Rick Hendrick to serve as honorary pace car driver for Brickyard 400
Rick Hendrick will drive the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 pace car for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday. He will be the honorary pace car driver for the 30th anniversary of the Brickyard 400 and celebrate Hendrick Motorsports and Jeff Gordon‘s victory at the track 30 years ago.
“As we return to the oval and celebrate 30 years with NASCAR, having Rick pace the field is a fitting celebration,” Indianapolis Motor Speedway said in a social media post.
“Time goes by fast,” Hendrick said in a statement, per Forbes. “I can’t believe it’s been four decades since we started Hendrick Motorsports and 30 years since Jeff (Gordon) won the inaugural Brickyard 400. I’ll never forget the excitement around that event and the thrill of winning a race at Indianapolis.
“I’m grateful to our 40-year partners at Chevrolet for the opportunity to drive a Pace Car for the first time. I also want to thank my great friend Roger Penske and everyone at the track. Taking the field to green on Sunday will be something I’ll always remember.”
Hendrick founded Hendrick Motorsports in 1984 and has become one of the top teams in NASCAR. The team has won the Brickyard 400 10 times with Gordon winning five of them. The race is returning on Sunday after NASCAR drivers competing in a road course race at Indy for the last three seasons.
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Along with the 30th anniversary celebration of he Brickyard 400, Hendrick celebrated his team’s 40th anniversary win earlier this year. In April, William Byron won the Cup Series race in Martinsville while Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott finished second and third, respectively. After the race, Hendrick talked about the special day for his team.
“It was a special day and I never thought that we’d end up running one through three and when that caution came out I thought, ‘Man, we’re in trouble,’” Hendrick told FS1 at the time. “I’ve been there before when we were one, two and then there was a caution and we end up running, I don’t know fourth or fifth.
“So, it’s just a great day for all of our people to celebrate 40 years and come back to that at Martinsville and run one, two, three. And all the people that are going to stay and go down and celebrate with the drivers, so wish I was there. But I’m getting my leg fixed.”