No dude, not personally hurt at all. I've heard all about how Rick Hendrick is a "real racer" from way back, grew up racing as a teenager, etc. Maybe so, maybe not, I wasn't there for it.
Rick Hendrick "entered" NASCAR only once he'd made a small fortune as a businessman, primarily as the owner of City Chevrolet in Charlotte. When the ridiculously shitty movie "Days Of Thunder" was made, who sponsored Tom Cruise's car? Yep, damn right - City Chevrolet. Two years later, Hendrick signs some hotshot, up and coming Busch Grand National driver that had just come over from sprint cars to be his third driver for his new "start-up" team, joining Terry Labonte and Ken Schrader. Heard of Jeff Gordon? Well, he tried to knock down every wall at Atlanta in his first race, the final race of 1992; looked to have some skill and promise, but had a ways to go yet, no different than a lot of other drivers thruout time.
Well, history speaks for itself - Gordon's a 4-time champ, 3rd on the all-time wins list, yada, yada, yada. He's never changed his "Don't you know I am?" attitude, just listen to some of his radio transmissions sometime. Even in his heyday, if the car wasn't SPOT-FREAKING-ON he was whining and complaining like a ragging bitch, yelling that the car was the worst piece of crap he'd ever driven, etc. When he won, it was because of what a great driver he was; when he lost, it surely wasn't his fault. Well, bullshit. Gordon (I'm SURE unintentionally) as much as admitted he couldn't succeed unless the car was perfect. Yes, if the car is right, it makes the driver's job easier but damn - I always wondered in those days how all the "boys at the shop" felt when Gordon was ripping them a collective new one, usually after finishing, oh, about third or so in a car they'd probably put about 16 hrs per day per man into over about 8-10 weeks. He shouldn't have been sponsored by Dupont (I'll forego the rainbow jokes here), he should've been sponsored by Pamprin, Midol, and Kotex.
Brer Hendrick, he just lay low.
Kurt Busch went a-hole on his team one time too many to suit Roger Penske, and The Captain finally broke in over the radio and told Busch to either shut up and drive or pull in and park, but he wasn't going to listen to Busch rip his teammates any more. Hendrick never had his guys' back when Gordon would go off, and he went off A LOT.
Then, there's the whole financial fraud issue with Honda. He's convicted of violating Federal law with regard to financial dealings with Honda Motor Company and sentenced to a term in federal prison (not exactly making big ones into little ones, if you know what I mean), but this guy quickly came down with leukemia so, before ever serving a day in prison, his sentence was commuted to house arrest. While "sick" at home and "unable to travel", Hendrick cars go 1-2-3 in the Daytona 500 (insert violin music here) with, of course, Gordon winning, the backup car (Labonte) finishing second, and the write-off car (now Ricky Craven) finishing third. Then we get to see and hear the majority of Gordon's Victory Lane whoop-de-do be a freaking cell phone conversation with Rick Hendrick that CBS just so happened to be able to "quickly" patch in to - IN 1997!!! Again, I call bullshit. Miraculously, juuuuust after "Mr. H" finishes serving his "sentence", the "leukemia" goes into remission, never to be heard from again. Can you guess what I call there? If you guessed "bullshit", give yourself another point.
How about the T-Rex car? Ever heard that story? Keselowski and Logano just got "busted" for rear-end housing issues that were too close to some arbitrary, imaginary line somewhere in space, and NASCAR hit them so hard their grandbabies will say "ouch". Well, one year in The Winston, the 24 is a red "Jurassic Park" themed car (I believe it was 1995, but I could be wrong, maybe 1997?), dinosaur on the hood, hence "T-Rex". The chassis, both by weight distribution and dimensional construction was so far offset, Gordon barely had to crack the throttle anywhere around Charlotte Motor Speedway - when he won, he was so far ahead everybody else looked like they were in downtown Concord. NASCAR inspected the 24 after the race and told Hendrick Motorsports not to ever bring a car back to any NASCAR event with that particular design and configuration - period. End of story. No further announcement or penalty. Done. Over. Out.
Meanwhile, at another edition of The Winston, Carl Long (Who?!?! Exactly right.) brought an illegal engine to The Winston Open (the "qualifier"). Didn't do him any good, the only way he'd ever get into The Winston would be to buy a ticket. Anyhoo, NASCAR discovered it in post-race inspection and docked him points (Seriously? Carl Long? It was a damn NON-POINTS RACE!!!) and fined him - get this - $200,000. That's right, 200 large to a journeyman, part-time, once-in-a-blue-moon driver. Oh, and he was barred from NASCAR-sanctioned racing until he paid the $200K fine. Guess who ain't gonna have an extra $200K laying around between now and doomsday - yep, Carl Long. He hasn't been in a NASCAR race since.
All the stuff I posted earlier, and everything I'm posting here, I stand behind - don't believe me, look it up. I don't like cheating, I don't advocate cheating, but I acknowledge sometimes rules will be bent if not outright broken. Intentional? Not for me to decide. However, I'm willing to bet no team in NASCAR history has cheated more times, more often, by more people, on more cars, than Hendrick Motorsports. All run by a man who bought his way into NASCAR, buys his and his employees' way out of NASCAR's doghouse, and continues to flout the rules at every turn. He - just - don't - care. Hell, the article I linked to at the start of this thread says this "line" that Penske Racing got "too close to" is the exact same line Chad Knaus has one foot on at all times. Cheat all the time, they can't catch every one (I guess).
Oh, by the way - that pestersome little felony conviction? Hendrick was pardoned on that little "misunderstanding" by none other than Bill Clinton in one of his last official acts as President of these here United States. Hmmm - a lying, soulless, crooked, thief of a multi-millionaire pardoned by a lying, soulless, crooked thief of a President who, himself, violated rules and standards one expects of the President so badly he came a cockhair from being impeached. A match made in heaven.
No, Matt - Rick Hendrick has never done a damn thing to me personally. I've heard more than enough, though, from people that do know him personally, and I've seen and heard enough thru the media that I don't care for the man. If he happens to be a friend or acquaintance of yours or of someone in your family, I'm sorry, I mean no harm to you or yours but I have zero respect for the man. He don't know me from the man in the moon, I know he couldn't give a shit less about my opinion of him, and that's fine by me. I just don't suffer lying, soulless, crooked thieves gladly, that's all. I have zero respect for him and his organization.
And as far as Dale Earnhardt, Jr. goes I know full well he left DEI because of his clashing with Teresa Earnhardt. There's enough blame to go around there, but I understand why he left. He could've gone anywhere - ANYWHERE - else, and I'd have stayed behind him. He sold his soul to the devil, and he put himself in one hell of a box in the process, when he announced he was signing with Hendrick and said there were no more excuses for him not winning a championship. In that time, Jimmie Johnson has won more championships than Junior has won TOTAL races and, hell, one of THEM wasn't even a points-paying race. Other than the Budweiser Shootout right out of the gate with Hendrick, two wins at Michigan in, what, seven years? Junior is no better than Option 2B at Hendrick. That's by design. Junior's best days are behind him, as are Gordon's. They might win the odd race here or there, they might even make the Chase. Same with Kahne, who's younger than both. You won't likely ever again, though, see any of Hendrick's other "options" win a title again. For the foreseeable future, Option 1 is Jimmie Johnson and his lying, soulless, crooked thief of a no-good cheating Crew Chief Chad Knaus.
If you're upset or disappointed by this in any way, I hate that, I really do - I've grown to respect you on here, but that tells me you're such a Junior fan and/or a Chevy fan that you can't see the forest for the trees. That's cool, no problems - many of my friends and acquaintances that are into NASCAR pull for one Hendrick car or another. That's their right, and I respect them AND their right. A wise man once said, however, that there are none so blind as those who will not see. We're good, pal.
One last note - don't ever think I haven't gone this hard at misguided UNC fans. Thst's why I'm here "full-time", remember?