NASCAR champion Alan Kulwicki is killed in a plane crash near the Tri-Cities Regional Airport in Blountville, Tennessee.

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in the world and is one of the largest spectator sports leagues in America. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and his son, Jim France, has been the CEO since August 2018. The company is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida. Each year, NASCAR sanctions over 1,500 races at over 100 tracks in 48 US states, as well as in Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Europe.

Alan Dennis Kulwicki, nicknamed "Special K" and "the Polish Prince", was an American auto racing driver and team owner. He started racing at local short tracks in Wisconsin before moving up to regional stock car touring series. Kulwicki arrived at NASCAR, the highest and most expensive level of stock car racing in the United States, with no sponsor, a limited budget and only a racecar and a borrowed pickup truck. Despite starting with meager equipment and finances, he earned the 1986 NASCAR Rookie of the Year award over drivers racing for well-funded teams.

On the evening of April 1, 1993, a Swearingen Merlin III twin turboprop, carrying NASCAR champion Alan Kulwicki, crashed near Blountville, Tennessee, while on approach to the nearby Tri-Cities Regional Airport. All four people on board, including Alan Kulwicki, two executives of his corporate sponsor Hooters, and the pilot, were killed.

Tri-Cities Airport, serves the Tri-Cities area of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. It has a street address in the census-designated place of Blountville, Tennessee, but is adjacent to the city limits of Kingsport. The airport is governed by the Tri-Cities Airport Authority (TCAA) whose members are appointed by the cities of Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol (TN), Bristol (VA) and both Washington and Sullivan counties in Tennessee.