Hendrick breaks rib, clavicle in plane mishap

Car owner Rick Hendrick suffered a broken rib and a broken clavicle when the Gulfstream G150 aircraft he was in lost its brakes and ran off the runway upon landing Monday evening at Key West (Fla.) International Airport.

Hendrick's wife, Linda, suffered minor bruises and cuts, according to a statement from Hendrick Motorsports. The pilot and co-pilot were uninjured.

All four returned to North Carolina on Tuesday.

A report on the Monroe County Sheriff's Office website stated that on landing, "the pilot, James Klepper, announced he had no brakes. The co-pilot (Jay Luckwaldt) said he also attempted to brake but said he had no pressure."

The report also stated that the aircraft came to rest about 800 feet from the runway and about 3 feet from an airport perimeter fence.

The plane is jointly owned by Hendrick Motorsports and Jimmie Johnson Racing. Johnson said Tuesday it's the plane that he uses to fly to the track most weeks with his family.

Johnson said few details were available Tuesday on why the brakes failed.

"There's a lot of really good, smart people working on getting answers to these questions so that we can all understand exactly what took place," he said.

Driver change

ESPN.com reports that Michael Waltrip Racing will announce Friday that Mark Martin will drive for the team part-time next season, replacing David Reutimann in the No. 00 car. ESPN.com also reports that team owner Michael Waltrip likely will drive in all or a portion of the four restrictor-plate races next season.

Michael Waltrip Racing has scheduled a press conference for Friday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Reutimann is 28th in the driver standings with two top-10 finishes in 33 starts heading into this weekend's race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Reutimann has been with Michael Waltrip Racing since 2007. He has two wins, 12 top-five finishes and 25 top-10 finishes in 168 starts for the team.

Clint Bowyer will leave Richard Childress Racing after this season to join Waltrip's team next season. Martin Truex Jr. will return to MWR.

Drivers talk

Jimmie Johnson said he talked with Brian Vickers on Monday, a day after questioning Vickers' involvement in the final caution at Martinsville Speedway.

Vickers was involved in a wreck late when Matt Kenseth turned him about 40 laps from the finish. Vickers later ran into the back of Kenseth but spun to create the final caution. That bunched the field and gave Tony Stewart the chance to get by Johnson for the win.

"Certainly disappointed about that last caution," Johnson said. "We had a nice, big lead. That stuff happens. It's short-track racing. Brian clearly was upset and frustrated. I don't know all the details on what went on with he and (Kenseth), but at the end of the day I've been involved in situations where I retaliated. Once the dust settles and the emotions kind of go down and you understand that Brian and Matt had a thing going on and Brian wanted to leave the race track with the situation resolved.

"I understand that. I respect that as well. I've been in that situation myself. When I look at what happened, sure, I lost a large lead at that point, but I still had a chance to go race for the win and I got beat by (Stewart)."

New sponsor

QuickenLoans will serve as the primary sponsor for Ryan Newman in nine races next year and be an associate sponsor the other races on his car.

The company also will be an associate sponsor next season on teammate Tony Stewart's cars, Stewart-Haas Racing announced Tuesday.

Pit stops

ESPN reports that its telecast of Sunday's race at Martinsville drew a 3.6 household coverage rating - up from last year's race, which drew a 2.8 rating. ESPN also reports that Sunday's race averaged 4.9 million viewers.... Reba McEntire will serve as host for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Awards Ceremony onDec. 2 at the Wynn Las Vegas.... NASCAR announced it will do a fuel-injection test Nov. 15 at Daytona. That's in addition to the Jan. 12-14 test there.