It's a common saying that "Excellence Is A Moving Target."
It's also an appropriate saying in the world of Rick Hendrick, who has been able to enjoy excellence throughout time in the face of many continually evolving and changing obstacles.
His Hendrick Motorsports racing operation is the best in the business. It has been argued that Hendrick driver Jeff Gordon is the best driver in NASCAR history because of his incredible longevity at the highest level of achievement in spite of seemingly constant rules changes, multiple driver styles and personalities, track and equipment makeovers and the occasional change in crew memberrs.
The Hendrick Automotive Group, an empire of nearly 100 dealerships nationwide, has been able to hold its rank at the top of its industry because of its ability to maintain the status quo in an industry that has been confronted by more change and reconsruction than perhaps any other walk of life over the last 10 years.
Both Hendrick Motorsports and the Hendrick Durham Auto Mall are in the process simultaneously of marking the end of one era and beginning of another. In spite of the uncertainty of the unknown, of the coming of new faces and implementing of new business strategies, you can count on the usual excellence to continue - because that is the Hendrick Way.
That already has been evident this month in Daytona Beach, Fla. - site of Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup season-opening Daytona 500. Gordon will begin his final season of full-time racing in a very familiar position - the pole position.
No matter that he is stepping aside for the newest young gun, Chase Elliott, to take his place in the No. 24 Chevrolet starting next season, Gordon has maintained excellence.
Even at age 43, after 92 career victories and four series championships, with enormous wealth in hand, Gordon enters his final season holding himself to the same standard of excellence that he had when he won his first championship in 1995 - the year Elliott was born.
Even though he may feel it is time to retire and hand the reigns to a 19-year-old hotshot who is set to inspire other future racers the way Gordon has inspired throughout his career, Gordon intends to keep his standard of excellence and work ethic to the very end.
Just as Gordon and Hendrick Motorsports are embracing this time of transition as an opportunity to write another chapter for the record books, so, too, is the Hendrick Durham Auto Mall.
After more than two decades of operatng its business from downtown Durham, the dealership is set to move to a $25-million state-of-the-art facility across the street from the Southpoint mall - one of the busiest and most successful retail malls in the Southeast, situated on the second-busiest intersection of road in the state.
The new Hendrick Southpoint, which will sell and service a complete line of General Motors vehicles out of multiple showrooms and service centers, will represent Hendrick's largest investment in a dealership facility.
You can not only count on the excellence to continue at the Southpoint location, but you can count on it to rise to a new level.
That's the Hendrick Way.
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