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11:31 PM EDT on Sunday, October 24, 2004

By WCNC.com and 6NEWS

A Hendrick Motorsports plane crashed on its way to the Subway 500 NASCAR race in Martinsville, Virginia Sunday afternoon killing all eight passengers and two crew members.

A Virginia funeral home told 6NEWS the dead included four relatives of team owner Rick Hendrick. Names given by the funeral home include: Ricky Hendrick, John Hendrick, Kimberly Hendrick, Jennifer Hendrick, Dick Tracy, Joe Jackson, Liz Morrison, Jeff Turner, Randy Dorton and Scott Lathum.

John Hendrick is team owner Rick Hendrick's brother. Ricky Hendrick is the son of Rick Hendrick. Randy Dorton is an engine builder for the company. Kimberly and Jennifer are the daughters of John Hendrick. Turner is general manager of Rick Hendrick Motorsports. Tracey and Morrison are company pilots. Lathram is a pilot for NASCAR driver Tony Stewart. Jackson, an executive with DuPont, sponsored Jeff Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports car. Click to read more about the victims

Rick Hendrick was not on the plane, NASCAR officials said.

The Beech King Air 200 took off from Concord, N.C. around noon. According to the FAA, the plane crashed seven miles outside the Blue Ridge Airport in Virginia around 12:30 p.m. The airport, which only has two runways, is eight miles southwest of Martinsville. The plane was reported missing around 3 p.m.

"We had a state police helicopter in the area that picked up on the transponder singal from the aircraft," said Sgt. R.J. Carpentieri, VA State Police. "Our state police helicopter located the crash site on Bull Mountain, located in Patrick County, Virginia."

Virginia State Police Sgt. Michael Bailey said crews could not immediately reach the crash site because of the rough terrain. The plane is in pieces, investigators said. They also said at some point the plane did catch fire.

NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said investigators went to the crash site Sunday, but could not begin their examination until Monday. Crews used a bulldozer to knock down trees and brush to plow a path to the wreckage Sunday night. At 11:30 p.m. the bodies had not been removed.

It was foggy at the time of the crash. Sources with Robert Yates Racing said the plane overshot the runway and then crashed into the side of Bull Mountain. According to the FAA, there was no distress call.

6NEWS

The plane crashed into the side of Bull Mountain around 12:30 p.m. Sunday.

“The plane was en route to Martinsville and they lost it on radar and that’s all the information we have,” said NASCAR official Jim Hunter. “We’ve been in contact with Rick Hendrick…we just don’t have a lot of details at the moment…we are going to say a prayer for everyone in the Hendrick organization."

Three family members went to the crash site Sunday afternoon and went to a nearby church before heading back to Charlotte.

Hendrick Motorsports Aviation is based out of Concord, N.C. A pilot for the company said they own about 11 or 12 planes. Click to read more about NASCAR aviation

Hendrick owns the teams of Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Terry Labonte and Brian Vickers in the Nextel Cup Series. Johnson won Sunday's race at Martinsville Speedway. Click to read more about Johnson's win

NASCAR learned of the plane's disappearance during the race and withheld the information from the Hendrick drivers until afterward, Hunter said. All the Hendrick drivers were summoned to the NASCAR hauler immediately after the race and Johnson was excused from Victory Lane.

Hendrick has 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.

The plane that crashed was similar to this Beech King Air 200.

Hendrick employs more than 400 workers at the Charlotte-based Motorsports compound, which includes race shops and a 15,000-square-foot museum and team store.

He recently began grooming his son, Ricky, 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 suffered in a racing accident.

His father then made him the owner of the Busch car Vickers drove to the series championship last season, and Kyle Busch currently pilots.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.