Inside Hendrick Motorsports’ Redesigned Concord Museum: Cars, Suits, and Surprises

Most team museums treat race cars like furniture: nose out, tail shoved against a display case, half the story hidden. Hendrick Motorsports’ remodeled museum in Concord, North Carolina, fixes that. Cars that once sat flush against artifact cases now have open floor around them, the team says. That’s a big deal, because a stock car keeps its history on its flanks and tail, where tire rubs, decal layers, and body shape reveal its era.

The space officially reopened alongside the team’s fall Fan Fest on October 9. The inventory: 27 cars, 88 trophies, 83 helmets, 21 firesuits, and a revived diecast wall holding more than 460 1:24-scale models.

The Cars Worth a Slow Lap

Start near the entrance with a chassis from Hendrick’s debut 1984 season. That year almost ended the operation before it began. Geoff Bodine’s Martinsville win that spring saved the team, and it became the first of 29 Hendrick victories at that track.

The headliner is Chassis No. 580. Jimmie Johnson drove it at Homestead-Miami in 2010 to clinch his fifth straight Cup title, a run nobody has matched. It was recently restored and is on public display in the museum for the first time.

Kyle Busch fans get a matched pair: the car from his first Cup win in 2005 at the now-closed Auto Club Speedway, and the No. 5 that won at Bristol in 2007. Give that second one extra time. The March 25, 2007, Bristol race was the Car of Tomorrow’s first race, and Busch’s victory was also Chevrolet’s 600th in NASCAR. The boxy Gen 5 car ran only from 2007 through 2012, so a race-winning example from its debut is a piece of rules history: the first win for NASCAR’s boxiest car.

The newest addition is the silver car Jeff Gordon drove this year when he swept two International Race of Champions events in Washington, D.C.

Firesuits Are the Sleeper Exhibit

Race cars get the photos, but the soft goods may teach you more. The collection includes Gordon’s first NASCAR firesuit, from a 1990 Busch Grand National race and signed by him, plus his oldest known Cup suit from his 1993 rookie season. There’s also a Tide suit Darrell Waltrip gave Rick Hendrick, and Busch’s 2006 helmet and suit.

Read the patches. Driver suits are certified under the SFI Foundation’s 3.2A specification, which rates garments by thermal protective performance, essentially how long the wearer has before a second-degree burn. A higher rating means more protection, as manufacturer rating charts show. Look for the certification patches and compare a 1990 suit to a 2006 suit. You’re looking at 16 years of thinking about how many seconds a driver needs to get out of a burning car.

Rotating Cases and Oddball Treasures

To the left of the entrance, four “decades cases” mark anniversaries: 1986, 1996, 2006, and 2016. Look for an original Tim Richmond cowboy hat, the first trophy Las Vegas Motor Speedway ever awarded (to Jack Sprague, for a 1996 Truck Series win), and the goggles Rick Hendrick wore in victory lane at Homestead in 2016 as Johnson clinched his seventh title. The cases will shift to 1987, 1997, 2007, and 2017 next spring. That’s a built-in excuse for a return trip.

A wall-length timeline groups seasons into eras rather than listing individual wins, and six blank slots sit at the end. Archivist Sam Ulrich’s explanation: “And there’s room for the future.” For a team accustomed to winning, that’s a confident use of drywall.

The strangest case hides in the team store: a Jeff Gordon rod and reel, a Gordon wakeboard, and a helmet-shaped grill. None of it is for sale, so put your wallet away. Nearby, a Garage 56 case holds a pit gun and the actual coffee cups from the team’s 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans effort.

The diecast wall rounds things out with an Al Unser Jr. No. 46 Valvoline replica from 1993, two custom Garage 56 models, and windshields signed by Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. A window along the back wall also looks into the team’s new Atrium Health Motorsports Athletic Center, where pit crew members train.

Before You Drive Over

The museum sits at 4400 Papa Joe Hendrick Blvd., about a mile from Charlotte Motor Speedway via I-85’s exit 49. It’s open weekdays only, and the team’s own visitor page lists both an 8 a.m. and a 10 a.m. opening time, with closing at 5 p.m. Call 877-467-4890 before you go. Campus tours aren’t offered, but the lobbies of the 5/9 and 24/48 race shops are open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, with more cars and trophies inside.

Give yourself twice the time you planned. A museum that lets you see the whole car rewards slow, nosy visitors. Which would you see first: No. 580, or Busch’s Car of Tomorrow winner?

Images Via: Hendrick Motorsport Museum

Eve Nowell

Administrator

Eve Nowell writes about cars for Backfire News, and she comes by it honestly—she grew up in a racing family, around engines and pit lanes before she was old enough to drive. That world isn't a beat she picked up; it's just where she's always been. At Backfire News she covers off-roading, classic car culture, motorsports, and the people behind the machines. She writes with the enthusiasm of someone who genuinely loves this stuff, but she's a stickler for getting the details right—the kind of writing that holds up with actual gearheads. She's still early in her career and building her own voice, bringing a fresh take to a world she's known her whole life. Her work runs across racing coverage, truck and off-road culture, collector vehicles, and the wider lifestyle that comes with all of it. When she's not writing, she's usually trackside, out in the garage, or chasing down the next story worth telling.

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