Rusty Wallace, Roger Penske, Jack Roush and Robert Yates were inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame Saturday night [Jan. 16th]. They are four of the most recognizable names in NASCAR and were among the sports most successful competitors during the 1980s and 90s.
Wallace burst onto the scene in 1984 and won the 1989 championship with car owner Raymond Beadle. It was with Penske, though, that he became a superstar, winning 10 races in 1993, eight in 1994 and battling Dale Earnhardt for the championship throughout the early- and mid-1990s.
Roush was one of most successful team owners in sports-car racing before moving to NASCAR in 1988 with driver Mark Martin. He has fielded some of the most successful Cup teams and drivers of the past two decades, bringing such stars as Martin, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards to the sport. He won championships in 2003 and 2004 with Kenseth and Busch.
Yates, a master engine builder who invested his life savings into a Cup team for young driver Davey Allison in 1989. Ironically, Yates said he chose Allison over Wallace for his first driver. Yates went on to win the Daytona 500 three times as a car owner and won the 1999 Cup championship with Dale Jarrett before turning his operation over to his son, Doug, in 2007.(in part from SceneDaily)(1-17-2010)
