Portrait of Ricky Hendrick

Birthday profile

Ricky Hendrick

Ricky Hendrick, American race car driver (died 2004)

Born
April 2, 1980
Died
October 24, 2004
Zodiac sign
Aries
Birth year
1980

About Ricky Hendrick

Joseph Riddick "Ricky" Hendrick IV was an American stock car racing driver and partial owner at Hendrick Motorsports, a NASCAR team that his father Rick Hendrick founded. He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on April 2, 1980, and began racing in Go Karts at a young age, then the Legends Series at fifteen. He competed in both the Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series before his death from an airplane accident on October 24, 2004. He was killed with nine other family members and friends during the accident. Joseph Riddick "Ricky" Hendrick IV (April 2, 1980 – October 24, 2004) was an American stock car racing driver and partial owner at Hendrick Motorsports, a NASCAR team that his father Rick Hendrick founded. Hendrick also founded a motorcycle dealership in Pineville, North Carolina, named Ricky Hendrick's Performance Honda. In 1995, he won five races and finished second in the overall standings, and in 1996 he added one more victory and recorded multiple top-five finishes. He earned his first NASCAR win at Kansas Speedway on July 7 — at the time, the youngest Truck Series race winner — and posted nineteen top-ten finishes, then a rookie record.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Ricky Hendrick timeline

  1. Joseph Riddick "Ricky" Hendrick IV (April 2, 1980 – October 24, 2004) was an American stock car racing driver and partial owner at Hendrick Motorsports, a NASCAR team that his father Rick Hendrick founded.
  2. In 1995, he won five races and finished second in the overall standings, and in 1996 he added one more victory and recorded multiple top-five finishes.

The world when Ricky Hendrick was born

Ricky Hendrick was born in 1980. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1980

  • #1 song"Call Me" – Blondie
  • Top movieOrdinary People
  • Top TV showDallas
  • Best-selling bookThe Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentMiracle on Ice — US hockey team beats the Soviets at Lake Placid
  • Top headlineJohn Lennon assassinated outside his New York apartment
  • Technology milestoneCNN launches as first 24-hour news channel
  • Defining fadRubik's Cube
  • Notable inventionPost-it Notes (officially released)
  • World population4.44 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderJimmy Carter
  • Sports championPhiladelphia Phillies (World Series)
  • Also wonLos Angeles Lakers (NBA)
  • U.S. population227.2M

1980 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Ricky Hendrick's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19802026
Gas$1.19$3.45/gal
Average home$68,700$435,000
Average income$21,023$67,500
Minimum wage$3.10$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$2.69$11.95
Postage stamp$0.15$0.73
Population227.2M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Racing-Reference, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.