NASCAR Darkest Day At Martinsville

six wins in one season that's remarkable Jimmy Johnson looked to be on his way to claiming his first ever Nascar Cup Series championship with only just a handful of races to go all he had to do was keep up the momentum and he would claim his first ever Championship but little did he know that everything with him and his team was about to change one week later it was the sixth race in the NASCAR inaugural Chase for the cup it had already been one of the most iconic and wildest seasons in NASCAR history you could tell that the end of this season was shaping up to be one of the best ever you had Hendrick Motorsports Stars Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson fighting for their Championship along with most popular driver Dale nhart Jr young Phenom Kurt Bush was also in the hunt along with veteran Mark Martin one of these drivers was going to take home the 2004 Championship everybody was already writing their stories about what was going to happen between any of these drivers but nobody knew that the story would change after Martinsville October 24th 2004 Ryan Newman led the field down into turn number one to take the green for the subway 500 little did the entire NASCAR Community know that at the time of the green flag a tragedy was about to strike and nobody would know about it until the end of the race during the race Hendrick Motorsports drivers of Jeff G and Jimmy Johnson ran up front about all day long in the closing laps Jimmy Johnson took the lead away and never looked back on the outside diving hard into the corner for the lead I think this is going to help Ryan more than anybody oh they boun off each other from Not Looking Back Jimmy Johnson would pick up the checkered flag claiming his second win in a row and his first ever victory at Martinsville a normal celebration when you win an NASCAR RAC is to burn your tires out and do a burnout with your race team sometimes the race team will come to your car sometimes they'll stand on the wall but this time it was a bit different Jimmy Johnson did a burnout and there was no pit crew or team in sight there was something odd about the situation and it just looked Eerie at the time Jimmy Johnson was told after he did his burnout and his celebrations to come to Pit Road and there would be no Victory celebration when there was no Victory celebration All NBC did was show the point standings after the race after that they cut over to Jim Hunter who had an update on the Hendrick Motorsports situation let's go to Bill Weber thank you Alan normally we would go to Victory Lane at this point for the post race celebration that will not be the case today I'm with Jim Hunter who's NASCAR's vice president of corporate Communications and Jim you have some very sad news yes we've been made aware uh the FAA reported they lost contact with a hendrik Motorsports airplane inbound for martville earlier today Bill uh we don't have a lot of details or a lot of information but I know the FAA and the NTSB are investigating and uh we've been in contact with Rick Hendrick uh and we're we're in contact with his entire organization uh and we just don't have a lot of details uh at the moment uh but we're going to say an extra prayer for everyone in the hendrik organization uh at this time after everybody heard a word of what was going on All NBC and NASCAR did will say that their thoughts and prayers were with Hendrick Motorsports and they went right off the air at 12:30 that day a Hendrick Motorsports plane crashed with 10 on board all 10 were killed the members of the Hendrick Motorsports family included John hendrik president of Hendrick Motorsports his twin daughters and Ricky hendrik Ricky Hendrick was a former bushers driver and he was the next in line to take ownership of hink Motorsports decades in the future also included general manager Jeff Turner and chief engine builder Randy dorton the other people on board were Joe Jackson a Dupont executive and Scott laam a pilot for NASCAR cup here's driver Tony Stewart and the pilots Richard Tracy and Elizabeth Morrison eventually a 911 call was made and fire trucks and police cars patrolled the Virginia area during the race itself a around Midway through the race an air patrol search team patrolling the nearby bull mountains 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 everyone on board had been killed the search by firefighters also saw at the top of the mountain there was a divot where the plane would have hit around halfway through the race NASCAR was notified of the plane and its crashing after the race is when everybody found out the details of what has been going on even even though there was a horrific and tragic accident the race must go on the following race was that Atlanta Motor Speedway team Hendrick held a press conference earlier in the week loves his family loves his friends and uh has had extreme success and yet can sit down with you and talk about the smallest of things and I think that's kind of the person we all want to be and uh you know he's he's certainly been somebody that I looked up to for a long time you know last Sunday was a was a sad day it was a sad day for a lot of people and um you know obviously I lost a dear friend on Saturday's race was the NASCAR Bush Series race Hendrick driver Kyle Bush was looking to claim the victory he came up one spot short finishing second his postrace interview was extremely emotional Kyle Bush said in a documentary recently that he tried really hard to win that race especially for Ricky Hendrick who was one of his best friends at the time please start your engines the first race that we had the the always remember logo there was a sticker that we all had and we had it on the hood of our car and I finished second in the next week after and it was like devastating Ki protecting the bottom Kyle Bush not able to get up and make because all you want to do is is have that magic moment of being able to win and and give back to those that have given to you and and remember and all that and so I just I felt like crap the end with just a two-lap dash not quite enough what are your feelings I didn't have enough 17 beat us and Kyle thinking of things today obviously guys tried his best there at the end he gave it a great ride Sunday's race was the big one it was a time for all Hendrick Motorsports to get back to what they were doing and what they do best racing it didn't take long for them to go back to their normal form Jimmy Johnson was out front dominating through some of the event in the closing laps Championship Contender Mark Martin was hot on his heels but Jimmy had 10 angels riding with him the focus was on [Music] 48 Jimmy Johnson in the 48 car currently running second he is the highest running hope right now for the hendrik Motorsports team after their difficult week and the accident of last Sunday Johnson was not going to be [Music] denied Jimmy Johnson side by side with Mark Martin now he swings up in front of Martin new R leader for the first time today it's Johnson boy those tires look like they did make a big difference a decision to not pit under green may have cost Martin the win Jimmy Johnson talked about Rick Hendrick he said an extraordinary circumstances extraordinary people do extraordinary things now Johnson trying to do something special for all the people at hendrik Motorsports and take the family to Victory Lane Martin Martin is coming he's closing on the 48 car he may run out of time there may not be enough left trying to hold off Mark Martin they will race back to the strip and Jimmy Johnson will win his third race in the row Ling M all the [Applause] way Jimmy Johnson with his seventh victory of the season after a terrible terrible 7 days there is no medicine like that it doesn't it doesn't change anything and we don't give back our friends that we've lost but it sure makes it feel better I don't know if it was meant to be or not but I guarantee you Randy Norton it wasn't just his engine under the hood today tragedy can strike at any moment but it's the time when tragedies bring teams and people closer together through all this adversity Hendrick Motorsports has come back and come back stronger than ever they unfortunately came up just a few Point short claiming the 2004 Championship through all that they still came back stronger in the following years claiming victories and championships though the wins and championships will not bring back the people they lost it can bring a little bit of closure knowing that these people help build this organization to what it is today the people who were tragically killed on that faithful day will never be forgotten

Channel: MMCS

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Keywords: NASCAR, Finish, NASCAR Crashes, NASCAR Finishes, NASCAR Top 10, NASCAR Radioactive, NASCAR Underdog, NASCAR on FOX, NASCAR on NBC, NASCAR Flips, Motorsports, NASCAR Race, NASCAR Tempers Flare, NASCAR Live, YouTube, Views, auto, racing, history, MMCS, 2020, 2021, GEN7, nascar close finish, NASCAR wall ride, nascar 2023, nascar 2022, nascar video game, nascar moments, NASCAR Highlights, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Daytona, NASCAR Finish, DIECAST, Dale Jr, Talladega, Daytona 500

Id: m20KbE678kg

Length: 9min 24sec (564 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 09 2024