NASCAR Team Owner Hendricks May Face Jail Term For Honda Hassle

12/10/96

As you have read in the TACH news/business stories the past few months, American Honda Motor company is in serious litigation with former top marketing executives who took bribes from dealers to supply them with hit models and franchises. Two Honda biggies, including ex-Sales VP John Billmeyer, face jail terms in New England. Many more second echelon Honda sales people are expected to be indicted and face "career gaps".

Now it's time for the dealers who did the actual paying off to face the music, and the motorsports community was shocked yesterday when an Asheville, N.C. grand Jury found NASCAR team owner, multi-multi millionaire, Rick Hendricks, owner of 60 car dealerships, to be indictable for 13 counts of money laundering, conspiracy, and mail fraud in the very sticky Honda soap opera.

If anyone wondered why Hendricks plucked former GM Vice President and ex-Chevrolet head Jim Perkins out of retirement several months ago and handed him a top, top job with Hendricks Automotive group (4,500 employees), maybe Rick, owner of Terry Labonte's 1996 NASCAR championship stock car team saw the writing on the wall re the Honda debacle and figured he needed someone to run his show while he took a government paid vacation.

Bill Maloney -- The Auto Channel