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Hendrick Motorsports Plane Crash Kills 10
1 minute ago
By HANK KURZ Jr., AP Sports Writer
MARTINSVILLE, Va. - A Hendrick Motorsports plane crashed Sunday on its way to a NASCAR (news - web sites) race, killing all 10 people aboard, including the son, brother and two nieces of the owner of one of auto racing's most successful organizations.
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Slideshow: Hendrick Motorsports Plane Crash Kills 10

The Beech 200 took off from Concord, N.C., and crashed in the Bull Mountain area seven miles from Martinsville's Blue Ridge Regional Airport about 12:30 p.m., said Arlene Murray, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites).
The dead included the four relatives of Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports, said Harry Litten, a spokesman for Moody Funeral Service, where the bodies were being taken. He said state police gave him a list of the people aboard the plane.
It was overcast when the plane went down, but the cause of the crash was not immediately known. NTSB (news - web sites) spokesman Keith Holloway said investigators were on their way to the site, which was in rough terrain, and would begin their investigation Monday.
It was "extremely foggy" in the area of the crash, said Dale Greeson, who lives about a mile from where the plane went down. He said he heard what sounded like a small plane circling overhead around the time of the crash, but did not hear the crash itself.
Hendrick owns the teams of Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Terry Labonte and Brian Vickers, who raced Sunday in the Subway 500 in the Nextel Cup Series at Martinsville Speedway.
NASCAR learned of the plane's disappearance during the race but withheld the news from the Hendrick drivers until afterward, NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said. The Hendrick drivers were then summoned to the NASCAR hauler, and Johnson, who won, was excused from Victory Lane.
NASCAR also had spoken with Rick Hendrick.
"We're working very closely with members of the Hendrick organization," Hunter said. "We're just saying extra prayers right now."
The Hendrick organization would have no comment Sunday night, NASCAR said.
"I was hoping I'd never hear this," Mark Martin, a driver for Roush Racing, told the Speed Network after the race. Martin's father, stepmother and half sister died in 1998 when a private plane his father was piloting crashed in Nevada.
"I just feel so bad it's unreal," said Martin, himself a pilot.
Driver Rusty Wallace, who is also a pilot, told reporters after the race: "Talladega and this place are the two most dangerous approaches on the circuit. I feel bad that this happened, maybe the states will fix something. ... We all feel like we have professional aviation groups, but obviously something went majorly wrong."
Hendrick had been on a season-long celebration of its 20th anniversary in NASCAR's top series. The organization has won five of the series' top titles, three truck series titles, and one Busch series crown.
The team has over 100 Cup series wins, making Hendrick just the second team owner in NASCAR's modern era to surpass that mark.
Citing the state police list, Litten said the people aboard the plane were:
Ricky Hendrick, Rick Hendrick's son and a retired NASCAR driver; John Hendrick, Rick Hendrick's brother and president of the organization; Kimberly and Jennifer Hendrick, John Hendrick's twin daughters; Joe Jackson; Jeff Turner; Randy Dorton, the team's chief engine builder; Scott Lathram, a pilot for NASCAR driver Tony Stewart; and pilots Dick Tracy and Liz Morrison.
Rick Hendrick recently began grooming Ricky Hendrick for a larger role with the company.
Ricky began his career driving a Busch car for his father, but retired in 2002 because of a shoulder injury caused by a racing accident. His father then made him the owner of the Busch car Vickers drove to the series championship last season, and that Kyle Busch currently drives.
Hendrick employs more than 400 workers at the Charlotte, N.C.-based Motorsports compound, which includes race shops and a 15,000-square-foot museum and team store.
Deputies barricaded the entrance to the Hendrick shop in Charlotte, allowing only team employees to enter the compound. Twenty or so people could be seen in the parking lot inside.
A small bouquet of flowers had been placed at the entrance gate.
___
Associated Press writers Jenna Fryer and Paul Nowell in Charlotte, N.C., and Larry O'Dell and Sue Lindsey in Richmond contributed to this report.
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Bellhorn Homer Gives Boston World Series Lead
Sun Oct 24, 2:18 AM ET
By Steve Keating
BOSTON (Reuters) - Mark Bellhorn cracked an eighth-inning, game-winning homer as the Boston Red Sox (news) fended off the "Curse of the Bambino" and the St. Louis Cardinals (news) 11-9 to get the 100th World Series (news - web sites) off to a wild start Saturday.
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Slideshow: Baseball: World Series

Red Sox fans arrived early and partied late as their team took a big step toward claiming their first World Series title since 1918 and ending a hex that has hung over Boston since owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the hated New York Yankees (news) in 1920.
In the eighth inning it appeared the "Bambino" had returned to haunt Fenway Park when outfielder Manny Ramirez made two stunning errors to allow the Cardinals to tie the game at 9-9.
But, in the bottom of the frame, Bellhorn came to the rescue with his first World Series homer, taking Julian Tavarez deep to right field to bring in Jason Varitek and trigger wild celebrations.
"In the playoffs, everything seems like a critical moment but you've just got to think of the positives, and not really so much of those four games," said Bellhorn. "Because any game can be pivotal, or have a pivotal play.
"You've just got to live in the present and that's kind of what I try to do."
The first World Series game played at venerable Fenway since 1986 had the two teams combining for 24 hits and burning through 11 pitchers in a contest that kept the fans on the edge of their seats. But it was something less than a Fall Classic.
RAMIREZ GAFFES
Until Ramirez's gaffes there were few signs of any hex as the Red Sox struck early and then held off repeated comeback bids by the Cardinals to draw first blood in the best-of-seven series. Game Two is again in Boston Sunday.
Steaming toward victory, the Red Sox were suddenly derailed when Ramirez fluffed a groundball, allowing Jason Marquis to score to trim Boston's lead to 9-8.
A few moments later, the crowd of 35,035 looked on in horror and disbelief as Ramirez misplayed a routine fly ball, stumbling to the grass as another run was scored and groans filled the air.
"That was not an instructional video...that was a little rough," Boston manager Terry Francona told reporters. "I walked out here through the outfield and just about twisted an ankle where Manny had his divot.
"We did some things wrong but we persevered and we won. We set out to win today so it's really a great day but we did make some mistakes we need to clean up."
David Ortiz got the World Series off to the best possible start for the Red Sox, hammering a three-run, first-inning homer as his team roared into a 4-0 lead.
The 28th player to homer in his first World Series at-bat, Ortiz took an 0-1 offering from Woody Williams and watched anxiously as the ball curved fair around the right-field foul pole for his fifth blast of the postseason.
The Most Valuable Player in the American League Championship Series, Ortiz continued to wield a hot bat Saturday. He added an RBI single in the seventh inning, giving him a record-equaling 19 in the postseason.
The two starters, Williams and Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, were chased from the game early.
Williams lasted 2 1/3 innings, giving up seven runs on eight hits, while Wakefield went 3 2/3 frames, surrendering five runs on three hits.
Closer Kevin Foulke took credit for the win while Taverez was tagged with the loss.
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Copyright © 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.