The No. 17 car at Hendrick Motorsports came about when Darrell Waltrip left Junior Johnson's team following the 1986 season to join Hendrick Motorsports with Tide as his sponsor and 17 as his car number. Waltrip won nine races in his first three seasons with Hendrick, including the Daytona 500 in 1989, a race that had eluded him for many years.
