CUP: Five New Members Join Hall Of Fame Tonight

Sprint Cup

CUP: Five New Members Join Hall Of Fame Tonight

The third class of NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees will be honored in Charlotte…

Mike Hembree | Posted January 20, 2012 Charlotte, NC

Left to right: Soon-to-be NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees Darrell Waltrip, Dale Inman, Glen Wood and Cale Yarborough speak to media and fans during the Hall Induction Ceremony Announcement last August. (Photo: Getty Images)

The NASCAR Hall of Fame will grow to 15 members Friday night as four drivers and a leading crew chief/mechanic are inducted into stock car racing’s most significant place of honor.

Those scheduled to be honored in a ceremony at the Charlotte Convention Center are Sprint Cup champions Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough, eight-time champion crew chief Dale Inman, pioneer driver and team owner Glen Wood and the late Richie Evans, the “king of the modifieds."

The ceremony will be broadcast by SPEED at 6 p.m. ET Sunday.

Yarborough was the first driver to win three Cup championships. He raced for team owner Junior Johnson – also in the Hall – and won titles from 1976-78. He finished his driving career with 83 Cup victories, 69 poles, $5.6 million in winnings and a reputation as a hard-nosed driver who gave no quarter.

Waltrip also won three championships – and also did so while driving for Johnson. He won the title in 1981, 1982 and 1985 and closed his career in 2000 after winning 84 times. After building the foundation of his career on the short tracks of Kentucky and Tennessee, he stormed into Cup racing in 1972 and upset the applecart, racing past veteran drivers and becoming one of the sport’s most outspoken participants.

Inman was the crew chief and head mechanic for Richard Petty’s seven Cup championships, and he also won a title with driver Terry Labonte. Inman was the pit boss for the vast majority of Petty’s 200 Cup victories, and he is largely credited with designing the template for the modern crew chief.

Wood started the Wood Brothers racing team in 1950 and drove to success in the Cup series before concentrating on team ownership, turning his operation into one of the sport’s most successful. Many leading drivers – David Pearson, Curtis Turner, Cale Yarborough, A.J. Foyt and Buddy Baker among them – sat in the Wood team’s No. 21 racers.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C., honors legends of the sport, and much more. (Photo: Getty Images)

Evans died at the age of 44 in a crash during a Modified series practice session at Martinsville Speedway. He won nine Modified championships, including eight in a row, and logged more than 450 feature race victories in a career that was basically limited to the Modified series. He will become the first individual inducted into the Hall based on success in a series other than Cup.

The new inductees will join Bill France Sr., Dale Earnhardt Sr., Junior Johnson, Bill France Jr., Richard Petty, Bud Moore, Ned Jarrett, Lee Petty, Bobby Allison and David Pearson in the Hall of Fame.

The Hall induction is the first event in the new NASCAR Acceleration Weekend. NASCAR Preview 2012, scheduled Saturday at the convention center and at the adjacent Hall of Fame, will include driver autograph sessions and question-and-answer sessions, displays of new race cars and numerous other exhibits.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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Mike Hembree

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