A Championship Friend

	From Chicken Soup for the Soul: NASCAR
	By Brian Vickers

I wonder where to start.

In 2002, Ricky Hendrick and I became friends, and we had raced together a little bit, but we hadn't spent a whole lot of time together.

Then, at the last race of the year in Homestead, Florida, Ricky invited me over for a party he was having on his dad, Rick Hendrick's boat. They were looking for someone to replace Ricky in the No. 5 NASCAR Nationwide Series car, which he had decided not to drive the following year.

Ricky wanted it to be me. He called me up and said, "Hey, do you want this job?"

I said, "Absolutely."

It was a tough decision for me. I was racing for my family team at the time. We were pretty much done; we were out of sponsorship and were going to shut down anyway, but it was tough to make that choice. But this was the opportunity of a lifetime!

Rick had asked Ricky to run the team, but at the same time he wanted to be in control. He had a hard time letting go. He had someone else in mind to drive the car, but Ricky stood his ground. He basically said, "If you want me to run this team, this is who the driver is going to be. If you want to run it, that's fine. I'll do something else."

I didn't really know Rick at that time. Actually I had never met him, and I wanted to introduce myself and talk to him. So at the end of the race weekend, I went by his boat. I never told him how I knew where it was, though, until later on -- I knew where it was because the party was on it!

Rick and I sat and talked for more than an hour. Then I went down to the Keys and spent some vacation time with my family. A little while later, Ricky called and said, "If you want the job, it's yours." So I went to Hendrick Motorsports, worked out the details, and started driving for Ricky.

I remember we signed the contract at Rick's office. Rick had a garage out back and he had this awesome car, a Porsche Carrera. Ricky was showing me around, and Rick made some comment, jokingly -- "If you win the championship, I'll give you that car," or something like that. He's always throwing carrots out there. He's a great leader. He definitely knows how to motivate people, but obviously he didn't think we were going to win the championship our first year.

That was a great year. We were fortunate and ran very well. We won our first race together, Ricky and I, at the Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP), which was a very special moment. It was a hard-fought win, but everybody did their job and we had a fast car.

At the time, Ricky and I and a few other guys lived together in Charlotte. We had a lot of good times. We became really close and had a lot of fun and made a lot of great memories. So we went back after the race and threw a big party to celebrate the win, and it was great.

Later on in the year we won some more races, and then we ended up winning the championship. Being able to win my first championship and win it with Ricky, the youngest owner ever to win a championship, is one of my most memorable moments in racing. I've never seen Rick more proud than when his son won the championship as an owner.

It was definitely a very, very special year.

The following season we raced in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. There were some ups and downs; your first year in Cup is usually a struggle.

Then in October, in Martinsville, Virginia, there was a plane crash. It killed Ricky and a lot of other good people. It was a very sad day. It was my 21st birthday; we had a big party planned that night.

It was a very hard time in my life. Ricky was like a brother to me.

But he accomplished a lot in the short time that he had. He impacted my life in so many positive ways, and gave me an opportunity I can never repay him for. He taught me by example to accomplish as much as you can every day, because you might not get another chance.

For the longest time I couldn't even talk about Ricky's passing, or think about it. I still think about him every day, every time I get into a race car. He was a great man and I think he was going to do a lot of great things.

I miss him.

http://www.beliefnet.com/Inspiration/Chicken-Soup-For-The-Soul/2010/04/A-Championship-Friend.aspx?source=NEWSLETTER&nlsource=49&ppc=&utm_campaign=DIBSoup&utm_source=NL&utm_medium=newsletter