NASCAR champions, the late Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch, along with NASCAR Vice Chairman Mike Helton and four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears have been selected for induction into the 2027 National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame by vote of the membership.
The NMPA is proud to announce and celebrate these four accomplished honorees, whose legendary careers have impacted motorsports for decades.
The late Kyle Busch, 41, who passed away in May after a brief illness, is a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and his combined 234 victories in NASCAR’s three premier series – the NASCAR Cup Series (63), O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (102) and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (69) – are most all-time. He is one of only 18 drivers in the history of the sport to hoist multiple NASCAR Cup Series championship trophies (2015 and 2019). He won the 2009 ORAP Series title and his 102 wins in that series and his 69 victories in the truck series are both all-time best marks. He won races in 19 consecutive seasons and is the only driver in history to claim victories in all three national series in a single race weekend – something he accomplished twice in Bristol, Tenn. in 2010 and 2017.
Kurt Busch, 48, won the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series championship in the sport’s first-ever version of the “Chase.” The Las Vegas native won 34 career races in the sport’s highest level, including the 2017 Daytona 500. He earned the 2014 Indianapolis 500 top rookie honors for a sixth-place finish in his Indy debut – one of only six drivers to accomplish the legendary Memorial Day weekend racing “Double” of competing in both the Indy 500 and Charlotte’s NASCAR 600-miler in the same day. A 2026 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee, Busch has five ORAP Series wins and four NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victories. He podiumed (third place) driving in the 2008 Rolex 24 at Daytona and also won the 2003 International Race of Champions (IROC) championship.
Helton, 73, is one of NASCAR’s most legendary leaders. The Virginia-native’s first job in racing was working in public relations at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1980 before launching his trajectory in the sport’s executive ranks five years later. H was named president of NASCAR in 1999 – a role he served until 2015 when he was named the sport’s vice chairman. During Helton’s tenure NASCAR saw a great expansion, adding race tracks in California, the Midwest and South Florida to its schedule. Helton oversaw the sport’s first billion-dollar television deals and perhaps his greatest legacy may well be the massive safety innovations introduced during his tenure.
Mears, 74, is one of the sport’s great icons. His four Indianapolis 500 wins – in 1979, 1984, 1988 and 1991 – remain the benchmark for triumph in the great race, a record shared by only A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Helio Castroneves. Mears’ six Indy 500 pole positions is unmatched still today. The Kansas-native, who was raised in Bakersfield, Calif. won three CART Series championships in 1979, 1981-82 collecting 29 race trophies and setting a mark of 40 pole positions in what is the current-day IndyCar Series. He prevailed in the sport’s early heyday competing on a grid that included fellow generational legends such as Foyt, Mario Andretti, Michael Andretti, Bobby Rahal and Johnny Rutherford. Although he is widely celebrated for his incredible open-wheel success, Mears is also the 1976 winner of the world-renowned Pikes Peak Hill Climb.
These four accomplished members of the sport will be honored and celebrated in the annual National Motorsports Press Association’s Hall of a Fame Induction Ceremony Jan. 23, 2027 in Concord, N.C.
— National Motorsports Press Association —