“He was a great kid”: Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast guest gets emotional talking about $1B NASCAR team owner’s son who died in a tragic plane crash

Two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently sat down for a conversation with former Truck Series legend Jack Sprague. The former triple Truck Series champion for Hendrick Motorsports opened up about several professional and personal things about his life, including what it felt like being teammates with Mr. Hendrick's son, Ricky Hendrick, who died tragically in an airplane crash in October 2004.

Born in Spring Lake, Michigan, Sprague moved to North Carolina to kickstart his stock car racing career after having some success racing street stocks in Michigan. He would go on to make a name for himself in Late Model racing and eventually found his way into the NASCAR Truck Series in its inaugural season in 1995.

However, a chance encounter with Rick Hendrick, who's worth is $1 Billion (as per Celebrity Networth), and Tom Cruise several years earlier at Concord Speedway led to Sprague getting a ride in the Truck Series with Hendrick Motorsports. He went on to win three championships with HMS in 1997, 1999, and 2001. During this time he got to be teammates with Rick Hendrick's late son, Ricky Hendrick.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. asked Sprague what it was like for him to be teammates with the son of his boss. The 60-year-old expressed nothing but praise for his former teammate, highlighting both his driving skill and his character.

"Really good driver, yeah better kid. He was a great kid. That's one of them deals... I got to quit getting emotional... one of them deals where you know the boss comes up and says, 'Hey, my son's going to be your teammate'. It's like this could go bad. You know, I mean rich kid, you're thinking I really don't know him at this point, and I thought, man, this is going to hold us back. I mean it's going to drag us down, I couldn't have been more wrong," Sprague shared.

"Great driver, he and Lance got along well. McGrew, Dennis, and I. And I mean we leaned on them too, we won the championship with their help... Regardless of the great Driver part, he was a great kid. He was beyond his years, he was kind, considerate, and he would sit there in the bus slot at night and color with my daughter, and she was like four. It's like who does that, right? I wouldn't even do that now, at my age, but he was just that kind... I thought a lot of Ricky," he added.

Ricky Hendrick died on October 24, 2004, in Virginia while he was heading to compete in the Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway. The plane crashed on Bull Mountain near Martinsville due to poor visibility in heavy fog.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. can't agree with NASCAR's penalty for Austin Cindric

Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently weighed in on the penalty given to Austin Cindric for right-hooking Ty Dillon at COTA last Sunday. NASCAR gave a $50,000 fine to Cindric and took away 50 points from his tally. This led to the Team Penske driver slipping from 11th to 35th in the standings. However, Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes that NASCAR was lenient in penalizing Cindric.

His sentiments are based on the fact that drivers like Chase Elliott and Bubba Wallace have been suspended in the past for the same transgression. So for Dale Earnhardt Jr., the penalty given to Austin Cindric is not fitting enough. Speaking on his podcast, he wondered what's even the point of a penalty if NASCAR isn't going to apply it with consistency.

"I don't care if you're going 10mph or 200mph, a right-hook is a right-hook and it shall all be treated the same. Yeah, I don't know if I could agree with that... I don't believe NASCAR would go, 'Hey man, we don't want to. We've got a rule to suspend on the right hook, and we're not going to do it because we don't want the guy to feel the brunt of the penalty? What's the point of the penalty?" Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared (4:55 onwards).

Drivers like Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin have also spoken on the matter and have similar sentiments to Dale Earnhardt Jr. They too believe that the same penalty should be given to all drivers, regardless of the where and how the incident happened.

NASCAR explained that since the right-hook came at a road course with slower speeds and the incident didn't trigger a caution flag, they didn't see suspension as a fitting penalty.