Posted on 10/25/2004 4:55:07 PM PDT by Wolfstar
A Nightmare We Can't Wake Up From
Written by: Ben Blake
Richmond, Va. – 10/25/2004
This morning, we all woke up and realize the vague nightmare of Sunday afternoon wasn’t just a dream. Today, Rick Hendrick and his family, Hendrick Motorsports, and, to some extent the rest of us, begin putting together hard pieces and grim data as all attempt to go on after Sunday’s fatal plane crash in the mountains of Virginia, which took 10 lives.
I’ve learned there is little anyone can say at a time like this. The best anyone can do is simply to be there for those who truly have lost, whether you really do anything or not. I won’t go here in the direction of what we should say about the personal grief of Rick and Linda Hendrick, which is past the edge of comprehension. Yet, at the same time, all of us feel deeply what happened midday Sunday, and we feel helpless in trying to help.
So why am I writing at all? Trying to find some perspective, I guess. Trying to put the public impact of this disaster in some frame where I can begin to understand it. I think we safely can say that this is the greatest single disaster to impact the NASCAR community in the organization’s history.
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However, on the plane were John Hendrick, Rick’s brother and president of Hendrick Motorsports; John’s two [22-year-old twin] daughters, Jennifer and Kimberley; Ricky Hendrick, Rick’s 24-year-old son and rising vice president of the company; Randy Dorton, founding partner in Hendrick Motorsports and the group’s overall engine chief; Jeff Turner, Hendrick’s general manager; Joe Jackson, an executive with Hendrick sponsor DuPont; Scott Lathram, Tony Stewart’s pilot; and Dick Tracey and Liz Morrison, who flew the plane.
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Sunday’s awful event ranks with greater horrors, such as the loss of University of Evansville’s basketball team (14 members) in a plane crash in December 1977, or the death of 37 players on the Marshall University football team in a plane wreck in November 1970; just a month prior, 14 members of the Wichita State University football team had been killed in a plane crash. Aircraft accidents also took the lives of Davey Allison, Tony Bettenhausen, Curtis Turner, and others.
Aside from the enormous personal losses Sunday, some ugly animals surface from the deep.
* Could this be the ruin of Hendrick Motorsports? It may be cold-blooded to speculate so soon, and it will take months the gauge the effects. There is no doubt that the brain, if not the heart, has been knocked out of the sport’s most successful organization.
The value can not be calculated. John Hendrick, Rick’s younger brother and a businessman of his own standing, had taken nominal but effective control of the racing company in 1997...He remained as president of the company and was the day-to-day leader.
Ricky Hendrick, after a brief and somewhat successful try at racing in NASCAR Trucks and Busch, had taken counsel after a shoulder injury at Las Vegas in 2002, realizing his future was more at the top of the company than behind the wheel. The 24-year-old was being groomed as successor (Adam Petty comes to mind) and had shown conviction and persuasiveness in business dealings. As vice president, he had assumed the role as chief talent scout for the organization, leading Hendrick to sign up kid stars such as Boston Reid and Chase Austin. Ricky, likely, was where the company was going.
Jeff Turner, general manager of operations, was just behind John and Ricky on the company chart, a bean-counter with the proper attitude for racing.
The greatest blow, professionally, may be the loss of Randy Dorton, one of Rick Hendrick’s original partners (along with Harry Hyde) in the founding of the organization in 1983. Dorton easily was one of the top three or four racing engine men in NASCAR, and his close relationships with General Motors and throughout the industry should not be underestimated. Dorton ran a huge operation which served motorsport in and out of NASCAR.
Most large organizations have a battle plan for such emergencies, such as what Roush had in place after his near-fatal plane crash. Yet, Sunday’s disaster cut down deep into the Hendrick organization, and those sudden voids will not be easy to fill.
* How big a blow is this to NASCAR, in terms of competition? NASCAR relies on its teams to put on the show, often with little encouragement and with much exasperation and expense. Hendrick, in winning 10 NASCAR championships (all divisions) and more than 100 races, had always made it look possible, if not effortless.
Hendrick Motorsports in the 1980s single-handedly raised the level of professionalism in NASCAR, with race teams for the first time being run as major businesses. Comparing Hendrick to Roger Penske is fair. Other businessmen – Rod Osterlund, Warner Hodgdon – had entered NASCAR on what seemed to be an exploitative basis. Still others, such as Richard Childress, began to build professional aspects from the ground up, and succeeded. Hendrick, however, set the template, creating an atmosphere in which others of his rank felt comfortable.
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NASCAR has come to depend in many ways on Hendrick. Take Dorton’s engine manufactory, just on one level. Dorton’s group willingly has provided competitive engines to newcoming teams, such as Joe Gibbs’s. It currently provides engines to the MB teams (No. 01, No. 10) and to Gene Haas’ No. 0, not to mention relationships in several other series. No, Dorton was not a one-man show, the engine shop being run almost as a separate company with its own structure and order of management. It will continue to run.
Look, though, at what Hendrick has done over the years. It provided cars and technical support for NASCAR’s Tom Cruise movie disaster, Days of Thunder. It supported the start-up of the Craftsman Truck series. It has helped to develop stars, such as Tim Richmond, Jeff Gordon and Johnson. It has provided access to invaluable corporate connections to GM and associated companies.
Not so cold-blooded, as the teams will have to make decisions immediately – what effect does Sunday’s horror have on the NASCAR championship? Jimmie Johnson, slumping through the summer, has re-entered the championship playoff with two victories in a row, and Jeff Gordon’s team pulled a shrewd miracle at Martinsville with a late-race decision on track position, putting him second in points.
Throw out the tired old "they would have wanted us to, etc." Of course they would have wanted you to; that is the business. The question then is whether the teams have the heart to continue. I would not expect any to take off the race at Atlanta, although we have not heard officially from Hendrick’s.
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* Most ominous – and this has been mentioned to me in just about every intelligent e-mail and phone call through this Monday – is this: We’ve been whistling past the graveyard in terms of team transportation, something we take for granted – hey, everybody’s going to be there, got to be there.
As NASCAR flings itself to the four corners of the earth (Mexico? Seattle?), and as the competitors take on increasing business and promotion duties, the teams and drivers now rely almost totally on private airplanes, with all the risks inherent. Something like what happened Sunday was inevitable, and we shouldn’t be surprised that it happened – or when it happens again.
The postscript could be that NASCAR now demands too much of its "independent contractors" (although this was an hour hop from Concord to Martinsville) in running too far too fast. That’s racing, right?
We questioned this in the aftermath of the Kulwicki accident, and in those days half the races were in the Southeast. Under current and proposed schedules, however, NASCAR’s competitors will be asked to dart madly to destinations across North America, with increasing stress on pilots and planes.
Growth is good, right? Don’t be surprised that it happened now, and don’t be surprised if it happens again.
Rarely does a single tragedy impact an entire sport or industry like the plane crash yesterday will impact NASCAR.
I don't know how NASCAR goes on with the races this coming weekend given that there will be 10 funerals most people in the sport will want to attend in the coming days. I know they will go on, but just the sheer number of teams this affects directly in one way or another is astonishing.
Yeah, Rick and John's father, Pappa Joe, died in July after a long illness. The permutations of this tragedy are beyond comprehension to anyone who is involved in NASCAR in some way or another. John's wife just lost her husband and 22-year-old twin daughters. I believe they have another daughter, who just lost her sisters and father. Rick and his wife Linda just lost their 24-year-old son -- their only son -- as well as Rick's brother and nieces. That's just the impact to immediate survivors in the Hendrick family. There were six other familes who lost loved ones on that plane.
Pinging the Nascar gang...
I'm staying off these kinds of flights, that's for sure.
Not a NASCAR afficionado, but sad news, indeed. Prayers for them and their families. NASCAR will survive and continue to prosper.
Thanks for pinging the NASCAR group, "glock."
I was a fan of the pro golfer, Payne Stewart. I still haven't quite gotten over the strange plane accident that took his life and the lives of several other people.
Prayers are all we in the public can offer at a time like this, so as a fan, I sincerely thank you.
There are very few people in this world who are irreplaceable and we usually find their statues in public parks.
This was a tragedy, of course, and undoubtedly a setback for the Hendrick's team. But life does go on.
I'll say it again. It is just too sad they had so many eggs in one basket. Grouping too many key people and/or loved ones on the same plane just don't make sense. No doubt others will consider this in their travel plans. It'l be a somber day at Atlanta next week.
I would dispute your statement that few people in this world are irreplaceable. It depends on the perspective from which one looks. To a mother who has just lost a husband and young daughters, those people are beyond irreplaceable. Same for parents who have just lost their only son. You get the point.
In the larger "public" context in which the author framed his article, much is replaceable and people will go on. Whether or not HMS does after this season, since it was a family business, is possibly open to question right now. Even if they do, true talent is not entirely replaceable. Randy Dorton, the head of the HMS engine program, was considered a genius by many in the sport. Other things that are not easily replaceable are the business relationships built over 20 years.
Depends on what you consider 'growth' to be and what you expect from it.
NASCAR has lost much of the class/charm that made it popular, it has determined to spread to every corner of the nation and to others where it remains an oddity. It has brought in Japanese manufacturers and will find itself 'forced' to take up the slack when CART and IRL roll over....
I" be a lot happier if they concentrated on an arc from New Hampshire, through (all of) the South and into Phoenix; ONE race per track and full TV coverage via whomever they choose....maybe less money today, maybe they could stay in business for tomorrow.
[Let the north west and others concentrate on open wheels or sports cars or (gag) rice burners.]
PS: Sorry, I do share in the grief expressed by others, and I do pray that the family and the business will continue to field their superlative teams. But I miss what NASCAR was and even wish that USAC could rise to the occasion and restore good open wheel racing to the USA. [Heck, I'm old enough to miss GPX and the hay bale days of SCCA]
I agree with you, especially after the 9/11/01 hijackings. Nevertheless, it doesn't change the enormity of what happened.
I'm taping it and will watch it later tonight. But could you explain what you mean about Shaheen? (Not a challenge; just curious since I don't know much about Shaheen.)
Private planes give me the heeby jeebies for sure.
Sad bump. What a tragedy. Prayers to their families, friends... and fans.
If Randy Dorton was the Leonardo da Vinci of engine building, he's not replaceable. If he was highly-skilled and a master of his craft, he likely is, later if not sooner.
I was afraid that my post might come across as diminishing the loss of these people, and that wasn't my intent. Every death on that plane is a great loss to someone. My point is only that I don't think it will hurt NASCAR in the long run, and even the Hendricks team will move on.
We all do after every tragedy.
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