GOING IT ALONE; Are multi-car teams still the answer?(Motorsports)

Byline: AL PEARCE

Rick Hendrick professes to no special powers, no unworldly foresight and no shimmering aura. Maybe not, but he looked like a visionary when he expanded his NASCAR team from one full-schedule car to two cars in 1986. Today, multi-car teams are commonplace; 17 years ago, though, what Hendrick proposed seemed a shortcut to disaster.

``Everybody said I was crazy, but what could I do?'' Hendrick says, grinning at the memory. ``My driver was doing a good job, but he wasn't getting along with the crew chief. I had a sponsor asking to join my organization. And I had another driver wanting to drive for me, somebody [whom] I'd talked to before hiring the other one.''

FYI: Geoffrey Bodine was the driver scrapping with Harry Hyde; Folgers coffee was the sponsor angling to join Hendrick Motorsports; and Tim Richmond was the driver Hendrick had courted before hiring Bodine.

``Yeah, it worked out with two teams,'' Hendrick says, ``but not at first. People thought I was an idiot for adding Tim to the organization. It took time while we changed the culture by having teammates working together and racing each other. We learned it could done, but only if you have the right people in the right places. Now, with this year's body change, teammates are more important than ever. Back then, though, it wasn't the thing to do.''

Today, 12 organizations own and field 33 of the 43 cars at most NASCAR races. The 10 leftover ``singles'' know they'll probably get hammered, but they dutifully show up every weekend and do what they can. It's ironic that they're invited onto the big stage 36 times a year, but seldom are noticed unless they cause trouble.

Mark Wallace, who owns and competes with a single car with Mark Harrah and Doug Bawel, says their team's focus is sharper than most multi-car teams.