“Geoff and Harry just weren’t seeing eye to eye on anything, so I called them into a meeting,” Hendrick recalled. “After my long talk about working together, Geoff agreed he would do all he could to get along. Harry stood up and said, ‘Geoff, you’re a prick and a prima donna but I love Rick more than I hate you.’
“I’m like, ‘Wait, that’s not what we’re trying to do here.’ I felt like what I was trying to say didn’t go very far.”
Hendrick paired Hyde with rising star Tim Richmond in 1986. Initially, Richmond and Hyde were like oil and water. No one could figure out Hendrick’s thinking, but it proved to be a brilliant move.
“I had built this reputation of raising up young’uns, and I hated that damn thing,” Hyde explained in the “20 Years of Hendrick Motorsports” book that was published in 2004. “I hated it because it seemed like everybody wanted me to raise their young’uns, and I wanted an experienced driver. I wanted a David Pearson or I wanted a Richard Petty. I wanted someone who already knew how to drive.
“I really didn’t warm up to it (having Richmond as his driver). In fact, in April (1986), I hated every minute of it because Tim was so defiant. He wouldn’t stop long enough to listen to anybody. He was his own man and he was going to do it his way and the car had to do it his way.
“I was trying to drill into him that we were no good unless we thought ‘500 miles.’ You think 500 miles on tires, pit stops, brakes, gas mileage, gearboxes, saving equipment, engine,” Hyde said. “He wanted to run any way he wanted to just about as long as the car lasted.”
The turning point in the relationship came when Hyde took Richmond to North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway and, in order to prove his point, let Richmond run 50 laps the way he wanted and then 50 laps the way Hyde wanted. Hyde’s tires were smooth. Richmond’s tires were badly blistered. Richmond began doing things Hyde’s way.
Their first victory came in their 13th race together at Pennsylvania’s Pocono Raceway on June 8, 1986. Six more victories soon followed.
Hyde, nicknamed “Pop” by Richmond, had grown close with his young driver and the two were like father and son. By season’s end, they were looking forward to 1987. The potential for winning races and a championship reminded Hyde of the years he enjoyed with Isaac.
However, when the new season dawned, Richmond was battling pneumonia and rumors persisted that something far more serious was causing the symptoms. Benny Parsons was hired to wheel the team’s No. 35 Chevrolet, and he promptly won one of the 125-mile qualifying races at Daytona Int’l Speedway.
Richmond returned to the No. 25 car in mid-June and won consecutive races at Pocono and Riverside with Dennis Connor as his crew chief. With his health continuing to decline, the flamboyant racer from Ashland, Ohio, made his final Cup Series start at Michigan Int’l Speedway on Aug. 16, 1987.
Hyde left Hendrick Motorsports following the 1988 season and worked at Stavola Brothers Racing before taking his toolbox to Chad Little’s family-run team and finally to Larry Hedrick’s operation in 1992.
Buddy Parrott, a crew member under Hyde with Isaac and a legendary crew chief in his own right, remembers Hyde as a legend among NASCAR crew chiefs.
“Harry didn’t demand respect but we sure gave it to him,” Parrott said. “But he also had a lot of compassion. The crew chief back in those days hired and fired people, kept the books and drove the truck in some cases. They did it all. He was incredibly smart in a world before engineers came into play.
“He was doing things to race cars to make them fast that no one else was thinking of, things that people didn’t do until years later. Harry worked hard to build great race teams and worked well to work with and shape talented young drivers. He was one of the best.”
Harry Hyde died on May 13, 1996, in his hometown of Brownsville, Ky. He was 71.
This story appeared in the Dec 27, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
