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<p>ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. &#8212; Dale Earnhardt Jr. is safe and in a hospital for evaluation after his plane crashed in east Tennessee, the NASCAR television analyst and retired driver&#8217;s sister tweeted.</p><p>Earnhardt&#8217;s sister, Kelley Earnhardt Miller, tweeted that the driver&#8217;s wife, Amy, and 15-month-old daughter, Isla, also were on the plane along with two pilots.</p><p>&#8220;Everyone is safe and has been taken to the hospital for further evaluation,&#8221; she tweeted. &#8220;We will have no further information at this time.&#8221;</p><p>Federal Aviation Administration officials said a Cessna Citation rolled off the end of a runway and caught fire after landing at Elizabethton Municipal Airport at 3:40 p.m. Thursday. FAA officials said the preliminary indication is that two pilots and three passengers were aboard.</p><p>The National Transportation Safety Board tweeted that it&#8217;s sending two representatives to Elizabethton to begin investigating the crash.</p><p>Carter County Sheriff&#8217;s Office spokesman Thomas Gray confirmed Earnhardt was aboard but said he wasn&#8217;t one of the pilots.</p><p>Earnhardt retired as a full-time driver in 2017 and has been working as an analyst for NBC. He is part of the scheduled broadcast team for Saturday night&#8217;s Cup Series event in Bristol, Tennessee.</p><p>This incident comes 26 years after former driver and 1992 Cup champion Alan Kulwicki died in a plane crash while on his way to the spring race at Bristol from a promotional appearance in Knoxville, Tennessee. That crash at Tri-City Regional Airport in Blountville, Tennessee, killed a total of four people.</p><p>Earnhardt was part of Rick Hendrick&#8217;s racing team in 2011 when Hendrick broke a rib and a collarbone while on a small jet that lost its brakes and crash landed in an airport at Key West, Florida. Hendrick&#8217;s son, brother and twin nieces were among 10 people killed in a 2004 crash of a plane traveling to a race in Virginia.</p><p>This isn&#8217;t the first fiery crash for Earnhardt. He still has a burn scar on his neck from a crash at Sonoma in 2004 during warmups for an American Le Mans Series race that left him with second-degree burns.</p><p>Earnhardt has a history of concussions that plagued him over his final years as a driver.</p><p>He won NASCAR&#8217;s most popular driver award a record 15 times with 26 career Cup victories.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/web1_Earnhardt-600-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Earnhardt </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/web1_Earnhardt-600-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Earnhardt </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/web1_123392675-1966978a6fe543c69ae2b6b43b645334.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The burned remains of a plane that was carrying NASCAR television analyst and former driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. lie near a runway Thursday in Elizabethton, Tenn. Officials said the Cessna Citation rolled off the end of a runway and caught fire after landing at Elizabethton Municipal Airport.	 </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/web1_123392675-1966978a6fe543c69ae2b6b43b645334.jpg</photo1><caption1>The burned remains of a plane that was carrying NASCAR television analyst and former driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. lie near a runway Thursday in Elizabethton, Tenn. Officials said the Cessna Citation rolled off the end of a runway and caught fire after landing at Elizabethton Municipal Airport.	 </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By The Associated Press</p></bylineMeta></div>

Dale Earnhardt Jr., family ‘safe’ after plane crash