Hendrick’s Illness Garners Attention of NASCAR

Rick Hendrick, whose cars won the last two NASCAR Winston Cup championships with drivers Jeff Gordon and Terry Labonte, has been living under the shadow of a federal criminal indictment since December, but that has paled with the revelation that Hendrick has a rare form of leukemia.

Hendrick, 47, will miss his first Daytona 500 in 13 years Sunday. He will be at home

in Lake Norman, N.C., undergoing chemotherapy. Soon, he is expected to need a bone marrow transplant.

According to the National Marrow Donor Program, there is a critical shortage of donors, whose bone marrow tissue must match that of the victim. To date, none has been found to match Hendrick’s.

Toward that end, NASCAR launched a program Thursday to recruit bone marrow donors for leukemia patients.

“Rick has made helping other people a way of life,” said Joe Gibbs, a fellow Winston Cup team owner. “Now Rick needs our support. He is looking for a way to turn the negatives about his illness into a positive and help others with the disease.”

Bill France, NASCAR president, pledged his organization’s support for the program, which is more about recruiting potential donors than about raising money. The chance of a sibling having an identical tissue type is one in four, but no one in Hendrick’s family matches. The odds of matching unrelated donors range from one in 100 to one in a million.

To become a donor, an individual is given a blood test and the information on that person’s blood type is put in a computerized national data bank of potential marrow donors.

Ray Evernham, who manages Hendrick’s racing team, said that their three cars, driven by Gordon, Labonte and Ricky Craven, will carry bumper stickers with the phone number for potential donors: (800) MARROW2.

Hendrick, who made his fortune building an empire of car dealerships, was named last December in a 15-count federal indictment that accuses him of bribing American Honda executives. He entered not guilty pleas to 12 counts of money laundering and one count each of mail fraud and conspiracy.

If convicted of all counts, Hendrick could face a maximum sentence of 210 years in prison and more than $5 million in fines.

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The International Race of Champions, a made-for-TV event matching 12 champion drivers in identically prepared cars, will start its 21st season today with a 100-mile sprint at Daytona International Raceway.

All will drive Pontiac Firebird Trans Ams in this first of four races. The third race will be at the new California Speedway in Fontana on June 21.

Winston Cup driver Mark Martin is defending champion. He will be joined by five other NASCAR veterans, Labonte, Gordon, Dale Jarrett, Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip. CART will be represented by Jimmy Vasser, Al Unser Jr. and Alex Zanardi, who will start on the pole.

Others are Tom Kendall, Trans Am champion; Randy LaJoie from the Busch Grand National series; and Robby Gordon, winner of SCORE’s off-road Trophy Truck series.

SUPERCROSS

Is Jeremy McGrath, who couldn’t lose last year on a Honda, about to break through and win his first race on a Yamaha? After a dismal start in the Coliseum season opener, McGrath rebounded with two second-place finishes behind Jeff Emig and Doug Henry. The next race, No. 5 on the schedule, is Saturday night at Indianapolis’ RCA Dome.

WORLD OF OUTLAWS

For most of the 20 years the World of Outlaws have been touring the country with their winged sprint cars, the Kinsers--drivers Steve and Mark and car owner Karl--have been dominant. Steve won 14 championships and cousin Mark won last year, all in cars owned and crewed by Karl, Mark’s father.

This year it appears to be the Swindells’ turn. Brothers Sammy and Jeff have won the season’s first two events, Sammy at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix and Jeff in Las Vegas. Jeff Swindell leads in points with 365, followed by Jac Haudenschild with 359, and Mark Kinser with 355.

This weekend, the Kinsers and the Swindells will go at it again, along with the rest of the Outlaws’ traveling cast, at Perris Auto Speedway.

The $75,000 two-day show will start today at 5 p.m. to accommodate a TNN Motor Madness telecast. They will return to the half-mile dirt oval Saturday night at 7.