NASCAR Announces Hall Of Fame Class for 2017

Today NASCAR Hall Of Fame and NASCAR Officials announced the NASCAR Hall Of Fame Inductees for 2017. This Class will be the 8th class going into the NASCAR Hall Of Fame. Drivers who were on the ballot for 2016 includes Alan Kulwicki, Richard Childress, Buddy Baker, among many other influential people in NASCAR. Also announced today was the 2017 Landmark Award Winner. Here are you inductees into the 2017 NASCAR Hall Of Fame and the Landmark Award Winner!

Mark Martin

Mark Martin, my original favorite driver is going into the Hall Of Fame. From when I was born to when he retired and in fact he was one of my first words. I finally got to meet him in 2010 at Atlanta. Mark Martin is undoubtedly the greatest drivers to never win a championship. Martin made his NASCAR Premier Series debut in 1981 driving for Bud Reeder in the #02. Martin would make his final start at Homestead filling in for Tony Stewart. Martin would tally a total of 40 wins in the NSCS. As of 2014, he had the second most wins in the Nationwide Series with 49.  Martin also won five IROC Championships, he has more than any other driver. Also, during the 2005 season, Martin took over the all-time record for IROC wins, with 13. Martin is well deserved to be in the NASCAR Hall Of Fame.

Raymond Parks 

The original NASCAR Team Owner is going into the Hall Of Fame with Mark Martin. Raymond Parks was one of the first team owners in NASCAR and was one of the most successful owners in the History of NASCAR! Parks was the team owner of  Red Byron's car which won NASCAR's first Strictly Stock championship in 1949. Most famous for being a moonshine runner who helped to start NASCAR, he is recognized as the first "team" owner in stock car racing. Prior to the founding of NASCAR, Parks was the car owner for moonshine runner and nephews Lloyd Seay and Roy Hall as far back as 1938. In 1948-49, with Red Byron as the driver Parks's cars won the first two NASCAR Championships ever awarded; the Modified class in 1948, and the above mentioned championship in 1949. Parks was one of the last living members of the group who created NASCAR during a meeting at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1947. 

Benny Parsons

I most remember Benny Parsons as the commentator on NBC but the man was more than just one of the greatest color commentators.Benny joined the NASCAR circuit full-time in 1970 with crew chief, John Hill. He had 23 top-10 finishes in 45 races, a pole at Langley Field Speedway, and finished eighth in the final point standings. He raced in the No. 72 L.G. DeWitt/DeWitt Racing car. Parsons won the Championship in 1973. He was also the 1965 ARCA Racing Series Rookie of the Year. Parsons won a total of 21 wins in the NASCAR Premier Series. Parsons also became the only person to win both ARCA and NASCAR championships. Parsons also won the Daytona 500 in 1975.

Richard Childress

Richard Childress who is one of the most monumental NASCAR team owners of the Modern Era. Childress began behind the wheel but became more successful as a team owner. Richard Childress's first win as a team owner came at Riverside with Ricky Rudd. Childress became most famous for his bond and friendship with the great Dale Earnhardt Sr. who won 6 of his 7 championships with the RCR Banner. Earnhardt also won the Daytona 500 driving for Richard Childress in 1998. e is on the Board of Directors to the National Rifle Association.His grandsons Austin Dillon and Ty Dillon are NASCAR competitors. He is a 6 time champion of the Sprint Cup Series, 4 time Xfinity Series champion, 2 time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship and holds one ARCA Racing Series Championship as a car owner. Richard is third on the list of Championships wins as a team owner. 

Rick Hendrick

The Legendary NASCAR Team Owner Rick Hendrick will now be heading to the NASCAR Hall Of Fame as the final inductee of the class of 2017. Rick has 11 total titles as a NASCAR Team owner including 6 Championships from Jimmie Johnson. Rick began as a driver but then went into owning a team and was very successful. Congratulations Rick on going into the Hall Of Fame!

Landmark Award

H. Clay Earles

H. Clay Earles was the founder and chairman of the board of Martinsville Speedway, a NASCAR stock car racing track that Earles built in 1947 in Ridgeway, Virginia that was one of the circuit's first paved oval tracks and stands as one of its shortest. Red Byron was awarded a $500 prize for winning the inaugural race at the track, which had grown to $170,000 by 1999. Earles began a tradition in 1964 of distributing grandfather clocks to race winners, with Richard Petty receiving a track-record of 12, and would have received three more for wins that predated the inception of the practice. The track measures 0.526 miles (0.847 km) around, with a pair of 800-foot (240 m) straightaways and tight turns banked at 12 degrees, described as two dragstrips with tight turns. The track was first paved in 1955. Unlike the superspeedways, Martinsville became a track where the skill and strategy of each individual driver could overcome the big money and horsepower of the larger teams.

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