ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 29, 1997 TAG: 9701290035
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
THE WINSTON CUP team owner started chemotherapy Tuesday for a form of bone-marrow cancer.
Four thousand, five hundred people receive paychecks from car dealer and NASCAR Winston Cup team owner Rick Hendrick.
On Monday, each one received a letter from the boss.
``I want to share a deeply personal matter with you because I regard all of you as family,'' Hendrick wrote.
It wasn't about the federal indictment. No, this didn't have anything to do with his fight for his freedom. This was about a fight for his life.
``I have been diagnosed with a rare but treatable form of leukemia,'' Hendrick wrote. ``This disease was detected in its early stages.''
Hendrick, 47, started chemotherapy Tuesday. He will receive six months of treatment with alpha interferon for chronic myelogenous leukemia, a form of bone-marrow cancer.
``My doctors believe that the treatment has a good chance of forcing the disease into remission,'' Hendrick wrote. ``There will likely be side effects for some period of time.''
As Hendrick's letter reached employees all over the United States on Monday, his attorneys filed a motion in U.S. District Court in North Carolina asking that his federal bribery trial be moved from Asheville, N.C., to Charlotte, N.C., where he lives.
In light of Hendrick's condition, his chemotherapy treatment program and its possible flu-like side effects, ``it is my professional opinion that it would be medically unacceptable for Mr. Hendrick to spend any significant period of time away from Charlotte,'' cancer specialist Dr. Steven A. Limentani wrote in an affidavit supporting the motion. There was no immediate judicial ruling.
Although Hendrick will start with chemotherapy, a bone-marrow transplant most likely will be his only hope for a cure, doctors said.
``This is a disease that is fairly treatable in its early stages,'' said Dr. Bayard Powell, director of the leukemia service at N.C. Baptist Hospital's Bowman-Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem. ``But its natural history is that it progresses toward acute leukemia and gets more difficult to control.''
On average, this takes four to six years, he said. ``In the chronic phase, the treatment of choice would include a bone-marrow transplant, since that gives him his best chance of long-term survival and cure,'' Powell said. At Hendrick's age, the chance of a cure ``could vary from 30 to 60 percent,'' he said.
Hendrick learned he had cancer Nov.18 - two weeks before indictment on charges related to the American Honda corruption scandal.
But he kept his illness a secret, even while making public appearances in connection with his race team. On Jan. 10, he joined his team at the Hendrick Motorsports complex for the Charlotte Motor Speedway NASCAR media tour.
He looked drawn and tired and he had bags under his eyes, but his demeanor was upbeat and he was as articulate as ever as he talked about the upcoming NASCAR Winston Cup season. He also spoke about the indictment.
``It has been a distraction,'' Hendrick said. ``I wish it hadn't happened and the timing of it didn't help, but I'm ready to get it behind us and get on with it.''
At the time, writers assumed his comment about the timing referred to the fact the indictment occurred on the eve of the triumphant New York banquet to celebrate the Winston Cup championship won by one of his drivers, Terry Labonte.
Hendrick already has a working knowledge of leukemia. In 1993, soon after Ray Evernham joined Hendrick Motorsports as Jeff Gordon's crew chief, Evernham's son, Ray Jr., was diagnosed with leukemia.
``It's extremely unfortunate and difficult to understand why Rick has had this kind of misfortune,'' said Hendrick driver Ricky Craven. ``I'll give him every ounce of my support and in any way I can, like he has always done for me.''
Hendrick, who owns three NASCAR Winston Cup teams, won his first championship in 1995 with Gordon and added a second this year with Labonte.
His empire includes 66 automobile dealerships with $2.2 billion in annual sales, including a number of Honda dealerships.
On Dec. 20, he pleaded innocent to a 15-count federal indictment on charges of money laundering, mail fraud and conspiracy for allegedly paying off Honda executives so he could buy dealerships and have a steady flow of Honda automobiles, which were in short supply in the 1980s. Hendrick was released on $1 million unsecured bond. No trial date has been set.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. NASCAR Winston Cup team owner Rick Hendrick (right)by CNBleaves U.S. District Court in Asheville, N.C., on Dec.20 accompanied
by his brother, John. color. KEYWORDS: AUTO RACING