• What is the NASCAR Hall of Fame?: Opened May 11, 2010 in Uptown Charlotte, NC, the 150,000-square-foot NASCAR Hall of Fame is an interactive, entertainment attraction honoring the history and heritage of NASCAR. The high-tech venue, designed to educate and entertain race fans and non-fans alike, includes artifacts, interactive exhibits, 275-person state-of-the-art theater, Hall of Honor, Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant, Sports Avenue retail outlet and NASCAR Media Group-operated broadcast studio. The five-acre site also includes a privately developed 19-story office tower and 102,000-square-foot expansion to the Charlotte Convention Center, highlighted by a 40,000 square-foot ballroom. The NASCAR Hall of Fame is owned by the City of Charlotte, licensed by NASCAR and operated by the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority. www.nascarhall.com.

NASCAR HALL of FAME 2012 Class

  • 3rd Hall of Fame class announced:
    NASCAR announced today the 2012 class of inductees into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The five-person class, which will be officially inducted in a ceremony during the weekend of Jan. 20, 2012 at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C., consists of: Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Inman, Richie Evans and Glen Wood.
    Members of the 55-member NASCAR Hall of Fame Voting Panel met today in a closed session in Charlotte, N.C., to vote on the induction class of 2012. The announcement was made by NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France in the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s “Great Hall.”
    The class was determined by votes cast by the Voting Panel, which included a nationwide fan vote conducted through NASCAR.COM. The accounting firm of Ernst & Young presided over the tabulation of the votes.
  • As was the case for the first two classes of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the results of this year’s voting were competitive.
    Yarborough led with 85% percent of the vote, followed by
    Waltrip (82%),
    Inman (78%),
    Evans (50%) and
    Wood (44%).
  • Also receiving votes were Jerry Cook, Cotton Owens, Raymond Parks and Herb Thomas.
  • The fans’ five picks, in alphabetical order, were Richard Childress, Benny Parsons, Fireball Roberts, Waltrip and Yarborough.
  • The five inductees came from a group of 25 nominees for induction into the 2012 NASCAR Hall of Fame class that included:
    Buck Baker, Red Byron, Richard Childress, Jerry Cook, H. Clay Earles, Richie Evans, Tim Flock, Rick Hendrick, Jack Ingram, Bobby Isaac, Dale Inman, Fred Lorenzen, Cotton Owens, Raymond Parks, Benny Parsons, Les Richter, Fireball Roberts, T. Wayne Robertson, Herb Thomas, Curtis Turner, Darrell Waltrip, Joe Weatherly, Glen Wood, Leonard Wood and Cale Yarborough.

 

Highlighting the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2015

 

 

Richie Evans – Driver, NASCAR Hall of Fame

(born 7-23-1941 – died 10-24-1985)
Hometown: Rome, N.Y.
Competed: 1973-85
Starts: 1,300 (estimated)
Wins: 475 (estimated)

 

  • The recognized “king” of Modified racing, Evans captured nine NASCAR Modified titles in a 13-year span, including eight in a row from 1978-85.

    In the first year of the current NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour format in 1985, Evans won 12 races, including a sweep of all four events at Thompson, Conn.

    Evans ranked No. 1 in the 2003 voting of the “NASCAR All-Time Modified Top 10 Drivers,” and he was named one of NASCAR’s “50 Greatest Drivers” in 1998.

  • websites: legendsofnascar.com/richie_evans.htm and
    vintagemodifieds.com/Richie_Evans
  • driver stats at racing-reference.info

 

Dale Inman – Crew Chief, NASCAR Hall of Fame

(born 7-19-1936)
Hometown: Level Cross, North Carolina
Competed: 1958-92
Wins: 193
Poles: 129

 

  • Behind every legendary driver, there is usually a legendary wrenchman.

    That was Dale Inman, without whom Richard Petty might never have been The King.

    Inman, Petty’s crew chief at Petty Enterprises for nearly three decades, set records for most wins (193) and championships (eight) by a crew chief.

    Inman won seven of those championships with inaugural Hall Of Fame Inductee Petty (1964, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, and 1979), and another one in 1984 with Terry Labonte.

    Credited with revolutionizing the crew chief position, Inman’s standout year was 1967. That season, Inman and Petty won a NASCAR-record 27 races – 10 of them consecutively. All 27 victories were in the same car they built a year earlier. Inman retired from NASCAR in 1998, and in 2008, helped unveil the first artifact at the NASCAR Hall of Fame – the Plymouth Belvedere that Petty drove to 27 wins in 1967.

  • crew chief stats at racing-reference.info

 

Darrell Waltrip – Driver, NASCAR Hall of Fame

(born 2-5-1947)
Hometown: Owensboro, Ky.
Competed: 1972-2000
Starts: 809
Wins: 84
Poles: 59

 

  • A three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion (1981-82, ’85), Waltrip won all three with legendary driver/owner Junior Johnson. Waltrip is tied with Bobby Allison for third all-time in series victories with 84. His 59 poles rank fifth all-time in NASCAR Sprint Cup history. He competed from 1972-2000, another highlight being his 1989 Daytona 500 victory in a Rick Hendrick-owned Chevrolet.

    Waltrip’s first series title came in 1981, when he finished with 12 wins and 21 top fives in 31 races. He won the title by 53 points over Bobby Allison. In his second championship season, 1982, he finished with 12 wins and 20 top 10s in 30 races, sweeping both races at four tracks (Nashville, Bristol, Talladega and North Wilkesboro). In his third championship season, 1985, Waltrip finished with three wins and 21 top 10s in 28 races.

    Waltrip and his wife, Stevie, reside in Franklin, Tenn. He was nicknamed “Jaws” during his career because of an outspoken demeanor. He currently is a commentator on FOX’s NASCAR broadcasts. He was named one of NASCAR’s “50 Greatest Drivers” in 1998.

  • website: allwaltrip.com
  • driver stats at racing-reference.info
    owner stats at racing-reference.info

 

Glen Wood – Driver/Owner, NASCAR Hall of Fame

(born 7-18-1925)
Hometown: Stuart, Va.
Competed: 1953-64
Starts: 62
Wins: 4
Poles: 14

 

  • Glen Wood laid the foundation for the famed Wood Brothers racing team as a driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Competing on a semi-regular basis, mostly at tracks close to his southern Virginia home, Wood won four times – all at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C. His best season was 1960 during which Wood won three times and posted six top-five and seven top-10 finishes in just nine races. He also won 14 poles during a 62-race career.

    Wood, of course, is best known for his collaboration with brothers Leonard and Delano in Wood Brothers Racing. The Stuart, Va.-based team, which dates to 1950 and remains active, has amassed 97 victories in 1,353 races. The team’s all-time roster of drivers is a virtual who’s who of NASCAR and includes David Pearson, Curtis Turner, Marvin Panch, Fireball Roberts, Dan Gurney, Tiny Lund, Parnelli Jones, Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough, Fred Lorenzen and Bill Elliott.

    The Wood Brothers have excelled outside the NASCAR world as well, winning the 1965 Indianapolis 500 with Jim Clark.

  • website: woodbrothersracing.com
  • driver stats at racing-reference.info and
    owners stats at racing-reference.info

 

Cale Yarborough – Driver, NASCAR Hall of Fame

(born 3-27-1939)
Hometown: Timmonsville, S.C.
Competed: 1957-1988
Starts: 562
Wins: 83
Poles: 69

 

  • As competitive as the sport has always been, NASCAR has had very few dynasties. Cale Yarborough’s reign in the late 1970s, though, was one of them.

    His string of three consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championships from 1976-78 was unprecedented – and unmatched until 2008, when Jimmie Johnson was crowned champion for the third straight year. Johnson won a fourth consecutive title in 2009.

    During his three-year dominance, Yarborough won 28 races – nine in 1976, nine in ’77 and 10 in ’78. His final championship points margin in those three years was never fewer than 195 points and was as much as 474 in 1978.

    Those three years made Yarborough’s career, but he enjoyed success before and after. The fiery competitor was the series championship runner-up in 1973 and ’74 and again in 1980.

    Yarborough totaled 83 victories in his 31-year career, ranks fifth all-time. His 69 poles rank third all-time. And he won the Daytona 500 four times (1968, ’77, ’83-84), a mark that ranks second only to Richard Petty’s seven.

    When NASCAR’s “50 Greatest Drivers” list was compiled in 1998, suffice to say that William Caleb Yarborough was a shoo-in.

  • driver stats at racing-reference.info
    owner stats at racing-reference.info