Plane Carrying Hendrick NASCAR Motorsports Team Makes Emergency Landing

by Pablo MenaMarch 8, 2016, 1:05 pmNews >

A Hendrick Motorsports airplane was forced to make an emergency landing at Memphis International Airport in Tennessee early Monday morning after smoke was discovered in the cabin.

Plane Carrying Hendrick NASCAR Motorsports Team Makes Emergency Landing

The plane was returning from Las Vegas Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s Kobalt 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, and made a fuel stop in Oklahoma before taking off again to return to North Carolina. Approximately later, the plane landed in Memphis.

Hendrick team spokesman Jesse Essex said there were no injuries and the plane wasn’t carrying any of its drivers.

A second plane was sent to Memphis to retrieve the team members and brought them back to Charlotte, N.C. The plane is currently being evaluated.

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Ten people were killed in a 2004 crash of a Hendrick plane traveling to a race in Virginia. Among those killed in that crash were Rick Hendrick’s son, brother, twin nieces and key Hendrick employees.

Hendrick broke a rib and his clavicle in 2011 when a plane he and his wife were on lost its brakes and crash-landed in Key West, Fla.

Caption: DAYTONA BEACH, FL – FEBRUARY 21: Team owners Rick Hendrick and Roger Penske speak prior to during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series DAYTONA 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 21, 2016 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)