Nice day (finally) for a motorcycle ride, and made a good one. After some Carolina Hot Dogs (all the way) at a local church, met up with a friend and we rode the motorcycles to Hendrick Motorsports in Concord, NC. It is both a working race shop and a museum. What you are seeing at left is some of the museum part, where you can see a lot of former racecars, and other items from the racing careers of the drivers of Hendrick Motorsports. It is a great place to check out not just some favorite (or not so favorite drivers) but just to see what goes into a NASCAR car. Did I mention, admission is free?
Seen here are the 2013 cars of Jimmie Johnson, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. They have changed the cars this year to look more like the cars you would see in the showroom of your local dealer, and less like the "one size fits all" Car of Tomorrow that NASCAR has been running for the past few years. I tend to think its a really nice improvement.It is amazing to see the various shops and buildings, gone for a long time are the days when these were backyard operations. Now, these cars are built (and from the ground up) in multi-million dollar operations, and Hendrick is one of the most impressive, though all the shops in the area are remarkable.
This is one side of one of the shops (and shot through glass which is the cause of the reflection) where you can see the many copies of the race cars being built. Many of these cars will end up wrecked at various tracks, others will be built for specific types of tracks (short track, road racing, half miles and superspeedway), but you can be sure some of these will end up as well in a few victory lanes during the course of the season. Hendrick has some of the top drivers and has as an owner won over two hundred races over his years as an owner. Interesting to see these cars put together.
Finally, though there are many trophies at Hendrick Motorsports, had to get a photo of this one. I believe the year was 2006, but the track this was won was at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, VA (Richmond being my home away from home!). I am a fan of racing, but also of guitars, and the guitar in this trophy is a Paul Reed Smith, which is one of the better ones out there.
If you would like more information on Hendrick Motorsports be sure to check them out on-line via your favorite search engine. It is a very nice place to visit, and in fact there are a number of race shops in the area. You can see some remarkable things in some of them in the Concord area, or nearby. The vast majority of teams in the NASCAR circuit make their homes in this area.
I greatly enjoyed both the motorcycle ride, the hot dogs, and the wandering around the shops of Hendrick Motorsports. Usually just being here on weekends I don't get to see this often, but have made a few race shops over the holiday, and ready for the season to get underway (and it won't be long now!).
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