Why Rick Hendrick’s ride on the #48 after the All-Star Race was so special

After Jimmie Johnson completed some impressive burnouts following his win in the All-Star Race Saturday night, he had team owner Rick Hendrick hop up on the door and ride along for a victory lap on the frontstretch at Charlotte Motor Speedway to let fans solute possibly the greatest car owner in the history of NASCAR.

The move harkened back to days long gone by when pit crews would ride on top of a winning car as it drove to Victory Lane, and it was an awesome solute to arguably the best team owner in the history of the sport.

Yes, Hendrick Motorsports still has 68 wins to go before it catches Petty Enterprises for the most wins all time, but that number could be in reach in the next five to seven years.

In any case, Hendrick’s victory ride on the frontstretch after Saturday night’s race was a fitting tribute to a great man and a team that just won its 200^th race the week before in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

All of the leaders involved in both the Southern 500 win and the All-Star Race win are going to go down in history as legends of the sport.

Hendrick will be compared to the Petty and Wood Brothers Racing organizations, crew chief Chad Knaus will be compared to Petty’s crew chief Dale Inman and Johnson will be considered at least one of the 10 best drivers in the history of the sport.

Although it is easy to hate the #48 team and Hendrick Motorsports for all of their success, please still appreciate it. They have put together arguably the best run any team has ever had in NASCAR history.

Everybody loves to think about how great the Pettys were, how great Earnhardt was and how much success Jeff Gordon had in the first half of his career. But, people also tend to forget how much they hated those drivers and teams for their success when it was happening.

Instead of waiting until the success is over, why don’t we properly appreciate the success while it happens.

It might seem impossible right now, but there will be a time when Johnson no longer consistently wins race. There also might be a time when Hendrick Motorsports no longer competes for wins week in and week out. Ask somebody in the 60’s and 70’s if Petty and the Wood Brothers would be struggling just to remain in the sport, and they likely would’ve have said you are absolutely crazy.

Sports have a way of evening out successes and failures. A great team doesn’t stay great forever. Some teams have longer runs on top than others, but success is certainly not eternal, especially in NASCAR.

Go ahead and wish for some other team to rise up and challenge for race wins and championships. But the eventually everybody will get tired of that team too and start to wish for the next team to arrive on the scene.

That is fine, but fans might be left always hoping for the next big thing and never enjoy what they see on the track in the present.

The Hall of Fame is great, but make sure to recognize Hall of Fame achievements when they happen. Hendrick Motorsports, Jimmie Johnson and the #48 team are in the midst of Hall of Fame achievements. It would be a shame to miss them.

Rating the Southern 500: 4 Stars ****

The Sprint Cup Series visited one of the sport’s most historic tracks Saturday night for a long, tough race that had a historic win and the first postrace scuffle of the season. A Southern 500 that had a touch of everything gets a 4 Star Rating.

First, massive congratulations are due for Jimmie Johnson, the #48 team and team owner Rick Hendrick for getting Hendrick Motorsports’ 200^th victory at one of NASCAR’s crown jewel events.

Although many people love to hate Hendrick teams because they win all the time, they should at least greatly respect this accomplishment. The 200-win number is similar to the all-time homerun record in baseball. It is a milestone that is reached less than once a generation.

Petty Enterprises is the only other organization to reach 200 wins. It has 268, which Hendrick could possibly reach in the next five or six years.

Johnson also moved past Rusty Wallace for eighth on the all-time driver wins list. Again, like him or not, Johnson is right at the top of any list about greatest NASCAR drivers, and he showed why again Saturday at Darlington.

Lately, a late caution has caused several lead changes and somebody different to show up at the front late in the race. Tony Stewart certainly tried to make a run at Johnson during the final two runs, but Johnson drove flawlessly the last half of the race to maintain his lead and take the win.

This was a vintage Johnson performance. There is little reason to think he won’t continue to have strong runs and once again be a popular pick to win the championship come Chase time.

The Southern 500 is always one of the longest races of the year, but once again the field put together long green-flag runs. The first caution for non-existent debris didn’t come until lap 172 after Johnson had started to stretch his lead.

After the initial caution, the yellow flag became popular in the second half of the race and we got our second consecutive green-white-checkered finish.

However, the most interesting incident of the evening happened after the checkered flag. Kurt Busch supposedly nearly hit some of Ryan Newman’s pit crew members, and after the race Newman’s gas man headed over to Busch’s #51 car to take care of business.

The big guy never quite made it to Busch, but both sides exchanged shoves and heated comments. Whether or not the incident results in penalties for anybody, this is a situation Busch couldn’t afford.

After losing his ride in the #22 car after a profanity-laced tirade against ESPN reporter Jerry Punch, Busch had to be on his best behavior this season to help him score another top-notch ride and save his career.

He drove the wheels off of the #51 car (literally, unfortunately) and had the car inside the top 10 late in the race. That proves the guy has talent. Several drivers have driven what is now the #51 car in recent years, including rising star Brad Keseloski, and none of them consistently had that car in the top half of the field.

Busch could’ve used those types of performances to prove that he deserves another fully funded car to compete for a championship. But his temper will make that extremely difficult. With drivers such as Trevor Bayne who have squeaky-clean reputations sitting on the sidelines, it is tough to imagine a company wanting Busch to represent them ahead of a driver such as Bayne.

In any case, the Cup teams get to head home for the next two weeks and enjoy the rest of the month racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The All-Star race comes up next and then it’s on to the longest race of the year with the Coca-Cola 600. May is a great month of racing, and there is plenty left to enjoy.

Have a great All-Star week, everybody.