It was a little over a decade ago when a non-descript truck and trailer rolled through the gates at zMAX Dragway. It was parked on the sportsman side of the palatial dragstrip built on the hallowed grounds of Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Out of the trailer rolled an equally non-descript 2010 Camaro. It was built by B&B Race Cars and was a bak-half chassis car, an early iteration of the Factory Stock Showdown. The Camaro wasted no time in becoming the talk of the NASCAR Night at zMAX Dragway.
The car posted an 8.02 elapsed time at 171 miles per hour. Even more impressive was the fact that it weighed 3200 pounds.
It was NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick doing naturally what few had a clue of. He was exercising his passion for straight-line racing.
Last Sunday at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, Hendrick returned to the form of motorsports that cemented his passion for going fast.
“I’ve just always been a fan,” Hendrick said. “I raced and drag raced boats and then ended up in NASCAR. But I’ve always loved drag racing.”
Hendrick doesn’t mince words when he points out NASCAR is where he spends money, and drag racing is where he goes to have fun.
Hendrick has been having fun drag racing for a long time, since he was 14 years old when he’d go to the local strips to watch Ronnie Sox and Don “Big Daddy” Garlits. Shortly after this, he had a 31 Chevrolet C/Gasser, which he still owns today and has in his museum alongside the championship-winning cars of Reher-Morrison.
Hendrick has long been a driving force behind the scenes, supporting Tommy Grove, Paul Smith, Reher & Morrison, Top Sportsman standout James Bullock, and more recently, Greg Anderson and John Force Racing.
“I love to smell the fuel,” Hendrick said. “I love to smell of the tires and the fans and the history of drag racing. Just being able to talk to Jack [Beckman] about the old days when I had Tommy Grove and Richard Broome, and we ran the Top Fuel boat. Being involved with these champions has been a lot of fun. John’s [Force] my hero. So it’s good to be out here with everybody today.”
Hendrick’s ties to drag racing are pretty impressive when you consider
In the 1980s, the late Lee Shepherd’s custom cylinder heads [also run in drag racing] were instrumental in the performance of Chevrolet engines used by the team. One of the most notable achievements was during the 1990 NASCAR Cup Series season when driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., using engines built with Shepherd’s heads, helped Hendrick Motorsports win races and championships. These engineering advancements contributed to the team’s competitiveness and paved the way for their future successes in NASCAR.
This kind of cross-pollination keeps bringing diametrically opposite motorsports into common ground. Such is the case with manufacturers as well.
Greg Fornelli, owner and president of Stock Car Steel and SRI Performance, shared his enthusiasm for drag racing, highlighting the team’s growth and recent expansion into this new market.
“We opened a shop in Indianapolis six years ago to get into this market,” Fornelli said. “Our Mooresville shop has been around for 30 years in NASCAR, and we’ve since expanded into dirt racing as well. Drag racing has been amazing for us, especially with our strong nitro program.”
Ron Brock, the strategic business manager for Daido Metal USA, explained how the company’s involvement in various racing formats, including IndyCar and Formula One, led them to drag racing.
“NHRA is a huge part of the racing culture in North America,” Brock noted. “It’s a completely different world, and the engineering challenge of supporting the performance demands of an 11,000-horsepower nitro Funny Car is intriguing for us.”
Last weekend, joining them for a cameo was past NASCAR Cup Series champion and Daytona 500 winner Kurt Busch, donning his Monster Energy shirt in support of corporate teammate Brittany Force.
“This never gets old,” Busch said. “Drag Racing never gets old. It’s so cool to be back at the track and smell the nitro. Then you have Tony Stewart, put him in any car and he’s good to go. It’s good to see everyone and all of my old friends. It’s even good to see Erica Enders again.”
In 2014, Busch tried his hand at Pro Stock racing and in his one race day appearance, lost in the first round at the NHRA Gatornationals to Erica Enders.
More NASCAR entities enter drag racing, the most recent being Rick Ware and Tony Stewart, who have had their teams win in 2025.
In the end, Hendrick might have summed up best why he and his roundy-round associates are headed in a straight line.
“I love this, and it’s part of my DNA,” Hendrick surmised.
BOBBY BENNETT: AND THAT’S THE WAY IT IS … APRIL 29, 2025