Corvette enthusiast extraordinaire Rick Hendrick has been in the news lately after bidding $3.7 million for the first production 2025 Corvette ZR1 with VIN 001.
But his collection isn’t just about debutante Corvettes (though he does have a total of 20 such VIN 001s).
His love for Chevy’s legendary sports car goes way back to the early years, too.
In fact, he recently led the restoration of the only Corvette ever to qualify, start, and finish a NASCAR race, the 1954 “17X” Corvette that competed from 1961-63 with Bill Whitley behind the wheel for Cup Series events.
Whitley’s time behind the wheel of “17X” came to a dramatic close with a crash and a 19th-place finish in 1963, and no one seemed to know what happened to the historic Corvette in the ensuing decades.
That is until 2016 shortly after Whitley had passed away. Turns out Whitley had kept the car stored away in a garage for 50 years, and now his son Pat was willing to sell it, per his father’s instructions. He made a phone call to Dale Ledbetter, general manager of Hendrick Performance, while he was at a classic car auction in Scottsdale, Arizona to gauge his interest in buying the piece of history.
Negotiations ensued, and Hendrick purchased the car and began an extensive restoration project. The finished product was revealed at Bowman Gray Stadium over the weekend, marking a return to the site where Whitley had driven the car decades earlier.
The race was the first in 54 years at the quarter-mile track in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Check out the full feature of Rick Hendrick’s 17X Corvette at HendrickMotorsports.com.
Source:
Hendrick Motorsports
Related:
[VIDEO] First 2025 Corvette ZR1 Sells for $3.7 Million at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale – UPDATED!
City Chevrolet Named Chevrolet Dealer of the Year for the 13th Time and 7th Consecutive Year
Competitive Spirit Drives Rick Hendrick’s Passion for VIN 001 Corvettes
Subscribe Now:
Hey Everybody – Now that is SUPER-COOL that Mr. Hendrick can get this historic Corvette back to North Carolina. The first and only NASCAR Corvette Racer!
But Please, Please, Please Mr. Hendrick, loan this special Corvette NASCAR Racer to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky for a special 1-lane track display that looks just like these photos from yesterday. I want to see this racing special Corvette up close and probably about another million of Corvette Fanatics around the World will like to see this inside the NCM in Bowling Green. If needed, I can donate AutoCAD Designs for the Bowman Gray Stadium control tower replica scaled down to fit inside the display showcase.
Congratulations to the crew for restoring an important example of the First Corvette Racer!
And they call Bristol a “bullring”…😂
Really happy to see this take place. Thank You Rick for making this happen as well as all that you do for the Corvette Community it is much appreciated!!!
Tux Hadler
Simply Corvettes
Comments are closed.