SHOCKING NASCAR REVELATION: The Deal That Never Happened Between Dale Earnhardt and Rick Hendrick

Forty-two years ago, something almost happened that could have completely rewritten the history of NASCAR—and few have ever dared to talk about it. In May of 1983, a young and ferocious Dale Earnhardt climbed behind the wheel of a car co-owned by a relatively unknown name in stock car racing: Rick Hendrick. The car was fast. It was aggressive. It was everything Earnhardt was. And it won.

That car—though not officially bearing the Hendrick Motorsports name at the time—delivered Hendrick his very first win as an owner. But what if it had gone further? What if that moment had turned into a partnership that lasted for decades? Because it almost did.

According to recently resurfaced accounts from former crew members and internal notes, Dale Earnhardt didn’t just race for Hendrick once. He also tested what would eventually become the famed No. 5 car—months before Hendrick Motorsports officially debuted in 1984. This fact, long buried under layers of PR silence, has begun to reemerge thanks to a viral clip from the new Prime Video documentary on Earnhardt.

And that has raised the question: Why didn’t Hendrick Motorsports choose Earnhardt as its founding driver?

“He was too fast, too fearless, and too impossible to manage,” one former mechanic, requesting anonymity, told a niche racing podcast last week. “There were whispers that NASCAR officials didn’t want that much power concentrated in one team. Hendrick was new, and Earnhardt was already a storm. Together, they would’ve shattered the field.”

The theory isn’t without merit. In 1984, Hendrick instead signed Geoff Bodine, a safer and more calculated choice. Bodine delivered the team’s first official win—but the ghost of what could’ve been has haunted the sport ever since.

Some fans believe there was pressure from behind the scenes—corporate sponsors, league politics, and perhaps even rivals—who didn’t want to see Earnhardt dominate under a new, untested banner. Others say Earnhardt himself turned the deal down, refusing to be tied down by what he perceived as a startup.

But the timing was eerie. The victory in 1983. The testing of the No. 5. The silence that followed. It’s a chapter that’s barely covered in the Hendrick or Earnhardt biographies, and entirely missing from official NASCAR archives.

And it begs the ultimate question: Did NASCAR miss the greatest pairing of all time?

Fans now speculate endlessly. Some claim that if Hendrick had secured Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon may never have emerged as the face of the franchise. Others think the rivalry between Dale Sr. and emerging teams like Roush Racing wouldn’t have existed at all. It would’ve been a monopoly.

Now, as Prime Video’s documentary breathes new life into Earnhardt’s legend, conspiracy theories are surging. Reddit forums are flooded with screenshots of old footage showing Earnhardt in an early Hendrick garage. Former insiders are slowly starting to open up, suggesting there’s more to the story than the polished PR lines we’ve been fed for decades.

Was it just a missed opportunity—or was it a calculated redirection of racing history?

Whatever the truth is, one thing is clear: That one race in 1983 was more than just a win. It was the race that could’ve changed everything.

And the silence since then? Maybe that’s the loudest part of the story.