*NASCAR mourns Hendrick Motorsports tragedy*
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MARTINSVILLE, Virginia (Ticker) - NASCAR is in mourning, one 
day after a plane crash claimed the lives of several members of
the Hendrick Motorsports family.

On Sunday, a Hendrick Motorsports twin-engine Beech 200 King Air
plane carrying 10 people, including four members of team owner
Rick Hendrick's immediate family, crashed into a nearby
mountain, killing everyone on board.

"This is obviously a tragedy for the Hendrick family as well as
the NASCAR family," veteran Nextel Cup driver Michael Waltrip
said Monday.

It was the worst team tragedy in NASCAR history and worst
aviation incident in stock car racing since two separate crashes
in 1993 took the lives of Winston Cup champion Alan Kulwicki
and veteran Davey Allison, one of the most popular drivers in
the sport.

"We are all family in this garage," said Greg Sacks,
owner-driver for Daytona Speed, Inc.  "You spend so much time
together and so many people end up working together and some
point or another, you just get to be that way. A single loss is
incredibly hard but to lose 10 friends like this is just
devastating."

A total of 10 people were confirmed dead, including Ricky
Hendrick, 24, son of Hendrick Motorsports CEO Rick Hendrick and
a current Busch series team owner; John Hendrick, 53, brother of
Rick Hendrick and president of the company; and John's twin
daughters, Jennifer and Kimberly.

The crash also killed Hendrick chief engine builder Randy
Dorton, who appeared with Rick Hendrick on a TV advertisement
for Quaker State Motor Oil; Hendrick Motorsports general manager
Jeff Turner; team engineer Scott Latham; and company pilots
Dick Tracey and Liz Morrison.

The 10th victim was DuPont executive Joe Jackson.  DuPont
sponsors Jeff Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports car.

"I think everybody in the sport is in shock right now," said
John Andretti, a driver for ppc racing and nephew of legendary
driver Mario Andretti. "We lost a lot of talented people but we
also lost a lot of really good people. This obviously affects
Hendrick Motorsports but it affects all of us in motorsports
when good people with great talents are taken away from you."

According to the Charlotte Observer, the plane had left the
Concord Regional Airport north of Charlotte, North Carolina and
was headed to the Martinsville airport for the Subway 500, which
began a few minutes after 1 p.m.

In 20 years of competition, Hendrick Motorsports had won five
Winston Cup (now Nextel Cup) championships, three Craftsman
Truck series titles and one Busch series crown.

"The Hendrick team has been instrumental in the growth and
success of the sport and we are all saddened by this tragic
incident," Daytona International Speedway president Robin Braig
said in a statement.

On Sunday, Hendrick driver Jimmie Johnson gave the organization
its 128th Cup win, taking the lead with 60 laps to go in the
Subway 500 and holding off several challenges in the final laps.

Teammate Jeff Gordon climbed into second in the Nextel Cup
"Chase for the Championship" after finishing ninth.  Veteran
Terry Labonte, who also drives one of the Hendrick stable's
Chevrolets, led 30 laps before slipping to 25th.

Over the years, NASCAR has lost several drivers and team members
in aviation accidents.

NASCAR legend Curtis Turner was killed in a plane crash in the
1970s.  But the most notable recent incidents happened in 1993.

In April of that year, Winston Cup champion Kulwicki and three
others were killed when the wings on their twin-engine private
plane iced up and the plane fell out of the sky while
approaching the airport near Bristol, Tennessee.

Four months later, Allison lost his life when he crashed his
helicopter at Talladega Superspeedway.  His rear rotor clipped a
fence as he tried to take off from a parking lot in the
speedway infield.

As was the case with previous accidents, the most recent tragedy
has devastated the NASCAR community.

"We spend so much time together during the year that when a
tragedy like this strikes, it hits deep and it hits hard because
we are so close to one another," said Richard Childress,
president and CEO of Richard Childress Racing. "We are like
family and our thoughts and prayers go out to Rick and all of
the families who have lost loved ones."

st 10-25-04 13:54 et