CONCORD, N.C. - "Do not follow where the path may lead," Ralph Waldo Emerson once said. "Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
Both literally and figuratively, that attitude and those byways forged into the most heavily affected areas of Hurricane Helene are vital.
Humanitarian and charitable initiatives are in the DNA of Hendrick Motorsports and Hendrick Automotive Group thanks to the longtime efforts of Rick Hendrick. From cancer research to disaster relief efforts, the owner, chairman and CEO leads by example.
Certainly, it starts at the top and never has the trickledown effect been on display more than the past week when teammates throughout the company stepped up to aid victims of Helene.
President and general manager Jeff Andrews, summed up the organization's stance on relief efforts and the contributions of its employees.
“We’re incredibly proud of our aviation team and all of our teammates who have volunteered and donated," he said. "The impact of Hurricane Helene has been truly devastating, and our neighbors in western North Carolina face immense challenges in rebuilding their homes and communities. It’s been inspiring to see the relief initiatives across the NASCAR industry, and we intend to continue supporting these efforts as long as the critical need exists.”
Indeed, the efforts are far from isolated. Charlotte Motor Speedway, North Wilkesboro Speedway, NASCAR and other teams throughout the sport jumped to action and have collaborated to gather and send truckloads of vital supplies, including water, diapers, clothing, and food.
All of these things have brought to the forefront the selfless and caring nature of the NASCAR community.
And yet, more needed to help the thousands of families uprooted and affected by the unthinkable flooding of last weekend.
But Hendrick Motorsports, Hendrick Automotive Group and the NASCAR community will continue to assist for as long as it takes.
***
By Wednesday afternoon, Dave Dudley couldn’t even remember when his first run western North Carolina had occurred.
But he quickly recalled the first time he utilized Hendrick Motorsports resources to help those in need.
Dudley, the organization’s vice president of flight operations, has been with the team around 20 years. His first tour of duty in a humanitarian capacity came in relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina back in 2005.
“I can’t even count how many hurricanes we’ve supported in,” Dudley said. “I think the interesting part here is that it’s amazing how we have these great assets that are purposed for something totally different than what we’re using them for but how quickly we can pivot and turn these things into life-saving assets as opposed to people movers, which is what they do day-to-day. They’re so essential and critical for this type of operation. Especially the helicopters. They have such unique capabilities that fit right into these types of needs.”
Hendrick Motorsports has been running missions since last Saturday, primarily in coordination with Samaritan’s Purse. Using two company helicopters, Dudley and his crew have daily missions, departing Concord, North Carolina for destinations to the west.
Along the way, Hendrick Motorsports helicopters have assisted at fire departments, in neighborhoods, at hospitals and at nursing homes, extracting citizens and providing critical supplies to others. They’ve touched down in communities across western North Carolina including Waynesville, Fairview and Asheville.
And though only a select few teammates are qualified to run such missions, Dudley insists the support felt throughout the organization make all the difference in keeping his staff going as the hours have turned to days.
“Once we get out there it is stressful and you have to be hyper-focused on what you’re doing,” Dudley said. “You absolutely feel that support from this organization and it is a force multiplier and when you get done with the mission and you come home and see these emails and all this interaction with our group where people are being so supportive and elevating us. We know that they’re behind us. This is a team. We don’t care who’s doing the heavy lifting at the time. At the end of the day, it takes all of us.”
Dudley added that trust from the top is also vital in the success of the team’s operation in times of emergency.
“It’s hard to explain the rare culture that exists here. When these things happen, we don’t have a bureaucracy, we don’t have a lot of red tape,” Dudley explained. “The request comes in – a lot of times it might come directly to Mr. Hendrick – he picks up the phone, calls me and says, ‘Dave, do what you’ve got to do.’ And that’s simply the end of the decision-making process. It’s not, ‘Hey, look, let’s try to do this the most efficient way we can. Let’s watch our budget.’ It’s anything but that.
“We do this with the full confidence from Mr. Hendrick that we’re going to operate safely, we’re going to do what we need to do, we’re going to prioritize, we’re going to use our resources in the most effective way and it just strips away all the barriers, hurdles and encumbrances that many other organizations have to deal with.”
And while Dudley has provided assistance from the sky, Brandon Black, Hendrick Motorsports’ transportation coordinator, has helped organize things on the ground.
In addition to providing a truck for internal donations on Wednesday, Black has stayed in contact with Charlotte Motor Speedway, providing resources to that effort. Several Hendrick Motorsports trucks have been present in caravans taking supplies from donation hubs in Charlotte to North Wilkesboro
“I think that’s what NASCAR is as a whole: one, big family and in a crisis like this, we come together as family,” Black said. “Pretty much everyone that works here has offered to help in some way shape or form.”
***
Early on a sun-drenched afternoon, Pam Heaton emerges from the back of a rapidly filling, 28-foot enclosed trailer parked at Hendrick Motorsports. With the heat of the day radiating off of the blacktop, shade became more valuable, but with donations still rolling in, space in the back of the truck was becoming more and more fleeting.
And that was OK with a flushed-faced but smiling Heaton.
“I bet we’ve had several hundred people who have come out. Some are people who aren’t even Hendrick Motorsports or (Hendrick Automotive Group) employees but people who’ve just read about it,” Heaton, a Hendrick Motorsports employ for 20 years, said. “A lot of people sent their spouses to make donations. Drivers and crew chiefs have sent people over … it’s just been uplifting to see what everybody’s doing.”
Heaton, who works with the Hendrick Family Foundation, was tasked with overseeing a collection initiative on campus from 6 a.m. until midafternoon. The supplies were to be sent to Charlotte Motor Speedway on Wednesday evening as part of a joint effort from the speedway, NASCAR and teams around the sport.
Along with colleague Linda Albers, Heaton gathered supplies and stories throughout the day, hearing tales of generosity from around the Charlotte community. Several Hendrick Motorsports employees also stopped by to lend a helping hand in the loading process.
“It is servant leadership and it comes from Mr. Hendrick and what he and his family do and how it comes from the top all the way down,” Heaton said. “That’s the example they’ve shown to everybody and everybody wants to pitch in.
“I think this shows the true color of humanity. People just want to help. It doesn’t matter who you are, who you vote for or what you do, people’s basic thing is they just want to help and be a good person.”
***
Heaton was due to visit the donation event at Charlotte Motor Speedway soon after the truck at Hendrick Motorsports was driven over. Once there, she likely found a number of coworkers among the crowd of volunteers that donned various logos from across the NASCAR industry.
Under normal circumstances, many would consider the other a competitor. On Wednesday, a venture that was so successful it yielded a second day of collection on Thursday, everyone wa son the same team.
One of Hendrick Motorsports' representatives on Wednesday evening was Alba Colon, the director of technical partnerships with whom Hurricane Helene and the resulting apocalyptic destruction has hit all too close to home.
In September 1975, Colon arrived at a local school where her mother was employed. She walked in the clothes she had on, the tennis shoes on her feet and clutching tightly to a doll.
It’s all she had time to grab.
Colon was 7 years old when Tropical Storm Eloise battered her native Puerto Rico, causing widespread flash flooding and leaving thousands homeless and several dead.
Her home in the town of Mayaguez was gone in little more than the blink of an eye, which is about how much time Colon and her family had to flee her house before it was swept away in the rising waters.
This week, as images of the horrifying scenes from the Appalachian Mountains have saddened the country, Colon has been transported back in time. Back to her own brush with Mother Nature’s wrath. Back to that feeling, of having everything taken away in an instant.
“It was not about the house, it was about seeing the water coming,” Colon recalled. “I was 7, my brother was 6 and my sister was 5. You see the water coming and you just don’t understand.
“We couldn’t get the cars out through the front, so you had to go out through the back and the water was just coming so fast. My father had one of us, my mother had one of us but I remember my brother, somebody came to help get him out.”
Colon was working at General Motors in 2017 when disaster struck her homeland again. Hurricane Maria, a massive Category 4 storm, made landfall in Puerto Rico with the death toll reaching 2,975 in the U.S. territory alone, making it the deadliest storm in the island’s history.
And somewhere in all of the aerial footage of the carnage and debris piping into televisions around the world were Colon’s parents, who braved the storm at home. For seven days, Colon went without word, unsure if her family had made it through.
“We just kept calling,” Colon said. “We found people in other towns and said, ‘Hey, can you go and visit?’ And finally, a week later, we were able to hear from one of them and they called to let us know that they were safe.”
That painful wait has been felt by so many this week.
“This one hits home,” she added. “Growing up in Puerto Rico, you don’t think too much about it because hurricanes are expected. So, you get ready. Your houses have been built in cement. You have windows to sustain wind. It just becomes a routine. But to see that here, that’s not a place where anyone would expect that to happen.”
For so many who have volunteered their efforts and time, Hurricane Helene has been personal. Numerous Hendrick Motorsports employees and those outside the company in the area have relatives, friends, even homes in the mountain communities that have been hit hardest.
But for Colon, the videos and pictures are all too similar to the ones that have dwelled in her mind since childhood. It’s understandably difficult for her to hold back tears as she describes that event and the emotions that have been triggered this week.
However, while her tears certainly stem partly from the terror of those memories, they also stream with pride after watching her coworkers and company rush to help those in need since the start.
“What makes us great is the passion for what we’re doing racing because we do whatever it takes and to see the same thing going on when disasters happen … this company doesn’t talk much about it but they’ve helped so many other victims in many other places and I know that for a fact,” Colon said. “Not only that but the employees asking, ‘Hey, what do we need? Let’s go and find these things.’ People asking and asking, ‘What are we going to do to help?’ It’s not fake, it’s real. Yesterday, looking at all of (Hendrick Motorsports employees volunteering at Charlotte Motor Speedway), it’s such a sense of pride for what our company does.”