Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 29, 1993 TAG: 9308290208
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bob Zeller
DATELINE: BRISTOL, TENN. LENGTH: Medium
The ground is slightly ruffled at the point of impact, but only those who already knew where it was would recognize the spot now.
The summer rains have healed the earth. And the people who knew and worked with Kulwicki are healing, too.
Almost five months have passed since the 1992 Winston Cup champion and three other men perished in a plane crash a few miles southwest of here. But time is deceptive.
Sometimes it seems long, long ago. And sometimes it seems as if it was just last week that we came to Bristol International Raceway on the cold, rainy morning after the crash and watched Kulwicki's car-hauler slowly circle the track in mourning.
Friday evening, after a whopper of a thunderstorm slowly rolled over the raceway, Dale Earnhardt took Kulwicki's old business manager, Don Hawk, to the crash site. It is just off Interstate 81 a few miles from the track. Hawk had never been there.
"Dale remembered where the spot was like it was yesterday - right to the exact driveway," Hawk said. "He showed me where the plane was supposed to be headed and he explained to me how it came in. I think he thought it would be therapeutic for me. I think it was.
"I knew sooner or later I would have to go there, and it took any questions out of my mind about where it happened."
Earnhardt, more than any other driver, has a vivid personal memory of the tragedy. His plane was just ahead of Kulwicki's as they approached Tri-Cities Airport that night. And when the twin engines on Kulwicki's plane suddenly died and it plunged to earth, Earnhardt's pilot, Mike Colyer, heard the last gasps of those on board through the open mike of the doomed aircraft.
"I flew over the spot this morning," Colyer said Saturday. "It was kind of eerie."
Hawk spent the weeks after Kulwicki's death helping settle his estate. He left the team after Geoff Bodine bought it, but Hawk and his wife, Cyndee, continue to handle Kulwicki souvenirs for the champion's father, Gerald.
Kulwicki memorial T-shirts are selling briskly and more than 1,000 fans have joined his fan club this year, most of them after he died. "They're asking us to keep the club going," Hawk said.
A few weeks ago, Earnhardt hired Hawk as his business manager and gave him a new, exciting future. In years to come, his job probably will include putting together a Winston Cup team for his boss.
"It's kind of strange," Hawk said. "I had a position with a driver who was the champion, and now the Lord has blessed me in such a way that I'm now with a driver who has won five championships."
Some time in the next month or so, the National Transportation Safety Board will hold a hearing on the cause of the crash. Both engines were off in the last seconds, and the predominant rumor these days is that the plane ran out of fuel.
But that hardly matters to Kulwicki's colleagues and team members. They try to focus on the work at hand, but they still think of him every day.
"If you keep yourself busy, you can kind of put it in the back of your mind, but you don't forget about it," said team member Cal Lawson.
The return to Bristol "is not what I thought it would be," said Kulwicki's old crew chief, Paul Andrews. "I've kept busy, so it has not been as hard as I thought, not that it's been exactly easy."
It would have been easier if the team had enjoyed more success since the tragedy. But the learning curve with a new driver, Jimmy Hensley, has been steep, and their Ford Thunderbird has only managed one top 10 finish (a ninth at Talladega) since the crash.
"We're all looking forward to starting off next year fresh" with Bodine, Andrews said.
by CNB