Auto Racing Digest

NASCAR Hall of Fame honors Dale Earnhardt Jr., Red Farmer and Mike Stefanik in Class of 2021 induction ceremony

Also inducted were broadcaster Bob Jenkins and the late Ralph Seagraves, as NASCAR honored its newest induction class after last year's ceremony was canceled due to the pandemic

Jerry Bonkowski

NASCAR Hall of Fame honors Dale Earnhardt Jr., Red Farmer and Mike Stefanik in Class of 2021 induction ceremony
NASCAR Hall of Fame honors Dale Earnhardt Jr., Red Farmer and Mike Stefanik in Class of 2021 induction ceremony /

Every induction class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame has been special ever since the first induction back in 2010. But Friday’s induction ceremony was definitely among the best the Hall and the sport have ever enjoyed.

The Class of 2021 (there was no induction in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) had arguably one of the strongest and greatest fields that the sport has seen.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Charles “Red” Farmer and Mike Stefanik were this year’s inductees and they paid homage not only to NASCAR’s Cup Series with the induction of Earnhardt, but also to the grassroots and Sportsman’s ranks with Farmer and Stefanik.

* Earnhardt Jr., son of the late Dale Earnhardt – who was part of the first inductee class in 2010 – was a more than worthy selection, most notably as a driver, but you also can’t forget his success as a team owner (JR Motorsports) and broadcaster for NBC Sports.

His wife, Amy, presented Junior for induction.

“My eyes are already watering, gosh!” Earnhardt started his induction speech. “(When he was young) I was a mechanic at a dealership. That was my destiny – or so I thought. You guys remember all the 29-minutes or less quick lube? Well, I could do it in eight. … I changed the oil in thousands of cars and I think I only forgot to put the oil filter in one. That was funny when I drove it back out to the lot and all the oil poured out of it. That’s not why I got fired from that job. We’ll talk about that another day.”

Unlike his late father, who tied Richard Petty and Jimmie Johnson with seven Cup championships apiece, the younger Earnhardt never was able to capture what he wanted the most, a NASCAR Cup championship. But he still achieved pretty much everything else, including 26 Cup wins, 149 top-5s, 260 top-10s, 15 poles and was a 2-time Daytona 500 winner. Now, while he didn’t win a Cup title, he did win two then-Busch Series championships. He also has racked up nearly 50 wins and three championships in the Xfinity Series as an owner.

“I want to thank NASCAR for giving me a place to make a living, and by NASCAR, I mean the entire industry,” Junior said. “I’m grateful for every employee, race track official, every ticket seller, every weekend volunteer, crew member, competitor, everyone who ever invested their time in this sport to make it great.”

And of course, perhaps the most telling aspect of Earnhardt’s career is he was voted by fans the Most Popular Driver in the Cup Series for 15 consecutive seasons.

“Nothing that racing has given me will ever top this night,” Earnhardt said, his voice cracking slightly with emotion. “The people enshrined in this building, they’re my role models and heroes, and one of them happens to be my father. So to join my dad in the Hall of Fame is probably as good as it’s going to get.”

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* Earnhardt wasn’t the only sentimental favorite to be inducted this year. Red Farmer was one of the greatest sportsman drivers the sport has ever seen. He was a 3-time Late Model Sportsman champion, captured the 1956 Modified Tour title and earned an estimated 700 race wins (no one is quite sure exactly how many, as Farmer has been racing since the 1950s! It’s no wonder that he was voted one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers back in 1998.

And he’s still going strong at the age of 89(!!!!), still racing almost weekly in and around Alabama, most notably the dirt track across the street from Talladega Superspeedway.

The sport almost lost Farmer back on July 12, 1993 when he was a passenger in a helicopter that crashed on the periphery of Talladega Superspeedway. While he suffered critical injuries, Farmer survived. Sadly, the pilot of the chopper, Davy Allison, son of one of Farmer’s best friends, Bobby Allison, died one day following the crash from his injuries.

Farmer was presented for induction by fellow NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart. Farmer received a standing ovation by those in attendance.

Farmer paid special homage to late NASCAR team owner Ralph Moody, who showed him some compassion and offered encouragement and advice the first time Farmer went to Daytona Beach in 1953 and competed on the five-mile beach and road course (six years before Daytona International Speedway opened).

Moody said several “so-called big shots, hot dogs” all refused to help him or offer advice. “Boy, we ain’t got time to fool with you,” he was told. “After about four or five of them, I was pretty well disgusted.”

Farmer almost gave up, but then decided to approach Moody. He couldn’t be more welcoming to the young kid from ‘Bama, taking about 10 minutes to talk with Farmer and told him about the right air pressure in tires, the right wheels on those tires, how to get down the asphalt, how to get through the turns and on the beach part of the course.

“That hit me so much, the way it happened,” Farmer said of Moody’s kindness. “And I said I’m a nobody and I may always be a nobody, but if I ever become a somebody, I’m going to remember Ralph Moody.

“And if any kid or person comes up to me and needs some help, I’m going to make sure I take time to talk to him and help him as much as I can, because I want to be like Ralph Moody. And that’s what I’ve tried to do my whole career.”

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSb58oShUyg

* Fellow NASCAR Hall of Famer Ray Evernham brought up Stefanik’s widow, Julie, to officially induct his longtime friend into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Having raced for 38 years, Mike Stefanik was a 7-time Modified Tour champion, including 74 wins, and was ranked No. 2 on NASCAR’s Whelen Modified All-Time Top 10 Drivers in 2003.

Sadly, Stefanik passed away on September 15, 2019 at the age of 61 after being involved in an airplane crash in Sterling, Connecticut.

“He was meticulous about everything he did,” Julie said of her late husband. “He even obsessed about his lawn. It was so gorgeous, so perfect, that when my nieces came to visit, they asked their dad if they needed to remove their shoes to walk on. In the winter months, he would spend three-plus hours snow-blowing our 900-foot so it looked perfect.

“He cared about details and everything being perfect. … His obsession was the same for racing, to always be prepared.”

One thing that Mike Stefanik was known for throughout his career was his ability to be a clean racer when it came to competition, something his wife also alluded to.

“As a driver, he was very methodical about his approach to a race,” Julie Stefanik said of her husband. “He was a clean and fair racer. He was clearly old school about racing hard, but always with the utmost respect and enjoyed the competition of a hard-fought race.”

Julie then closed her speech by adding, “To quote a friend, Michael was an ordinary guy doing something extraordinary.” She then bent down, lifted a glass and concluded, “In his honor, I’ll have a Jack (Daniels) and Diet (soda),” which brought about a resounding round of applause.

* Also honored posthumously were:

Late broadcaster Bob Jenkins, who passed away from brain cancer in 2021, received the Squier-Hall Award for media excellence in the sport.

And the late Ralph Seagraves, who oversaw much of Winston’s 32-year involvement in the sport, was honored with the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s Landmark Award.

After there was no induction ceremony last year due to the pandemic, this one was well worth waiting for. Congratulations to the new inductees. You’ve joined a very select group, but you’ve definitely earned it!

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Follow Jerry Bonkowski on Twitter @JerryBonkowski

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Jerry Bonkowski
JERRY BONKOWSKI

@JerryBonkowski is an award-winning writer/columnist/editor who has specialized primarily in motorsports -- most notably coverage of NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA -- for much of his 30-plus-year career. He has worked full-time for many of the largest media brands including USA Today, ESPN, Yahoo and NBC. He started AutoRacingDigest.com in partnership with Sports Illustrated in 2022 and serves as the site's editor and publisher. He also is a regular contributor to Autoweek.com and NASCAR.com. Follow Jerry on Twitter @JerryBonkowski

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