On January 4 the NASCAR Hall of Fame announced the newest class of inductees with a crew chief, an engineer and owner, two drivers, and a broadcaster.
On January 19 Robert Yates, Red Byron, Ray Evernham, Ron Hornaday Jr, and Ken Squier will all become the newest members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
The induction ceremony will be held at the Hall of Fame in Charlotte and is open to the public with ticket prices ranging from $45 general admission to $350 VIP packages. A dinner is being held at the Charlotte Convention Center prior to the ceremony where the inductees will receive their jackets.
Norma “Dusty” Brandel is also being honoured with the Squier-Hall Award for their excellence in NASCAR media. Jim France is being honoured with the Landmark Award for his Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR.
On Saturday January 20 the NASCAR Hall of Fame will hold a Fan Appreciation Day.
A posthumous induction, Red Byron was a driver in the early days of NASCAR from 1948 to 1951. He won the first NASCAR sanctioned race in Daytona Beach and was named the first NASCAR champion. Byron died in 1960 at the age of 45.
Crew chief Ray Evernham spent 10 years in the pits atop the box for Hendrick Motor Sports crewing for Jeff Gordon. He has 47 wins in 213 starts and three championships as a crew chief. After retiring a crew chief, Everham put down the wrench and picked up the microphone to join one of the NASCAR broadcasting teams. He currently works for Hendrick Motorsports as a consultant.
NASCAR driver Ron Hornaday Jr made his mark in the Camping World Truck Series winning 51 races in 360 starts and a record four truck championships. Hornaday also holds Truck Series records for most top five finishes with 158 and top 10s with 234. He is one of only four drivers who have won five races in a row.
Broadcaster Ken Squier was one of NASCAR’s original broadcasters, he helped to found the Motor Racing Network – MRN – and helped to bring NASCA into the national audience. It was Squier who called the first live flag to flag broadcast of the Daytona 500 in 1979.
Car owner and engine builder Robert Yates has spent nearly 20 years in the shop and garage building race car engines and working on the cars In 1,155 races, Yates has 57 race wins to his credit.
Candidates for induction to the NASCAR Hall of Fame are determined by the nominee’s contributions to the sport of NASCAR. Twenty nominees are chosen from which five inductees are chosen. The 2018 class of inductees marks the ninth year for the Hall of Fame inductions.
photo credit: By Justin Felder – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32415795