Remembering Ricky Hendrick

April 2, 1980 — Oct 24, 2004

Joseph Riddick "Ricky" Hendrick IV was an American stock car racing driver and partial owner at Hendrick Motorsports, a NASCAR team that his father Rick Hendrick founded. He began his career in racing at the age of fifteen. He competed in both the Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series before his death from an airplane accident on October 24, 2004. He was killed with seven other family members and friends during the accident.

On October 24, 2004, around 12:30 p.m. EDT, Hendrick died in a plane crash near Martinsville, Virginia, killing him and nine others. The plane, on its way to the Martinsville Speedway for the Subway 500, crashed on Bull Mountain due to pilot error in heavy fog Only days after he died, his fiancée Emily Maynard learned that she was pregnant with his child. Maynard gave birth to their daughter, Josephine Riddick "Ricki" Hendrick, on June 29, 2005, naming the girl after her late fiancé

Ricky, and the nine others killed on that tragic day, will always be remembered and will be greatly missed.