me, I like to lead a lot of laps. I like to go up there and take charge any way I can, and if I’ve got to push a lot of extra effort to win, then I’ll do that.

--Jeff Gordon

He’s racing’s answer to Tiger Woods, or maybe it’s the other way around because before Woods was a freshman at Stanford, Gordon, now 25, was standing in Victory Circle at Charlotte on his way to being NASCAR’s rookie of the year in 1994.

Since then, 24 victories later, he’s become the poster child for the new NASCAR, famed in story, song and Pepsi commercials with Shaquille O’Neal and Michael J. Fox.

Gordon to O’Neal and Fox: “I’ll drive.”

“I think we’re starting to be recognized among other athletes, which is exciting, and that’s the part away from the racetrack that I enjoy,” says Gordon. “And it’s the part I hope I can enjoy even more, but it still gets down to driving the race car. That’s the part that creates those opportunities.”

He grew up in the sport, moved to Indiana as a youngster by a mother and stepfather who learned that the kid, who already had shown he could drive by racing go-karts and quarter-midgets as a 5-year-old, couldn’t do it as an unlicensed driver in Vallejo, Calif.

A national champion quarter-midget driver at 8 and 10, midget champion at 19, sprint car and Busch Grand National champion at 20.

People magazine. Cover of Parade. Golf with Greg Norman, Arnold Palmer, John Daly, John Cook. Married a beauty queen who tapes bible verses to his car. Met her--where else?--in Victory Lane at Daytona.

Does it get any better than that?

It could, which is why Gordon has developed enmity among racing fans, who are fiercely loyal. He can’t hear it over the sound and fury of a race car, but he is booed often and loudly by people who remember the days when every race was a crapshoot, or remember when Earnhardt or Bill Elliott dominated the series.

Gordon has become like the New York Yankees of the 1950s and ‘60s: You either love him or hate him.

Craven loves him.

“My hope is to become as good as Jeff Gordon,” he says. “My goal is before the end of the year, before the end of my career, to be as good as he is because he is the best Winston Cup driver in the business right now. He’s got it all going his way.”

Even Earnhardt, who gives quarter to no one, has grudging respect. “I’d like to be racing door-to-door with him right now,” he says.

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I just want to lead the last lap.

--Terry Labonte

He’s Ice--cool, calm, collected and wise enough to know that if his car isn’t strong enough to win a race, well, second is almost as good in the points race.

Labonte won it last year, finishing second seven times and winning only two races.

Gordon won 10 races last year, finishing second to Labonte in the points standings. Gordon won the points title in 1995.

Labonte is also “the Ironman,” with a Winston Cup-record 551 consecutive starts.

He is taciturn, thinking out a response before he gives it, and a steady professional who probably doesn’t even read People or Parade.

Forget Shaq and Pepsi. Labonte is sponsored by Kellogg’s, and his commercials usually involve him telling brother Bobby, who drives for the Joe Gibbs team, or Craven to stay in line behind him.

He’s spent a career being overlooked, coming into NASCAR racing in a freshman class with Earnhardt and Harry Gant, and now operating in the shadow of Gordon.

But he can drive. And he can win.

“I feel like I’m aggressive,” says Gordon. “A guy like Terry is very consistent, very smooth in everything he does. He stays out of trouble and finishes the races, and when you’re finishing the way he is, you’re always up there, ready to grab the win.”

Says Labonte: “Everybody’s different. I’m probably a little bit more patient than the others. OK, well I get a little excited every now and then.”

He’s been around long enough to know what he has and how much he wants to keep it. Labonte won the Winston Cup points championship in 1984 with the Billy Hagan team, but went through some tough times after that until coming on board with Hendrick in 1994.

“I was fortunate enough to win the championship twice now, but I also went 12 years between championships, so this one probably meant more to me than the first one did,” he says.

“Remember, I went four seasons [in those 12] without winning a race.”

Now he has what every driver wants: support, both technical and financial, but independence when the green flag falls.

Never did he show more of his independent streak than at Daytona in February, when Gordon, Craven and Labonte talked among themselves on a separate channel of the in-car radios during a caution period late in the race while running second, third and fourth behind Elliott.

Gordon said, “Let’s win this one for Rick.”

Says Labonte: “I just told Jeff that I would follow whichever way he went.

“As it turned out, he went down toward the infield and I went to the outside. I thought I was going to pass both [Gordon and Elliott], but I didn’t quite make it.”

Instead, Gordon made it through, Labonte was second, Craven followed him to third. Elliott was a toasted and gang-up-on fourth.

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I’d love to be in the situation I’m in right now and have the experience of Terry Labonte and confidence of Jeff Gordon.

--Ricky Craven

Opportunity knocked in the off-season for Craven, who is five years older than Gordon but has never won a race.

Now he knows why.

“I figured I could go to a program that has won and won and won and won, and in one respect, maybe I can eliminate the mechanical part of the equation,” Craven says. “Now I can just focus on driving, 100% of it, just driving. Then I can be among the leaders.”

He hasn’t been, in part because of a propensity for wrecking cars. He T-boned Ted Musgraves in Atlanta, wrecked the next week at Darlington and climbed the wall in practice in Texas, breaking his shoulder and some ribs, suffering a concussion and missing two races.

To a large extent, Craven has been an unlucky driver and, hence, has become a project for Hendrick.

“Jeff Gordon can win the race, and I’ll call Rick and he’ll say, ‘I really think we need to work in this area,’ ” Craven says. “I’ll ask him and he’ll ask me my opinion in different things, and he’s always focused on moving forward.

“If there’s a negative in a situation, maybe like Ted Musgraves slides across the track and takes us out in Atlanta, and you can dwell on that and say, ‘what if,’ he puts things in perspective and says, ‘Hey, two or three times a year that’s going to happen. Get over it. Let’s just think about the next race. It’s a good place for you.’ ”

He’s not Gordon, and he’s not Labonte. Budweiser puts its decals on Craven’s car, but still uses frogs and lizards to sell its beer and probably will continue to do so until he wins.

Until then, Gordon and Labonte are like everyone else on the track: targets.

“How we’re judging ourselves at this point is progress,” Craven says. “We’re not comparing ourselves to Jeff or Terry, to the 24-team [Gordon] or the 5-team [Labonte]. We’re comparing ourselves to last week and are we making progress? And as long as we’re making progress, we’ll arrive at the same place as the 24-team.”

Until then, he’s just happy to be here.

“Look, this is my third year in Winston Cup . . . and it’s an honor to be racing for Budweiser and Hendrick Motorsports. And I make a darn good salary for a kid who grew up on a farm in Newburgh, Maine. Sometimes I think I’m overpaid, but after those Atlanta and Texas wrecks, I think I’ve earned every penny.”

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We need more people like Rick Hendrick in motorsports.

--Bill France Jr., NASCAR president

Hendrick, normally gregarious, doesn’t talk to reporters anymore, on advice of his attorneys.

A hugely successful car dealer, with annual revenues of $2.2 billion from dealerships across the country, he is under federal indictment for money laundering and mail fraud for allegedly bribing American Honda officials to gain more dealerships and cars.

He says that he was helping friends with American Honda pay for their houses in Laguna Hills and Palm Springs.

And he has more trouble.

Hendrick has a rare form of leukemia, for which a bone-marrow transplant may be in the offing. His spokesman says that Hendrick is too weak from chemotherapy to conduct interviews, but Gordon says that Hendrick sometimes shows up for the Tuesday meetings in Charlotte and that they talk on the phone regularly.

“He looks pretty good,” Gordon says. “He doesn’t have a lot of energy, but his spirits are high.”

They’re higher with every victory. Gordon has six, but Labonte and Craven have yet to win.

A potential problem in the ranks? Something for Hendrick to handle?

“Well, yes and no,” says Gordon. “I mean, if the other guys are winning, I know we’re capable of winning because we’ve got the same resources and they can make the cars as good. When we’re winning, I know it does the same things for those guys. They know they can win and the information is there.

“But it does put a little bit of stress when one guy is winning and the others aren’t. They can’t quite understand why if we got the same stuff, why are they running better than what we’re running.”

Says Labonte: “Not really. It might be for some people, but I don’t let it bother me. But I know some guys it would. That’s one of the reasons that I think our team is as good as it is, because the people on it, we get along good. We don’t have ego problems.”

What they have is success.

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Team Hendrick

How Rick Hendrick and his drivers have fared:

OWNER

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Name (NASCAR since) Races 1 2 3 Money Rick Hendrick (1984) 399* 65 58 64 $39,968,924

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DRIVERS

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Name (NASCAR since) Races 1 2 3 Money Jeff Gordon (1992) 138 25 11 11 $12,057,073 Terry Labonte (1978) 556 18 38 34 $15,509,662 Ricky Craven (1991) 75 0 0 3 $2,083,257

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* Note: Includes 1,003 cars entered in 399 races