Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mike Stefanik and Red Farmer were elected to the 2021 class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame Tuesday evening. Earnhardt and Stefanik were chosen from the Modern Era ballot while Farmer will represent the Pioneer Era.
This will be the first year that only three members will be inducted. The previous 11 classes were each comprised of five members. Ralph Seagraves was honored with the Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR.
The 2021 class was chosen from two different ballots. The Modern Era ballot included ten nominees selected by the Nominating Committee while the Pioneer Era ballot had five nominees whose careers began in 1961 or earlier and were chosen by the new Honors Committee.
Earnhardt Jr. received 76% of the Modern Era ballot votes with Stefanik receiving the second-most votes. Ricky Rudd and Neil Bonnett finished third and fourth, respectively. Red Farmer received 71% of the Pioneer ballot votes with Hershel McGriff receiving the second-most votes.
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Earnhardt is a two-time Daytona 500 winner and was voted as NASCAR’s most popular driver for 15 consecutive years from 2003 until 2017 when he retired from driving full-time. He won two Xfinity Series titles in 1998 and 1999 and had 26 victories during his Cup Series career. His JR Motorsports Xfinity team has earned three championships.
Earnhardt shared his emotions on this momentous day and leading up to the announcement.
“It was great to see my face pop up on that screen,” Earnhardt said to NBCSN’s NASCAR America. “I’ll be honest with you, I wasn’t really nervous. I had a root canal earlier today, so maybe I was more nervous about that. That was kind of distracting my thoughts.
“I also was understanding the fact I’m young, considering most people that are inducted into the Hall of Fame, and I had a lot of years that I could be patiently to hopefully see my name called. So I was going to be okay.”
He explained how his emotions set in as he began to watch and what it meant to him.
“Once you started the show, man nerves set in and I got shook up and I was extremely emotional to be nominated. Not a lot of people are like this, but I really work off affirmation — I succeed off affirmation — and there’s no better compliment or affirmation than from your peers and the people that you work with and work around.
“This is such a great pat on the back for a lot of hard work and a lot of years in the sport, trying to do the right thing for yourself, your sponsors but most importantly for the health of the sport. I’m feeling great about this experience and looking forward to what lies ahead, the evening itself and the ceremony. It’ll be a great experience and I’ll be excited.”
Mike Stefanik, who died in a plane crash on Sept. 15, 2019, won nine hampionships during his career in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and NASCAR East Series. He holds the Whelen Mofified series record in championships (seven), wins, poles, top fives and top 10s. He also won two championships in the NASCAR East Series, in 1997 and 1998, and is tied for ninth on the all-time series wins list.
Red Farmer, a member of the Alabama Gang, has a win total that is uncertain but estimates put it at more than700, and at almost 90-years-old, he is still competing. He claimed three consecutive championships from 1969-71 in the Late Model Sportsman division and ran 36 races in the Cup Series where his best finish was fourth (twice). In 1998 he was named as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers.
