Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and his family had to evacuate a plane they were on after it crashed in Tennessee on Thursday night and there is a new video that shows them avoiding disaster. FOX Nashville was able to obtain the three-minute video that shows people running away from the plane which goes up in flames.
VIDEO shows Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his family escaping their plane after it crashed in Tennessee. MORE: https://t.co/Z7zrHZL3sV pic.twitter.com/b5fiWkRplC
— FoxNashville (@FOXNashville) August 16, 2019
The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane, which was a Cessna Citation, rolled off the runway at the Elizabethton Municipal Airport at 3:40 p.m. CT on Thursday after landing which is when the plane caught fire. The National Transportation Safety Board is sending two representatives to investigate the crash.
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Earnhardt was on the plane along with his wife, Amy; 15-month old daughter, Isla; a dog and two pilots. The 44-year old is an analyst for NBC Sports and the company released a statement when it heard the news.
“We’re incredibly grateful that Dale, his wife Amy, daughter Isla, and the two pilots are safe following today’s accident,” NBC Sports said in a statement via ESPN. “After being discharged from the hospital, we communicated with Dale and his team, and we’re all in agreement that he should take this weekend off to be with his family.
“We look forward to having him back in the booth next month at Darlington.”
Earnhardt Jr. is considered by many as one of the best drivers in NASCAR history. He won the Busch Series twice and he won the Daytona 500 in 2004 and 2014. Earnhardt Jr. is one of the most beloved figures in NASCAR history as he’s been named the organization’s Most Popular Driver Award from 2003-2017.
Earnhardt Jr. currently races part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He recently talked about how NASCAR can regain the popularity it had when he started racing.
The growth of our sport to its peak, that took decades,” Earnhardt said, via the Detroit Free Press per via NESN.com. “That took more than 10 years, 20 years, that was a 50-years process,” he said in a phone conversation Friday, ahead of Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway. “You can take that apart overnight. It can be broken easily. Building it up again is going to take that same perseverance.”
Earnhardt Jr. is the son of the legendary Dale Earnhardt who passed away in 2001. The senior Earnhardt won a total of 76 Winston Cup races and he won the Winston Cup Series seven times.
