A car dealership selling cars? The horror…
Rick Hendrick not only owns one of the top teams in NASCAR with Hendrick Motorsports, but also Hendrick Automotive Group, the largest privately held car dealership group in the United States with over 100 franchises in 13 states and over $13 billion revenue in 2024.
In fact, Hendrick’s car dealerships even sponsor the #5 car for Kyle Larson, the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series champion.
But now, Hendrick has found themselves under fire from internet trolls for…selling cars.
Of course it’s not just the fact that they sell cars, but who they sold some cars to. According to a report from the Washington Post, Hendrick Motorsports Technical Solutions signed a contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement back in August for the sale of 25 Chevrolet Tahoes, which the contract says will be used to support inspection, investigation, enforcement and removal operations.
The $2.25 million contract with Hendrick Motorsports LLC says that Hendrick was selected because they were the only dealership identified by ICE as having the available inventory needed, and that the contract wasn’t placed up for bid because of the urgency of the agency’s needs:
“Urgency is warranted as these vehicles must be deployed to the streets immediately to provide a visible law enforcement presence, support public safety operations, and reinforce recruitment efforts.”
While the contract was authorized for $2.25 million, Hendrick was ultimately paid around $1.5 million for the vehicles. If you’re bad at math, that comes out to around $60,000 per vehicle. By comparison, Hendrick’s website currently lists the 2026 Chevy Tahoe High Country (the top of the line model) for an MSRP of $93,000, with the cheapest Tahoe (ironically, the 2025 Chevy Tahoe Police, coming in at around $55,000).
It’s not the price that has people fired up though: Predictably, some people are upset that Hendrick sold the vehicles to ICE in the first place.
ICE has recently ramped up their operations in Charlotte (putting those new vehicles to good use), with the Department of Homeland Security announcing the arrests of over 250 illegal immigrants as of this past Monday. North Carolina Governor Josh Stein, a Democrat, has blasted the ICE enforcement operations in the state:
“We’ve seen masked, heavily armed agents in paramilitary garb driving unmarked cars, targeting American citizens based on their skin color, racially profiling, and picking up random people in parking lots and off of our sidewalks.”
Hendrick, meanwhile, is defending the sale, saying in a statement that they’ve sold vehicles to the government for decades:
“Government entities purchase thousands of vehicles each year from a broad network of automotive dealers, and our organization has sold to federal, state, and local agencies for decades. Earlier this year, we sold 25 standard Chevrolet Tahoes to the federal government. The vehicles were unmodified, and we fulfilled the commercial sale. We do not participate in or control how agencies equip, brand, or use vehicles after purchase.”
Just so we’re clear, people are mad about the United States government buying vehicles from an American car dealership, because they don’t agree with what the vehicles are being used for, so they’re going after the dealership.
Pretty much sums up where we’re at. It’s all ridiculous…and I’m a Hendrick Motorsports hater myself on Sundays when the Cup Series is on the track.
