CONCORD, N.C. – For NASCAR’s 75th anniversary, the sport is celebrating the 75 Greatest Drivers throughout its history as determined by a blue-ribbon committee.
Twenty-five drivers were added to the original list of 50 that was revealed in 1998 ahead of NASCAR's throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway on May 12-14.
Hendrick Motorsports had several of its drivers honored in the original 50. Below you will find a full list and career information of every driver with ties to the 14-time NASCAR Cup Series championship-winning organization to be named to the list.
Editor's note: A bold name denotes that a driver was added as part of the 75 Greatest Drivers
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Geoff Bodine: Racing for Hendrick Motorsports from its beginnings in 1984 to 1989, Bodine notched seven of his 18 Cup Series wins for the organization. Among those victories was the first win for both the team and driver in 1984 at Martinsville Speedway in the No. 5 Chevrolet. He also won the first DAYTONA 500 for the organization in 1986.
Kyle Busch: The start of Busch’s Cup Series career came with Hendrick Motorsports. He drove for the team in the top series from 2004 to 2007 and at 20 years old, he won his first race at Auto Club Speedway in September 2005. The first four of Busch’s 62 Cup wins to date came with the Concord, North Carolina, based team in the No. 5 Chevrolet. He also won 11 races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for the organization.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: For 10 years (2008 to 2017), Earnhardt Jr. drove the No. 88 Chevrolet for the organization. During that time, he won nine races for the team, including the 2014 DAYTONA 500. Earnhardt’s last of 26 Cup Series victories came with the squad in 2015 at Phoenix Raceway. In addition, he won 10 of his 15 consecutive National Motorsports Press Association Most Popular Driver Awards during his tenure at Hendrick Motorsports. His NASCAR Xfinity Series team, JR Motorsports, is an affiliate for Hendrick Motorsports.
Chase Elliott: Elliott has driven for Hendrick Motorsports for his entire Cup Series career that began in 2015. To date, he has won 18 races in the sport’s top series and ranks third on the all-time wins list at Hendrick Motorsports. Elliott won his first Cup Series race in August 2018 at Watkins Glen International. In 2020, Elliott earned the 13th Cup Series championship for team owner Rick Hendrick and became the third-youngest driver in history to accomplish the feat. He has reached the Championship 4 in three straight seasons and has won five consecutive National Motorsports Press Association Most Popular Driver Awards.
RELATED: Elliott selected to NASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers list
Jeff Gordon: Now the vice chairman of the organization, Gordon drove from 1992 to 2016 with the bulk of those starts coming in the No. 24 Chevrolet that he made iconic. Over that time, he won 93 Cup Series races (which is the third-most in premier series history) and earned championships in 1995, 1997, 1998 and 2001. His Rainbow Warriors team spawned the careers of several significant figures in the sport. With the 1995 championship, Gordon remains the youngest driver in the modern era to win the Cup Series title at 24 years old. He also became NASCAR’s "iron man" with 797 consecutive starts.
Ron Hornaday Jr.: The four-time NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series champion made a fill-in start for Hendrick Motorsports in 2000. He drove to a 15th-place finish at Watkins Glen International subbing for Terry Labonte in the No. 5 Chevrolet.
Jimmie Johnson: Johnson drove his entire full-time Cup Series career for Hendrick Motorsports from 2002 to 2020, with a handful of starts in 2001. He is single-handedly responsible for half of the organization’s 14 Cup Series championships. Johnson’s seven championships match the mark set by Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty. Among his seven titles (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2016), include an unmatched run of five in a row. Together, with crew chief Chad Knaus, Johnson formed one of the most legendary driver-crew chief pairings in the sport’s history. He won 83 races in the Cup Series, which is tied for the sixth-most with Cale Yarborough.
Kasey Kahne: Kahne drove for Hendrick Motorsports for six seasons (2012-2017) and earned his final six of 18 career Cup Series victories with the organization. The last of those came in 2017 at the Brickyard of Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the No. 5 Chevrolet. In his first season with the team, Kahne finished a career-best fourth in the standings.
Brad Keselowski: Keselowski made nine starts for Hendrick Motorsports from 2008-2009 as he was rising up the NASCAR ladder and running full-time for the organization’s affiliate in the Xfinity Series, JR Motorsports. His best finish with Hendrick Motorsports was a seventh-place run in the 2009 race at Darlington Raceway in the No. 25 Chevrolet.
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Terry Labonte: During his 37-year career, the "Iceman" drove for Hendrick Motorsports from 1994 to 2006 with the latter two seasons being partial stints. He won the 1996 championship in the No. 5 Chevrolet for team owner Rick Hendrick – one of two Cup Series championships that Labonte won in his career. Twelve of his 22 Cup Series wins came with Hendrick Motorsports, including his last victory at Darlington Raceway in 2003. In addition, a large part of Labonte’s streak of 655 consecutive starts came during his time at the organization.
Randy LaJoie: The two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion made nine starts for Rick Hendrick’s team in 1998 in a Cup Series ride that he shared that season with Wally Dallenbach Jr. and Ricky Craven. The starts with Hendrick Motorsports saw LaJoie earn his best-ever Cup Series finish (fifth at Martinsville Speedway) and three top-10 finishes – his only such finishes in the series.
Kyle Larson: Since coming to Hendrick Motorsports ahead of the 2021 season, Larson has recorded 15 of his 21 NASCAR Cup Series wins in the No. 5 Chevrolet. His record-breaking first season with the team saw the Elk Grove, California, native win 10 points-paying races, the All-Star Race and he capped the year off with the Cup Series championship. With 15 wins at Hendrick Motorsports, Larson has the fourth-most victories in the organization’s history and that mark is also the most in the series since 2021.
RELATED: Larson named to NASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers list
Mark Martin: From 2009 to 2011, Martin drove the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. The 2009 season saw him finish second in the standings for the fifth time in his Cup Series career. That same year, Martin also won the final five races of his Cup Series driving career and that gave him 40 wins total. The last of those wins came at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the second race of the playoffs.
Benny Parsons: For one season (in 1987), Parsons drove the No. 35 for Hendrick Motorsports. This marked the second-to-last season for him in the Cup Series. While he did not record any of his 21 wins during his one season at the organization, he did earn three runner-up finishes – with one of those coming in 1987 DAYTONA 500.
Tim Richmond: For 37 races from 1986 to 1987, Richmond teamed up with Hendrick Motorsports to win nine times (an incredible 24.32% winning percentage) in the No. 25 Chevrolet. All of those victories came in his final 25 starts with the team (for an even more incredible 36% winning percentage). He was known as one of the sport’s most distinct personalities and finished third in the standings in his seven-win season of 1986. He passed away in 1989 at the age of 34.
Ricky Rudd: As part of his 33-year career in the Cup Series, Rudd drove the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in four of those seasons (1990 to 1993). In that time, he earned four of his 23 Cup Series victories and finished second in the 1991 standings. Like Labonte, Rudd, too, had a streak of 788 consecutive starts that was part of his time with the organization.
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Tony Stewart: The three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion made one start in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for Hendrick Motorsports. He drove the No. 80 Chevrolet to victory at Daytona International Speedway with sponsorship from HendrickCars.com.
Darrell Waltrip: For four years (1987 to 1990), Waltrip drove for Hendrick Motorsports and provided some memorable moments in the No. 17 Chevrolet. Among his nine wins (of his 84 in the Cup Series) for the organization were the 1989 DAYTONA 500, complete with "The Ickey Shuffle." He also won two Coca-Cola 600s and contributed four Martinsville victories to the organization’s track-best total of 27 (as of April 6). The three-time champion finished fourth in the standings on two separate occasions while with the team.