Rick Hendrick said he doesn't understand why Dianne Dorton has made the comments she made. Credit: Autostock

Hendrick: Dorton's widow fired 'cheap shot'

Team owner says company has done plenty to help family

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Nextel Cup team owner Rick Hendrick on Saturday called recent comments made by the widow of one of his employees killed in a 2004 plane crash near Martinsville Speedway a "cheap shot.''

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Dianne Dorton, the widow of Hendrick chief engine builder Randy Dorton, said Hendrick Motosports showed "conscious and intentional disregard'' for her husband's safety in a lawsuit filed last month.

Dorton also said the company did not respond to her requests for help after the October crash and contended that Hendrick Motorsports was liable in Randy's death because it allowed the plane to fly to Martinsville in unfavorable weather conditions.

The lawsuit claimed that Hendrick's brother, John, who also was killed in the crash, overruled the pilot's decision to divert to another airport.

"For Dianne to say we turned our back on her or nobody helped her ... , '' said Hendrick, who also lost his son in the crash that took 10 lives. "I paid Randy's bonus in '04. I paid him six months in '05. She got a BMW. I paid her insurance. There was someone there helping her night and day and available to meet with her any time she wanted to.

"I don't understand the attack on my brother. I thought it was a cheap shot and disappointing and not true.''

Hendrick, in the media room at Daytona International Speedway to promote driver Jimmie Johnson's new foundation that kicks off today with an eBay auction, called Dorton's comments "hurtful and disappointing.''

"This accident was probably the most hurtful thing that ever happened to anybody and everybody that had family on those planes,'' he said. "They suffered a lot.''

Hendrick said his brother wasn't one to take chances, and that he'd canceled a lot of flights "because he didn't like to fly.''

The National Transportation Safety Board blamed the accident on pilot error, saying the pilots probably used a satellite-based Global Positioning System instead of local navigational aids.

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The board said the pilots likely misinterpreted the GPS data, making them believe they were five miles short of the cloud-covered airport instead of flying over it and toward a mountain.

"It's disappointing that somebody takes things out of context and the facts aren't accurate,'' Hendrick said. "I know that my brother was a white-knuckle flier and he had his two daughters on that plane and they waited an hour for the weather to clear.

"The plane landed in front of them. There was a plane that landed behind them and anybody could have gone if they wanted to. For somebody to take a shot at him is totally disappointing and hurtful to my family, my mother, his wife and child.''