Rick Hendrick wealthy?

I was sitting there channel surfing last night and came across the "Discovering America" channel on a show about "Super Yachts" so I stuck around to see all the things that were better than my 14' skiff.

Well here comes Mr Hendricks yacht named "Wheels". She comes in at 164 feet with every component built with total redundancy, yup two of everything. twin 2200 hp main engines which I think I'm correct in saying that they were $400,000 each. Her stern hides a power launch and a couple of wave riders with a crane to lift and lower them over the stern. I think I'm correct in that she carries 16,000 gallons of fuel. Her cost, $28,750,000.

Going back to the redundancy thing, as "Wheels" makes her travels she is joined by a 90' yacht (may be off a few feet there) named "Real Wheels". Where one goes so does the other. Redundancy is the name of the game for Mr H. I think I heard right when they said that the annual cost of "Real Wheels" is over $7,000,000, but that could have been for both. In either case you just don't put them on a trailer and go home. Both are based in Florida. Of course I might mention his own planes to get him to his yachts.

We know of Mr H's car dealerships, his race teams, his sojourns to the classic car auctions and his collection of cars, so we are pretty well aware that he has a bit of wealth to stand on. But, these yachts kind of move him to a different class of wealth in my mind.

Then too, you might have to ask yourself just how much of all that wealth he'd trade to have back those lost in that horrific plane crash. I think I'd have to say that he has paid dearly for all that he has today.

Twin bank vaults on each, I presume?

Mr. Gruner, very well spoken. Rick has paid dearly for all he has. I have no way to equate figures such as you mention, but then I really don't need to. Thanks for sharing this.

Woody.... I never ran with the yacht set. Dale's yacht days were well after me, lol. I do recall that Bill, Jr. used to like to have Dale as a guest aboard his yacht.

The one who most often talked about yachts was Felix Sabates. I do remember one time in the 90s going to eat at some fancy/dancy place near Daytona that everybody loved and I hated. Felix had a yacht moored almost beside that restaurant.

Back in '84 when I was working the IMSA Grand Prix of Miami, Tim Richmond took a couple of us aboard a cigarette boat he'd docked in front of a Miami restaurant.

My boat speed was more like going out of Reedville, Va. or Saluda fishing.

A most interesting article.

Here's a link to another one:

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_nascar/2008/02/boogity-boog...

Aha, it was the Chart House Restaurant, as mentioned in the article above that failed to impress me.

How about the ones that dont flaunt their wares before or after the races

Pilot error/judgement brings down a lot of 'um

My dad was a private pilot, and was fatally injured when his plane crashed as he was flying home from the 1976 American 500 at Rockingham...similar to the Hendrick crash. Been there, and done that. Not too good. What I remember about the Hendrick incident was it was an IFR flight (weather) and the pilot chose to land at Martinsville, which was not an IFR controlled airport. Switching over to VFR, they were physically looking for the airport, at low altitude, through the clouds/fog, and crashed into Bull mountain. Had the flight remained instrument controlled, that would have never happened, but as you point out, they would have had to drive from Danville etc. Pilots tend to gain an extra dose of confidence, good, but sometimes a double-edged sword.