Are There Really Teammates in NASCAR?

The concept of fielding more than one car in a NASCAR event was not always the preferred route for NASCAR owners. Back in the Golden Era of NASCAR (1960's and 1970's), most of NASCAR's top teams were single-car outfits. Petty Enterprises and Holman-Moody were just a few on the short list of top tier teams that intermittently fielded multiple entries.

But as NASCAR continued to grow, and groundbreaking resources became available, many owners began to realize the advantages of a multi-car operation.

A lot of people may tell you that Junior Johnson was the first to really take advantage of the multi-car operations, as he fielded twin Budweiser cars driven by Darrell Waltrip and Neil Bonnett from 1984 to 1986. But the two teams were rarely on the same page, and did not even share the same race shop. In 1987, Johnson went back to his single-car approach that worked well in the early 1980's, when Darrell Waltrip won back-to-back championships in 1981 and 1982.

In 1986, Rick Hendrick added a second team to his operation. In 1984, Hendrick was affiliated with All-Star Racing, and the group of owners hired Geoff Bodine as their driver. Bodine won three races that year, hence the Hendrick legacy began. In 1986, Hendrick added the flamboyant Tim Richmond to his driver roster to complement Bodine. Needless to say, Hendrick Motorsports opened a lot of eyes that season. Richmond won seven races and eight poles, and Bodine posted two wins, including the Daytona 500, as well as eight poles.

In 1987, Hendrick took the multi-car concept to another level when he added a third team. Ironically, he hired Darrell Waltrip. The success of Hendrick Motorsports only heightened as time went by.

Eventually, other top tier teams caught on to what Hendrick was doing, most notably Jack Roush. Roush added a second team in the early 1990's and since then, his organization has grown into a five-team powerhouse.