Kurt Busch, Harry Gant, Ray Hendrick make up NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2026

 Kurt Busch, Harry Gant, Ray Hendrick make up NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2026

  May 20, 2025

  By Reid Spencer

  NASCAR Wire Service

  CHARLOTTE, N.C.—For Kurt Busch, waiting for the announcement of the 2026 NASCAR Hall of Fame Class felt like race day.

  That was before his name was called as a member of the class, joining Harry Gant as a Modern Era choice.

  Modified superstar Ray Hendrick earned election to the 2026 class on the Pioneer Ballot, and promoter extraordinaire H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler was recognized as the recipient of the Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR.

  The induction ceremony for the new members is scheduled for January 23, 2026.

  Busch’s career was characterized by remarkable consistency. The 46-year-old from Las Vegas won at least one NASCAR Cup Series race in 19 of his 21 full-time seasons.

  NASCAR Cup Series champion in 2004 at age 26, Busch pushed Ryan Newman to victory in the 2008 Daytona 500 when both drove for Team Penske. Nine years later, Busch won the Great American Race in a Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.

  “I felt like it was race mode,” Busch said of his nervousness in waiting to hear his name called. “I had to put the emotional blinders on… Everyone that’s on the ballot is someone who can go into the Hall because of the impact they made on the sport.

  “For me, just a blue-collar kid out of Vegas, I never would have imagined this. We were a family where it was just a hobby to race. It was just fun to go to the track as father/son. Dad (Tom Busch) had his car, and I had mine…

  “I’m running a Legend Car in 1999 at the (Las Vegas) Bull Ring, September of 1999. In September of 2000, I’m in Jack Roush’s Cup car, qualifying at Dover. Jeff Gordon’s next to me. Dale (Earnhardt) Sr.’s behind me. That’s how fast things happened for me. I don’t know how. I don’t know why.”

  Busch blossomed early in his NASCAR career, winning a pole position at Darlington Raceway in his 2001 rookie season and following that with four victories in 2002.

  It’s appropriate that Busch’s first career NASCAR Cup victory would come at Bristol, a track he came to dominate with six victories spread over a span of 17 years—and where he added to Bristol lore by making a “Snow Angel” after winning in uncharacteristically cold and snowy conditions in 2006.

  From 2002 through 2022, Busch amassed 34 Cup wins. In 2004, he won the first championship under NASCAR’s Playoff format, then known as the Chase.

  Driving the No. 97 Ford for Jack Roush, Busch weathered a bizarre accident when the right-front wheel separated from his car as he was approaching pit road. Busch continued onto pit road while the tire rolled onto the racing surface.

  But a quick fix in the pits propelled Busch to a fifth-place finish in the race and his only Cup championship, by eight points over Jimmie Johnson.

  Through the first decade of his career, Busch fought to find a balance between his elite talent and the mercurial temperament that cost him rides with Roush and Roger Penske. Ultimately, he won Cup races with five different owners—Roush, Penske, Stewart-Haas, Chip Ganassi and finally at Kansas Speedway in 2022 with 23XI Racing.

  “The late Jim Hunter (NASCAR executive) said it best to me once when I was in some trouble,” Busch recalled. “He said, ‘Son, you can get in as much trouble as you want, because you have that much talent to dig yourself out of these holes you’re putting yourself in.

  “But wouldn’t it be better if you didn’t dig those holes, and you could just stay on top, riding with your talent?’ It took a lot of lessons, but this was a fun announcement, and I can’t wait to tell more stories.”

  Kurt and Kyle Busch hold the record for most Cup victories accumulated by brothers with 97.

  The only driver to win a Cup race in cars of four different manufacturers—Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge and Toyota—Busch was named on 61 percent of ballots during a closed session on Voting Day at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the same percentage Gant received.

  In stark contrast to Busch, Gant was a late bloomer who didn’t race in NASCAR’s top division until age 33. It wasn’t until age 40 that Gant ran his first full season the Cup Series in 1980.

  Dubbed “Handsome Harry” for his striking good looks, Gant won 18 times in 474 starts on NASCAR’s top tour with a versatility that spoke volumes about his talent.

  Gant, now 85, was a standout on such big tracks as Daytona, Darlington, Atlanta, Charlotte, Talladega, Pocono and Michigan—with victories at each of those venues—but he also conquered the venues of a mile of less at Richmond, Rockingham, Bristol, North Wilkesboro, Dover, Martinsville and Phoenix.

  Gant also triumphed on the road courses of Watkins Glen and Sonoma, proving he could wheel a stock car at any sort of venue.

  Gant will be remembered most prominently for the feat that earned him another moniker — “Mr. September.”

  From Sept. 1 through Sept. 22 of 1991, Gant drove the iconic Leo Jackson-owned Skoal Bandit to four straight wins, at Darlington (the second of his two Southern 500s), Richmond, Dover and Martinsville, tying the Modern Era record for consecutive victories.

  Gant wasn’t finished. In 1992 he won twice, with his victory at Michigan in August making him the oldest driver to win a Cup race, at age 52.

  Two years later, at 54, he was the top qualifier at Bristol, becoming the oldest driver ever to win a Cup pole.

  Ray Hendrick led the Pioneer ballot with 31 percent of the vote. Early NASCAR Cup Series driver Bob Welborn was second in the balloting.

  Nicknamed “Mr. Modified,” Hendrick won more than 700 Modified and Late Model Sportsman races in a career that spanned 38 years (1950-1988). Driving the iconic red No. 11, Hendrick won five track championships at South Boston Speedway in his native Virginia.

  Though he never won a Modified championship, Hendrick finished in the top 10 in the standings nine times from 1960 through 1969. He is credited with 20 combined Modified and Sportsman victories at Martinsville Speedway alone.

  Hendrick was named one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers and one of NASCAR Modified’s All-Time Top 10 Drivers.

  Born in 1928 in Denton, North Carolina, Welborn passed away in 1997 at age 69.

  Wheeler, 86, is a man of many and varied talents. He was a boxer, a scholarship football player at the University of South Carolina and a sportswriter for the Columbia (S.C.) Record before joining the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company’s public relations staff.

  But Wheeler is best known for his 33-year tenure as President and General Manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway, where his innovative—sometimes outrageous—ideas brought a new vision to the promotion of stock car racing.

  Wheeler’s legendary stunts included school buses jumping over (and crashing into) lines of cars and full-scale Memorial Day weekend “battles” in the speedway’s infield grass, complete with startling pyrotechnics.