Kurt Busch, Harry Gant, and Ray Hendrick have been elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026, as announced on Tuesday.
Busch and Gant were chosen from the Modern Era Ballot, each receiving 61% of the vote. Jeff Burton, Harry Hyde, and Randy Dorton were the top runners-up who did not make the final cut.
Hendrick was selected from the Pioneer Ballot with 31% of the vote, with Bob Welborn finishing second in that category.
Busch, 46, was inducted in his first year of eligibility. He won the 2004 Cup Series championship and accumulated 34 Cup Series victories, including major wins at the 2010 Coca-Cola 600 and the 2017 Daytona 500.
Gant, 85, earned 21 wins in what is now the Xfinity Series and 18 in the Cup Series, highlighted by Southern 500 victories in 1984 and 1991. Already inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, this was his seventh year on the NASCAR Hall of Fame ballot. He still holds the record as the oldest driver to win a Cup Series race, triumphing at Michigan in 1992 at age 52 years and eight months.
Hendrick, who passed away in 1990, spent 36 years in motorsports and was nicknamed “Mr. Modified” for his dominance in modified stock car racing. He is credited with over 700 wins in modified and Late Model Sportsman competition.
