Accident | |
---|---|
Date | October 24, 2004 |
Summary | Controlled flight into terrain in inclement weather [1] |
Site | Stuart, Virginia, USA |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Beechcraft Super King Air 200 |
Operator | Hendrick Motorsports |
Registration | N501RH |
Flight origin | Concord Regional Airport Concord, North Carolina |
Destination | Blue Ridge Airport Martinsville, Virginia |
Passengers | 8 |
Crew | 2 |
Fatalities | 10 |
Survivors | 0 |
On October 24, 2004, a Beechcraft Super King Air 200 aircraft, registered N501RH [2] and owned by NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports, crashed into mountainous terrain in Stuart, Virginia, during a missed approach to Blue Ridge Airport in Martinsville, Virginia. The aircraft was transporting eight passengers and two flight crew to Martinsville so they could attend the NASCAR event at Martinsville Speedway that afternoon.
All ten people on board were killed; among them, members of the Hendrick family including John Hendrick, president of Hendrick Motorsports, his twin daughters, and Ricky Hendrick, former Busch Series driver and heir to the Hendrick empire. [3] [4] Hendrick Motorsports staff involved includes Kimberly and Jennifer Hendrick, General Manager Jeff Turner, and chief engine builder Randy Dorton. The pilots were Richard Tracy and Elizabeth Morrison. Other passengers include Joe Jackson, an executive at DuPont and Scott Lathram, Tony Stewart's pilot.
This section needs additional citations for verification .(April 2024) |
The King Air took off from Concord, North Carolina, at 12 pm EST, carrying eight passengers and two flight crew. Among them were several key Hendrick Motorsports staff, including team president John Hendrick and his twin daughters, Kimberly and Jennifer Hendrick; Ricky Hendrick, son of Rick Hendrick; general manager Jeff Turner; and chief engine builder Randy Dorton. The other people on board were Joe Jackson, a DuPont executive; Scott Lathram, a pilot for driver Tony Stewart; and pilots Richard Tracy and Elizabeth Morrison, who was scheduled to come to her brother's (Rick Morrison) birthday party that night after the race. The plane was reported missing at 3:00 pm. Eventually 9-1-1 was called, and fire trucks and police cars patrolled the Virginia area during the race itself. Around midway through the race, a Civil Air Patrol search team patrolling the nearby Bull Mountain's peak found airplane wreckage on the summit. When removing the wreckage from the summit, response teams found the bodies of the Hendrick group at 11:05 pm. Everyone on board had been killed. A search by firefighters also discovered a scar on the mountain of moved dirt; the discovery proved that the airplane crashed on the side of the mountain and the explosion blew the wreckage and group upward.
NASCAR received word of the plane crash halfway through the race at Martinsville. Jimmie Johnson, a Hendrick driver, won the race. Due to the circumstances, the usual victory lane celebration did not take place. Upon the conclusion of the race, NASCAR called all Hendrick personnel to its mobile operations trailer where details of the accident were disclosed to the team. [5]
An investigation conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) followed soon after the crash.
There were foggy conditions at the time of the plane crash. [6]
The NTSB suggested that pilot error was the cause of the crash, partly by:
The NTSB concluded its investigation by suggesting that the pilots failed to execute an instrument approach procedure and that both failed to use all navigational aids to confirm the airplane's position during its approach. [9]
On February 18, 2005, Marshall Carlson, Rick Hendrick's son-in-law, signed on as new general manager. [10]
The week following the crash, officials at the Atlanta Motor Speedway held a moment of silence before both the Busch and Nextel Cup races and lowered the flags to half staff. All the Hendrick Motorsports cars, as well as the No. 0 driven by Ward Burton of Hendrick-affiliated Haas CNC Racing, carried tributes on the hoods for those who were lost the week before. Jimmie Johnson (who won the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 race) and the rest of his teammates and crew wore their caps backwards in victory lane as a tribute to Ricky Hendrick, who had a habit of doing the same. [11] Teams who win in Hendrick Motorsports cars continue the tradition to honor Ricky after every race win. At the Hendrick museum in Concord, North Carolina, 300 people showed up for a candlelight vigil in honor of the ten victims. [12]
The Randy Dorton Trophy now goes to the winner of the Mahle Engine Builders Challenge. [13] [14]
Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr. is an American stock car racing driver, team owner and broadcaster. A third generation driver, he is the son of the late 7-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt and relative to many former and current drivers in the NASCAR ranks. Since retiring from full-time competition after the 2017 season, he has competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro for his JR Motorsports team.
Richard Lee Rudd, nicknamed "the Rooster", is an American former racing driver and racing team owner. He is the uncle of actor Skeet Ulrich and former NASCAR Busch Series driver Jason Rudd. He retired in 2007 with 23 career wins; twenty were done in a span from 1983 to 1998, where he won at least one race in sixteen consecutive seasons, a mark only surpassed by three other drivers. He was named the 2006 Virginian of the Year and was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. In October 2010, he was selected to the Hampton Roads Sports Hall of Fame, which honors those who have contributed to sports in southeastern Virginia.
Joseph Riddick "Rick" Hendrick III is an American businessman. He is best known as the owner of the NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports. He is also a co-owner of JR Motorsports and founder of the Hendrick Automotive Group, a network of over 100 car dealerships.
Joseph Riddick "Ricky" Hendrick IV was an American stock car racing driver and partial owner at Hendrick Motorsports, a NASCAR team that his father Rick Hendrick founded. He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on April 2, 1980, and began his career in racing at the age of fifteen. He competed in both the Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series before his death from an airplane accident on October 24, 2004. He was killed with seven other family members and friends during the accident.
Jimmie Kenneth Johnson is an American professional auto racing driver. He competes part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 84 Toyota Camry XSE for his team, Legacy Motor Club. Johnson's seven Cup championships, the first five of which are consecutive, are tied with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most all-time. From 2021 to 2022, Johnson competed in the IndyCar Series for Chip Ganassi Racing, and has competed occasionally in sports car racing throughout his career.
Randall Alexander Dorton was the Director of Engine Operations and lead engine builder for Hendrick Motorsports. With Dorton, the team won nine NASCAR championships.
Hendrick Motorsports is an American professional auto racing organization that competes in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team was founded in 1984 as All-Star Racing by Rick Hendrick. Hendrick Motorsports has won a NASCAR-record 310 Cup Series races and 14 Cup Series owners and drivers championships to go with three Truck Series owners and drivers titles and one Xfinity Series drivers crown. Additionally, the team has 28 Xfinity Series race wins, 26 Truck Series race wins, and seven ARCA Menards Series race wins.
Richard Allen Craven is an American stock car racing analyst and former driver. Prior to his broadcasting duties, he was a NASCAR driver who won in four different series—the ARCA Menards Series, and the three national series.
Chad Anthony Knaus is an American former NASCAR crew chief. He is currently employed at Hendrick Motorsports as the Vice President of Competition. Knaus has 81 victories as Jimmie Johnson's crew chief and is the only NASCAR crew chief to win five consecutive championships. He has worked in NASCAR since 1991. Over this time, he has worked for four teams: Dale Earnhardt Incorporated, Melling Racing, Tyler Jet Motorsports and Hendrick Motorsports. He has been a crew chief in NASCAR for 19 years and is considered to be one of the greatest NASCAR crew chiefs of all-time. He was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame on January 19, 2024.
The 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series was the 56th season of professional stock car racing in the United States and the 33rd modern-era Cup series season. The season began on Saturday, February 7, and ended on Sunday, November 21. Kurt Busch, who drove a Ford for Roush Racing, was the Nextel Cup champion. It would be the last time until 2012 that the championship would be won by someone other than Tony Stewart or Jimmie Johnson.
Steven Letarte is an American professional NASCAR crew chief and sportscaster who works for NBC Sports as a color commentator on their telecasts for NASCAR. He also works as a consultant for Spire Motorsports, a NASCAR Cup and Truck Series team. He was previously a crew member and crew chief for Hendrick Motorsports from 1995 to 2014, retiring after 20 years with the team. From September 2005 to 2010, he was the crew chief for Jeff Gordon's No. 24 car and from 2011 to 2014, he was the crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 88 car.
Joey Arrington is an American former NASCAR driver, team owner, and crew chief from Rocky Mount, Virginia. He made nine Winston Cup Series starts with a best finish of 12th. He made his first start in 1974 as a 17-year-old and raced until 1980.
The 2008 Tums QuikPak 500 was the thirty-second stock car race of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season and started off the second half of the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup. The 500-lap, 263-mile (423 km) event, the only race on the Chase that was held on a short track, was held on October 19 at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia. ABC carried the race beginning at 1 pm US EDT and MRN along with Sirius Satellite Radio had radio coverage starting at 12:45 pm US EDT.
The 2005 Advance Auto Parts 500 was a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series stock car race held on April 10, 2005 at Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia. The race was the sixth of the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season. The pole position was won by Scott Riggs of MB2 Motorsports, his first career pole, while Tony Stewart of Joe Gibbs Racing led the most laps with 247. Hendrick Motorsports' Jeff Gordon won the race. Sergeant Sean McGuire gave the starting command from Iraq.
The 2004 Subway 500 was a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series stock car race held on October 24, 2004 at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia. Contested over 500 laps, the race was the 32nd of the 36-race 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season, and the sixth race in the 2004 Chase for the Nextel Cup.
The 2004 Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 was a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series stock car race held on October 31, 2004 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. Contested over 325 laps, the race was the 33rd of the 36-race 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season. Ryan Newman of Penske-Jasper Racing won the pole, while Jimmie Johnson of Hendrick Motorsports won the race. Roush Racing teammates Mark Martin and Carl Edwards finished second and third, respectively. This was also 2017 Cup Series Champion Martin Truex Jr.'s First Cup Series Start
The 1971 Colorado Aviation Aero Commander 680 crash claimed the life of decorated American World War II veteran Audie Murphy and five other people on May 28, 1971. The aircraft's passengers were on a business trip from Atlanta, Georgia, to Martinsville, Virginia, aboard an Aero Commander 680 Super twin-engined aircraft owned and operated by Colorado Aviation Co, Inc. The aircraft crashed into the side of Brush Mountain, 14 nautical miles northwest of Roanoke, Virginia, during conditions of poor visibility.
The 2016 Goody's Fast Relief 500 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race that was held on October 30, 2016, at Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia. Contested over 500 laps on the .526 mile (.847 km) short track, it was the 33rd race of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, seventh race of the Chase and first race of the Round of 8.
Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) is an American professional auto racing organization that competes in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team was founded in 1984 as All Star Racing by Rick Hendrick. Hendrick Motorsports has won a NASCAR-record 310 Cup Series races and 14 Cup Series owners and drivers championships to go with three Truck Series owners and drivers titles and one Xfinity Series drivers crown. Additionally, the team has 28 Xfinity Series race wins, 26 Truck Series race wins, and 7 ARCA Menards Series wins. This page documents the statistical results of Hendrick Motorsports in the NASCAR Cup Series beginning with the team's debut in 1984.
The 2003 Subway 500 was the 32nd stock car race of the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 55th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, October 19, 2003, before a crowd of 88,000 in Martinsville, Virginia at Martinsville Speedway, a 0.526 miles (0.847 km) permanent oval-shaped short track. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete. At race's end, Jeff Gordon, driving for Hendrick Motorsports, would dominate most of the race weekend to win his 63rd career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second of the season. To fill out the podium, Jimmie Johnson, driving for Hendrick Motorsports, and Tony Stewart, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, would finish second and third, respectively.