NASCAR’s winningest team celebrates 40th anniversary season

Well, the boss pays attention to details, and so the staffer tasked with the purchase figured 700 game-regulation balls at a cost of $14,000 would be sufficient.

Hendrick was a bit surprised. Then he was moved by how they were received at Hendrick Automotive, which in two years celebrates its 50th anniversary, and by everyone at Hendrick Motorsports.

All 700 were claimed over two separate luncheons as Hendrick and wife Linda stood before his employees and asked if any were willing to “carry the ball” and ensure his namesake businesses would thrive well into the future.

Hendrick’s only son, Ricky, was among 10 killed in a 2004 plane crash enroute to a race in Virginia. Now 74 years old, his season-long NASCAR celebration has made him both reflective and focused on what will become of his companies. He talked to The Associated Press about founding NASCAR teams that are now long extinct and his fear of that happening to the greatest team the sport has ever seen.

“I’ve said it over and over that people are your biggest asset, and let’s go conquer the world, and I thought that if I was one of those five- or 10-year people, I’d like to hear what’s going to happen in the next 50 years,” Hendrick told AP. “‘Are you going to sell it when something happens to you? Are you going to go public? What are you going to do?’

“And so I told them, ‘Where this is going to be is in my family in the next 50,…