NASCAR Veteran Admits to Tearing Apart Rick Hendrick's Contract After Turning Down Jeff Gordon for Family

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Jeff Gordon’s No. 24 team had won three championships in the late 1990s, and in 1999, his crew chief, Ray Evernham, walked out the door to start his own program, leaving Gordon in desperate need of a new crew chief. However, signing the NASCAR veteran as crew chief didn’t take long, and soon enough, the announcement was underway. However, the deal was shockingly torn apart.

On Kenny Wallace’s YouTube podcast, Tommy Baldwin walked through the entire sequence for the first time in detail. He was at Bill Davis Racing at the time, running the number 22 with Ward Burton. While teams like Roush also wanted Tommy, the Rick Hendrick offer fell into a different category entirely.

“The contract actually was signed. We were going to get ready to announce it in Michigan in the middle of the year,” Baldwin said.

He decided to wait until the last possible moment to tell Bill Davis, to ensure he didn’t create any issues before the job was done. He did make two calls afterwards, and the first one was to his father.

“I said, ‘Man, I just want to let you know this afternoon we’re going to announce that I’m going to be crew chief for Jeff Gordon,’” Baldwin said.

TALLADEGA, AL – OCTOBER 06: Jeff Gordon stands on pit road prior to the running of the NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Cup Series YellaWood 500 on October 06, 2024 at Talladega SuperSpeedway in Talladega, AL. Photo by Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire AUTO: OCT 06 NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 EDITORIAL USE ONLY Icon241006441500

And immediately the line went silent.

“Why are you going there?” his father said. “They’ve already got a dynasty there. It’s already built. You’re building one where you’re at. Why are you leaving?”

After this, Tommy called his son, Tommy III, who started crying. This wasn’t because of the career call that his father had made, but because he didn’t want to leave the Burton family, the one that he had grown up around.

For Baldwin, that was it. He then called Ray Abraham, a childhood friend of his, who had stepped off a plane expecting to announce the deal. What he told him next was a shocker.

“You gotta rip up that contract, man,” Baldwin told him. “I’m not coming.”

So Abraham did what Tommy Baldwin asked of him. What made this decision easier for him was that he already had something significant at Bill Davis. Ward Burton gave him complete control over the number 22. There was no internal politics, no fighting for resources, just complete autonomy. At a sprawling operation like Hendrick, that kind of environment wasn’t guaranteed.

Before the number 24 offer, Baldwin already had a reputation as someone who could take underfunded teams and make them competitive. At Junie Donlevy’s shop, he helped Dick Trickle deliver results that the team hadn’t seen in years. Then, at Bill Davis Racing, he turned Ward Burton into a legitimate championship contender. The winning streak eventually laid the groundwork for what became a Daytona 500-winning program.

That ability to get more out of a car than what its equipment could give was exactly what Gordon was looking for after Evernham left. These factors perhaps made Baldwin the guy who could carry the number 24 team through this change without losing the dominant factor.

What did that one call change across the garage?

After Baldwin decided not to take the opportunity, Robbie Loomis stepped in. He settled things down, and within a year, it started to pay off. Loomis was the one who led Jeff Gordon to his 2001 NASCAR Cup Series championship.

However, that stability didn’t carry far.

NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Jack Link s 500 – Qualifying Apr 26, 2025 Talladega, Alabama, USA Former driver Jeff Gordon talks with the media during Jack Link s 500 qualifying at Talladega Superspeedway. Talladega Talladega Superspeedway Alabama USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xVashaxHuntx 20250426_kdn_hd1_004

When NASCAR moved into the mid-2000s, the Chase format was introduced. This is when the number 24 wasn’t able to keep up with that change and started to lose its edge. There were still big moments, like the 2005 Daytona 500 win, but that consistency was missing.

By the end of the 2005 NASCAR season, after missing the inaugural Chase, Loomis stepped out. After this, Steve Letarte took over and pushed the team in a new direction. His approach was more data- and youth-oriented. This was a shift in how crew chiefs operated. There was an instinct-heavy approach at first, but with Letarte coming into the picture, it became more engineering-heavy.

As for the current state of the team, William Byron is behind the wheel, and Rudy Fugle is calling the shots. The team has rebuilt itself into one of Hendrick’s strongest entries. There have been back-to-back wins in the 2024 and 2025 Daytona 500s, a steady run of races, and consistent championship contention.

On the other hand, looking at what Tommy Baldwin went on to do after rejecting the contract, he eventually joined Ray Evernham in 2003 and worked with Kasey Kahne during some of his early years. After that, he moved on to building something of his own, launching Tommy Baldwin Racing and turning it into a respected underdog that competed with bigger, better-funded organizations.

The story leaves plenty of “what ifs,” but Baldwin ultimately took a call that proved both professionally and personally fulfilling.

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