Walk into Hendrick Motorsports and you’ll see more than race cars – you’ll see a glimpse of the future of manufacturing.
On a recent visit, I had the opportunity to explore Hendrick’s North Carolina facility – one of the most advanced operations in motorsports – and speak with the team about how they approach quality, performance, and innovation. What’s happening there isn’t just about building faster race cars. It’s about applying the principles of modern manufacturing to environments where failure is not an option and every tenth of a second counts.
Jeff Gordon, the legendary four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and now vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, represents the competitive drive that fuels their culture of innovation. Chad Knaus, with decades of engineering and team leadership experience, now leads the competition side of the business, bringing an aerospace-level discipline to digital workflows, simulation, and integrated inspection. And Roy Crump, who oversees quality control on the shop floor, ensures that every process – no matter how small – is connected, traceable, and driven by data.
Together, their work reflects a tightly integrated approach where design, manufacturing, and inspection are no longer separate phases – they’re part of a continuous, connected ecosystem. It’s not just about speed on the racetrack. It’s about precision, repeatability, and empowering people with the tools and insights to do the job right the first time.
This mindset comes to life in the newly unveiled Hendrick Motorsports Center of Quality Excellence, a 3,000-square-foot advanced quality lab developed in partnership with Hexagon. While there, I spent time with Scott Grumbles, a Hexagon leader embedded on-site, who shared how his team supports Hendrick’s engineers with real-time tools that bring digital precision into every corner of production.
This kind of partnership and digital transformation is becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity for companies looking to stay competitive, regardless of size. It’s about more than adopting new tools; it’s about rethinking how quality, data, and collaboration shape every part we produce and every process we run.
That’s why I’m looking forward to hosting Hexagon LIVE Global 2025, taking place June 16-19 in Las Vegas. The event is built for manufacturing leaders, technologists, and change agents to explore how AI, digital twins, and advanced metrology are being applied in real-world operations – not just to improve efficiency, but to drive smarter, more agile manufacturing.
What’s happening at Hendrick isn’t reserved for race day. It’s a window into how any organization, big or small, can build a connected ecosystem, elevate its people, and compete at a higher level. If you’re focused on building a culture of quality that scales with your ambition, I hope to see you there.
If you have any questions about this information, please contact Travis at tegan@AMTonline.org.
Explore the Hexagon LIVE program and register at hexagonlive.com. Use code MI-AMT-Promo at checkout for AMT members’ exclusive discount.
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