Five men will forever be immortalized among the greatest in all of NASCAR.
Today in uptown Charlotte, North Carolina, the class of 2016 was officially inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Each of their respective careers has, in part, laid the foundation for the sport of NASCAR. Jerry Cook was a decorated modified driver and competition administrator for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Series, Bobby Isaac was a champion in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and holds the record for most poles in a single season, “Texas Terry” Labonte was an accomplished driver in the Sprint Cup Series, Bruton Smith was a promoter who took our sport to new places and Curtis Turner was one of the pioneer drivers of NASCAR.
Isaac was the first to be inducted today by the driver of the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, Ryan Newman.
“Winning a pole in NASCAR’s premier series means you’ve taken your race car right to the edge of mayhem,” Newman said. “One false move equals disaster. Perfection equals glory, and our next inductee did it better than anyone. His 19 poles in 1969 still stand as NASCAR’s single-season record. I know I’ve tried to beat it. Also a skilled racer, he won 37 races and took home the premier series championship in 1970. He sat on the pole many times, and now he stands at NASCAR’s pinnacle.”
Isaac’s wife Patty Isaac accepted the induction on behalf of her late husband who died of a heart attack on Aug. 14, 1977, just a day after competing in a Late Model Sportsman race at Hickory Motor Speedway.
Ironically, Hickory is where Isaac discovered his love of racing. Born into a poor family, Issac “attended a race at Hickory Speedway,” said Patty. “Not having enough money to purchase a ticket, he watched the race from a tree outside the track. He was inspired to believe that racing was his opportunity for a better life. Bobby soon realized that God had blessed him with the ambition and talent to be a race car driver. He loved to win, but he hated to lose, and he used this passion to drive his success.”
She then talked about how two events at Talladega Superspeedway changed Issac’s life forever.
“On September 14, 1969, he chose to compete in the opening event while most of the well-known drivers boycotted for safety concerns,” she said. “Mr. France recognized Bobby’s contribution to the success of that race and his speedway and rewarded him with a Rolex watch engraved with these words: “Winners never quit; quitters never win.” It became his most prized possession. The second event was on August 12, 1973, when midway through the race, a voice told him to park this thing. He pitted the Bud Moore car and announced his retirement.”
The next to speak was three-time Sprint Cup Series champion, Tony Stewart.
“Any day, anytime, anywhere, and against anyone,” Stewart said. “That was the attitude that possessed our next inductee, and that’s why I admire him so much. His competitive spirit knew no end, and combined with ferocious talent, landed him six modified championships, and today one of my favorite drivers takes his rightful place amongst the immortals in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.”
After being introduced by Robin Pemberton, Cook took the stage to accept his induction into the hall, saying it was “a little overwhelming. This is the greatest honor in NASCAR, and to have a place in our sport’s house is the ultimate achievement. Congratulations to the other inductees, also.”
He talked about his beginnings and career in the sport. He even acknowledged that the stories of he and Richie Evans leaving town in different directions just so they wouldn’t let each other know where they were racing that night were all true. That got a huge laugh out of the crowd.
“I think the rivalry between Richie and I made us both better drivers,” he said. “From 1971 to 1985, we claimed all the NASCAR modified championships and were tied at six championships each when I retired in 1982.”
In 1982, he took a position with NASCAR as a competition administrator where he remains to this day. “I went to work with the weekly tracks and the modifieds that I knew so well. I launched what is now the Whelen Modified Tour along with the late, great Jim Hunter, and we restarted Busch North Series, which is now the K&N Pro Series East. I was even an interim pace car driver for the Cup races for a while until a new driver could be hired.”
After awarding the Landmark Award to Darlington Raceway founder Harold Brasington, 2014 Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick took the stage to induct Turner into the hall.
“Known as the Babe Ruth of stock car racing, this pioneer entertained NASCAR’s earliest fans with not only his ability to whip a car around the track but also with his colorful personality away from the wheel,” Harvick said. “More than 45 years since his final race, this sultan of speed remains the only driver to win two consecutive races from the pole leading every lap.”
Accepting the award on Turner’s behalf was his daughter Margret Sue Turner Wright. She said that despite his lack of education, her father “taught himself how to write a contract, and he wrote a lot of contracts, a lot of businesses, and his life became busier with traveling, and so soon he decided he really needed to fly in the air instead of on the road. He needed to take flying lessons. So he took some flying lessons, and I saw mom and dad studying. Ann Ross Turner, who’s our mom, she was his supporter throughout his racing career, and she was quizzing him in that living room just about every night on either law books or for the flying. He did pass the test, and he bought his first plane, a Piper Cub.”
She then told the story of how he “was going to go to Charlotte and wanted to know if I’d like to go along. I was about nine. He said he wanted to show me something he was working on. So we left Roanoke, and we drove towards Charlotte, and near it, we eventually got out on the side of a road. So we got out, and there was just this big meadow, and he said, ‘I want you to look at this big field, meadow, and this is where I’m going to build the best racetrack there’s ever been.’ And while he was showing me and talking about it, I could tell he was really seeing it. I could only see grass. I just couldn’t get that. So I realized later he was a visionary.”
She referred to how her father had plans that would lead to what would become Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The next inductee, hands down, stole the show. It was fitting that the man to induct Bruton Smith was a driver who’s never shy on giving his opinions, 2012 Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski.
I’m not going to give away too much of his speech if by chance some of you missed it. If you did, you can listen to it on nascar.com. However, here’s a little taste of his speech.
After his proposal to Pepsi to be the exclusive soft drink provider at Charlotte Motor Speedway for 50-years was rejected, he then said in the way only he could that he “sold an awful lot of Coca-Cola. I mean, we have sold millions and millions of cans of Coca-Cola. As a matter of fact, if we had all the money we took in from selling Coca-Cola, we would have plenty of money and I could give y’all some money tonight because we took in lots of money there. We were selling Coca-Cola.”
He then said what I think was the line of the night.
“So Coca-Cola is still there,” he said. “Coca-Cola is at all eight speedways. We love Coca-Cola. We love what they do, and God bless Coca-Cola and all the employees.”
It should be noted that Bristol Motor Speedway is the only track of Speedway Motorsports, Inc. that sells Pepsi products.
I’ve always joked that Bruton Smith is a “brilliant madman” who could talk until the end of time. If Marcus hadn’t stopped him from doing so, I think he would’ve kept his speech going until the Coca-Cola 600 weekend on Memorial Day.
“I’m losing my bet on your speech,” Marcus said. “I told them you’d be less than eight minutes.” “Well, I apologize,” Bruton said. “Rick Hendrick said if I carried on out to 12 minutes he’d pay me for it. I’m trying to get there, Rick.”
Last up was reigning Sprint Cup Series champion Kyle Busch to induct two-time Sprint Cup Series champion Terry Labonte.
“My first full-time season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, I had the pleasure and pressure of following in the footsteps of a living legend,” Busch said. “Saying I had huge shoes to fill was an understatement. Early in his career, the two-time series champion, known as the Ice Man, for his coolness under pressure, later, though, the Texan became known as the sport’s Iron Man when he set the consecutive starts record. Now we have an even better name for him: NASCAR Hall of Famer.”
Labonte took the stage to thank all of those who helped him along the way such as his family and Rick Hendrick. He then transitioned to taking his children Justin and Kristy with him to the race track. He said he wasn’t sure if Kristy liked being there and how he made a terrible mistake when he let members of his pit crew take Justin through Talladega Boulevard. Any NASCAR fan worth their salt knows that some things in the infield at Talladega Superspeedway should forever remain unseen. “I’m not sure exactly what they saw or what they did, but from there on, about every Saturday night when we were at a racetrack, Justin would say, ‘Dad, can we take the golf cart through the infield?'”
He then said that while few drivers get to race in the Sprint Cup Series, even fewer get to race with their brother like he did with 2000 series champion Bobby Labonte. “I’ll tell you what, we had some great years we raced together,” Terry said. “We have some memories that will last a lifetime, and I love you too, buddy.”
He then spent the rest of his time talking about the events in his career that led to this moment. ” You know, I got to do a lot of cool things, got to go a lot of places, and be introduced as a two-time NASCAR champion. But I’ll tell you what: It’s going to be a whole lot better introduced as a NASCAR Hall of Famer.”
