Last year's tragedy still fresh

The plane crash that killed 10 people stunned those close to the sport.
MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- The overcast skies and dense fog hovering over Martinsville Speedway on Saturday looked hauntingly familiar.
A year ago, on the same kind of dreary day, NASCAR's Nextel Cup drivers raced at this oldest track in the series. And then many of them cried.
The grim news came as Jimmie Johnson was heading to Victory Lane: A plane owned by his employer, Hendrick Motorsports, was missing and feared lost with 10 people aboard.
The plane crashed a few miles from the speedway on a fog-shrouded mountain after a failed attempt at landing. Among those killed were Rick Hendrick's son, brother, and twin nieces, along with team officials and the pilot for NASCAR star Tony Stewart
Memories don't die
"I don't think you can ever set a time frame on something like that," said Robbie Loomis, former crew chief for Hendrick driver Jeff Gordon and now a consultant for Johnson's team. "It's just something you deal with every day of your life."
Gordon hopes there's nothing to the notion that getting beyond the first anniversary of the crash will mean the memory of it starts to dim.
"I want it always to be a constant reminder of how precious life is," he said.
In April, when the series made its first stop in Martinsville since the crash, Gordon and Loomis dealt with the lingering ache the best way they could. They won the race.
In a series where taking a weekend off isn't really an option, Joe Nemechek said the victory was probably the best possible tribute. He tried to do the same after his brother, John, was killed in a truck race in 1997.
But the memory of last year still leaves him and countless others who have worked for Hendrick feeling cheated.
On his mind
"All those guys were good friends of mine, and I think about it all the time," said Nemechek, who drove for Hendrick in 2003. "There's a lot of that stuff that you constantly think about. They were some good people, and it'll be here forever."
Among them was Scott Lathram, Stewart's pilot. He was hitching a ride to Martinsville as a passenger when the plane slammed into Bull Mountain.
Stewart, tied with Johnson for the points lead with five races remaining in the season, said he tries not to think too much about the friend he lost.
"It's not a fond memory," he said, adding that his form of tribute also is doing his job the best way he can, and trying to bring home his second championship.
He took another positive step in that direction Friday by winning the pole for today's Subway 500. So, there's plenty of on-track business to occupy him.
"We've got a chase that we're involved in," Stewart said. "Scott would want us to focus on the task at hand. His family's doing real well, and we're just doing what he would want us to do, and that's keep moving on."
Support available
Stewart said it helps not only to have many friends in the sport, but to have many people around who have experienced similar tragedy and can offer support.
"Racing's probably the tightest knit group of people in all of sports," he said. "People that didn't even know Scott and didn't know anybody else on that plane still felt the effects of it because they know somebody that knew somebody. It's tough."
Tough, but also inspiring.
"You know, you go every week and you think you give it all you've got," Loomis said. "But I think we all dig a little bit deeper when we come up here now."
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.