NASCAR: Top 3 Hall of Fame favorites for 2023

NASCAR recently announced the nominees on the Hall of Fame ballots for the Class of 2023, and while the ballots are star-studded, there are a few nominees who stand above the rest.

Last week, NASCAR announced their Hall of Fame nominees on each ballot for the Class of 2023. Just like there were in 2021, there are two ballots: the Modern Era ballot, which consists of 10 nominees who have competed in the modern era of the sport, and the Pioneer ballot, which consists of five nominees who had a large hand in founding and developing the sport into what it has become today.

The Modern Era ballot nominees are Neil Bonnett, Jeff Burton, Tim Brewer, Carl Edwards, Harry Gant, Harry Hyde, Matt Kenseth, Larry Phillips, Ricky Rudd, and Kirk Shelmerdine.

The Pioneer Era ballot nominees are Sam Ard, A.J. Foyt, Banjo Matthews, Herschel McGriff, and Ralph Moody.

While all of the candidates are worthy in their own respects, every fan who votes and each of the voting members will have different opinions on who the three inductees should be. But a few names on each ballot stand out compared to their competition and have a better chance of being inducted in 2023.

Neil Bonnett – Modern Era ballot

Nominated for his work as a driver and a broadcaster, Neil Bonnett is a fan-favorite who garnered enough votes during the Class of 2021 election process to end up as the fourth highest overall vote-getter, making him a favorite to get into the Hall of Fame right off the bat.

Bonnett began his career in NASCAR working on cars for Bobby Allison and the famed “Alabama Gang,” of which he later became a member. He made his first Cup Series start in 1974 at Talladega Superspeedway and made limited starts in the series in the years to follow.

He scored his first win at Richmond Raceway in 1977 driving a Jim Stacey-owned Dodge with crew chief Harry Hyde, who is also on the ballot this year.

Bonnett went on to drive a majority or the entirety of each season through 1989, collecting 18 career wins, including crown jewel wins in the Southern 500 and the World 600. He also won races at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.

In 1990, Bonnett was involved in a severe crash at Darlington Raceway that put a halt to his driving career, but even during his time out of the car, he was still heavily involved in racing. He was a member of NASCAR broadcasting teams from TNN, CBS and TBS, he made appearances in popular racing films Stroker Ace and Days of Thunder, and he hosted the television show Winners on TNN.

In 1993, Bonnett made a very limited number of starts in the Cup Series to get his racing fix, but a crash in practice for the 1994 Daytona 500 took his life.

Bonnett was one of the first and most prominent examples of how drivers could remain around NASCAR after stepping away from racing and the garage area. His work with Winners extended the reach of NASCAR through media, something that has become more commonplace today; we see it with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Dirty Mo Media. This adds to Bonnett’s impressive resume and could help him get into the Hall of Fame.

Ricky Rudd – Modern Era ballot

The most recent NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee class featured Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mike Stefanik, who received 76% and 49% of the votes, respectively. The highest vote-getter during that year to not make it in was Ricky Rudd.

Rudd began his NASCAR career in 1975 as a driver in the Cup Series. He collected the Rookie of the Year award in 1977 without competing in every race. In 1981, he began a streak of 788 consecutive starts in the series, an Ironman record that stood until Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon broke it in 2015.

Rudd collected 23 wins in the Cup Series, a seemingly unimpressive number given his 906 starts, but his true strength was competitive consistency. He sits in seventh place on the all-time top-10 finishes list with 374, and he has the second most starts in Cup Series history, trailing only Richard Petty.

Rudd also has the distinction of being a successful driver-owner, having operated Rudd Performance Motorsports for a handful of years in the 1990s. He collected six wins as a driver-owner, including one in the prestigious Brickyard 400.

With no championships, no Daytona 500 wins, and a winning record that is arguably not strong enough alone to earn a spot in the Hall of Fame, Rudd’s overall statistics and his long-standing dedication, consistency, and overall talent make him a prominent figure in NASCAR, and that very well could be recognized by the committee as they make their decision on who will be a part of the Class of 2023.

A.J. Foyt – Pioneer ballot

There are names which are synonymous with certain sports, and within the diverse realm of motorsports, it becomes even more technical: Earnhardt is known from NASCAR, Andretti from IndyCar, Pruett from sports cars. But Foyt is a name known to all race fans.

A.J. Foyt came up the racing ranks through midget and sprint car races before catching a big break in IndyCar, where he won the Indy 500 four times. Foyt also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in his one and only attempt in 1967. He later completed the IMSA triple crown by winning the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring.

In the Cup Series, Foyt only made 128 starts, a pretty low number given how many races most Hall of Fame drivers have made. Over 50 of those starts came at Daytona International Speedway, where he captured the Daytona 500 trophy in 1972.

Foyt won six other races and drove for some of the most famous car owners in NASCAR history, including Smokey Yunick, the Wood Brothers, Banjo Matthews, Junior Johnson, and himself.

Foyt has accomplished almost everything there is to accomplish in American motorsports, and he will live forever in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame. Adding the NASCAR Hall of Fame to his resume seems only fitting to round out his amazing career and accomplishments.