Rick Hendrick, owner of one of the most successful NASCAR teams, Hendrick Motorsports, escaped with only a broken rib and broken clavicle when his small plane lost its brakes and crash landed at Key West International Airport.
The pilot, James Klepper, and co-pilot, Jay Luckwaldt, also escaped without serious injuries in the Monday night crash.
The Hendricks were flying to Key West to spend time at their waterfront vacation home on nearby Sunset Key, a swanky development on a 27-acre island just offshore of the Southernmost City.
The runway was closed for about an hour Monday night but was reopened because the wreckage did not impact the landing area. The plane remains at the scene.
Photographs of the crash show the plane largely intact and with its nose resting on the ground about 20 feet in front of a chain-linked airport boundary fence.
Almost seven years ago, on October 24 of 2004, a Hendrick Motorsports plane crashed upon landing at Martinsville, killing all ten passengers including the team’s president John Hendrick and Rick Hendrick’s son and former NASCAR racer Ricky.