_{*Quick Summary: The author, thankful for his coworkers, reflects on changes in his business and the challenges overcome in the previous year.*}

It has taken a while to write a bit about what the last year and a half of our lives have held. Since the end of 2004, with both Papa Joe Hendrick’s death and the plane crash, we’ve been as busy as ever in the Hendrick Motorsports Showcar Department. While that has been good in one respect, as it has provided a distraction from Papa Joe’s passing and the plane crash, I fear we haven’t yet stopped to grieve. In fact, I know I haven’t.

My department may occasionally feel like a ship without a Captain, but as Manager, I’m not trying to fill anyone’s shoes. My goal, as promised to Papa Joe, is to keep everything floating along, and keep everyone on board. Thankfully, they just happen to be the best in the universe at their jobs, and incredible people to boot. I am so proud to be a part of this group of people!

I haven’t done this before, but I thought I’d post this as a tribute to the guys and gals in my department. What you see here is just a small portion of the special cars, simulators, and paint schemes we did in 2005. This isn’t including the standard paint schemes, duplicates, several one-off schemes, the next year’s new schemes, various pieces and parts for the Marketing Department, or any of that. Keep in mind, for every car, one of my employees and/or myself is engaged from design to completion. Every step of the way, someone from my department has their hands on these things, and then they go all over North America for the world to see.

This is just a sample of the cars we built last year: