BIFFLE, DORTON, SPRAGUE ADDED TO NASCAR HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2025 NOMINEES

NASCAR Hall of Fame officials announced their newest list of nominees Wednesday for the Class of 2025, adding Greg Biffle, Randy Dorton and Jack Sprague — a trio of championship-winning candidates — to the Modern Era ballot.

Ray Hendrick and Bob Welborn, both named on NASCAR’s 50 and 75 Greatest Drivers list, were added to the Pioneer ballot. Short-track legend Larry Phillips, a nominee since 2014, was moved from the Modern to the Pioneer ballot, and safety innovator Dean Sicking joins the list of five nominees for the Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR.

Voting Day for the Class of 2025 is scheduled for May 21. Two honorees will be selected from the 10 names on the Modern Era ballot, and one will be elected from the five Pioneer nominees. Fan balloting, which will count as one vote among those cast by the voting panel, is now open.

RELATED: Hall of Fame Fan Vote now open

Biffle, 54, is the most recent competitor on the list, a winner of 19 Cup Series races who was named to NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers list last year. His path to NASCAR’s top tour included championships in what is now known as the Xfinity Series (in 2002) and the Craftsman Truck Series (2000). He last competed in 2022.

Dorton made his mark in shaping Hendrick Motorsports’ engine program and guiding the team to some of its greatest successes, including nine NASCAR national-series titles. The legendary engine builder died in an aviation crash in 2004 at age 50, but his legacy and leadership lives on with an engine department that crossed the 500-win plateau last fall.

Sprague was a founding member on the Craftsman Truck Series driver roster, and he rose to prominence as a three-time champion (1997, 1999, 2001) and a 28-time winner. The 59-year-old Michigan native made 297 Truck Series starts, plus an additional 132 in other NASCAR national series.

Biffle, Dorton and Sprague join seven returning nominees on the Class of 2025’s Modern Era list (in alphabetical order): Neil Bonnett, Tim Brewer, Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards, Harry Gant, Harry Hyde and Ricky Rudd.

Ray Hendrick became known as “Mr. Modified” with his trademark red “Flying 11” cars collecting an estimated 700 victories in both the Modified and former Late Model Sportsman tour, the precursor to today’s Xfinity Series. Hendrick, who died in 1990 at age 61, was named one of NASCAR’s All-Time Top 10 Modified Drivers in 2013 and was chosen for the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2007.

Welborn was a three-time champion in NASCAR’s former Convertible Division, where he was a 19-time winner. In addition to his dominance of the ragtop tour, the North Carolina native won nine times in what’s now the NASCAR Cup Series and holds the distinction as the pole winner for the first Daytona 500.

Phillips, the Missouri short-track ace who won five championships in the NASCAR Weekly Series, was moved to the Pioneer list of candidates after 10 ballot appearances. Hendrick, Phillips and Welborn join incumbent nominees Banjo Matthews and Ralph Moody on the Pioneer ballot. Late Model Sportsman standout Sam Ard and motorsports legend A.J. Foyt moved off the ballot this year.

Sicking, 66, has been instrumental in advancing motorsports safety through the development of SAFER (Steel And Foam Energy Reduction) barrier technology. The civil engineer and inventor joins Alvin Hawkins, Lesa France Kennedy, Dr. Joe Mattioli and Les Richter on this year’s list of Landmark Award nominees.

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2024-04-24T16:13:10Z dg43tfdfdgfd