CONCORD, N.C. – For all the wins, championships and records that are well known, do you know where Hendrick Motorsports’ first 1-2 finish came?
Talladega Superspeedway was the site of that achievement on July 31, 1988. Ken Schrader earned the win, while the team’s first driver and winner, Geoff Bodine, finished second in a thrilling finish that saw the team best one of the legends of the NASCAR Cup Series - Dale Earnhardt. The win was also the first of the organization’s series-best 14 at the 2.66-mile track.
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Hendrick Motorsports started as a one-car team with Bodine in 1984. Ahead of the 1986 season, team owner Rick Hendrick expanded to a two-car operation with the addition of Tim Richmond. The team moved to three cars when Hendrick brought three-time champion Waltrip into the fold for the 1987 campaign. The team remained at three full-time cars until the 2002 season when a fourth car was added for Jimmie Johnson. Since then, the organization has fielded four full-time entries.
The team’s three entries started the race in the top seven. Darrell Waltrip won the pole position and led a race-high 123 laps before a mechanical failure ended his day. With two laps to go, Bodine was running second in the No. 5 Chevrolet and right behind leader Dale Earnhardt. Coming to the white flag, Schrader and Bodine were side by side in third and fourth. Schrader, driving the No. 25 Chevrolet, moved up to the top lane in turn one as Earnhardt went down to run in front of Sterling Marlin. Using a big run into turn two, Schrader was able to get ahead of Earnhardt as Bodine was running in fourth. Schrader stayed committed to the high lane while Bodine dropped into the middle lane on the last turn. Schrader was the winner at the checkered flag, with Bodine edging Earnhardt for second.
"The first win is always the hardest to get," an emotional Schrader told reporters. "It feels awfully good. We just felt if we kept running hard, it would happen sooner or later."
The victory was Schrader’s first in the Cup Series. He joined Hendrick Motorsports to drive the No. 25 Chevy full-time in 1988 after driving for car owner Junie Donlavey for three seasons. Schrader drove for Hendrick Motorsports for nine seasons (1988 to 1996). During that time, he won four times, posted 58 top-five finishes, 128 top-10s, 17 pole positions and led 2,062 laps.
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The Schrader-Bodine 1-2 finish was the first of 55 top-two sweeps for Hendrick Motorsports to date. So far this season, the team has two of those—a 1-2 finish in the 2024 DAYTONA 500 with William Byron and Alex Bowman and a top-three sweep in the team’s 40th anniversary race at Martinsville Speedway. In that race, Byron, Kyle Larson, and Chase Elliott finished 1-2-3.