"We came close to shutting it down": When Rick Hendrick’s future in NASCAR hung between shutting HMS and partnering with Mark Martin

Rick Hendrick's NASCAR Cup Series team came close to shutting it down in 1984. But not joining forces with Mark Martin during the All-Star Racing (now Hendrick Motorsports) might have saved the team's debut.

Martin and Hendrick had a brief partnership between 2009 and 2011. The former joined the team after retiring from full-time in 2006 but came back strong and completed the 2009 season with a second-place finish in the championship. The veteran also won five races and seven poles during that season.

In 2017, Hendrick recalled the time he nearly shut down and mentioned getting together with Martin.

"With All-Star Racing, we came really close to shutting it down. And it was really close to Mark and I getting together in the very beginning. I just didn’t know that much about it. I don’t know how we got crossed up but we came close to getting together early on," Rick Hendrick said (via Forntstretch).

Hendrick launched All-Star Racing in early 1984 with just five full-time employees, a 5,000-square-foot leased workspace, and rented gear. He brought in veteran crew chief Harry Hyde and signed Geoff Bodine to drive the No. 5 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. After a tough start, the team nearly shut down, but Bodine's surprise win at Martinsville Speedway in March 1984 helped with sponsorship and kept the doors open.

Martin, who spent most of his three-decade Cup career with Roush Racing, said hooking up in 1984 could have changed everything. He joked Hendrick might not even be in the sport if that early deal fell through. Martin added they probably wouldn't have won that first Martinsville race, and Hendrick might have walked away from racing.

Martin and Hendrick were inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame together in 2017.

"As good as I've ever seen" - Rick Hendrick on Mark Martin

Rick Hendrick rebranded the team to Hendrick Motorsports in 1985, added Darrell Waltrip, and expanded to a three-car operation. Waltrip's 1989 Daytona 500 win highlighted the team’s rise. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Hendrick signed drivers like Ken Schrader and Ricky Rudd. Hendrick's next leap came with Jeff Gordon. He joined as a rookie in 1993 and gave Hendrick Motorsports its first of 14 driver's Cup titles in 1995.

After collecting nine championships in the series, Hendrick offered Mark Martin a full-time ride in the No. 5 Chevrolet for the 2009 season.

"I've worked with a lot of drivers and been around a lot of drivers. He's [Mark Martin] probably as good as I've ever seen on a chassis, reading the chassis, knowing what he wants, and then knowing how to run the race," Rick Hendrick said in 2011 (via hendrickmotorsports.com).

Hendrick had pursued him for over a year, but Martin turned the offer down twice. He finally agreed to race 2009 full-time and then scale back to 24 races in 2010 and 2011. However, after a successful 2009 season, he completed the following two seasons.