It’s somehow appropriate that a driver who was once nicknamed “Jaws” is now known to a generation of fans because of his no-holds-barred race broadcasts.  But it’s not Darrell Waltrip’s prowess behind the microphone that got him the nod to the third class of drivers to be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, but his prowess behind the wheel. Many of today’s fans don’t know the Waltrip that took to the track each week: aggressive and brash, he talked the talk all right, but he also walked the walk, racking up 84 wins and three championships in 809 races in what is now the Sprint Cup Series.

Almost from day one, Waltrip made his presence known on and off the track.  His driving style was aggressive, with no apologies about it.  If you didn’t like it, well, that was tough.  But unlike many who can talk a good game, Waltrip backed it up.  He won his first race in 1975 at the old Nashville Fairgrounds, and throughout his career was a fearsome competitor at the series’ short tracks.  He was crowned champion in 1981 after a season where he amassed a dozen wins and 25 top 10’s in 31 races, and he backed that up with a repeat in 1982 with twelve more victories and 20 top 10’s in 30 races.  Waltrip’s third title came in 1985, sheer consistency taking center stage as an older, wiser Waltrip outfoxed an 11-win blockbuster effort by Bill Elliott.  Then, in 1989, Waltrip finally took home the one win that eluded him throughout his career: the Daytona 500.  Waltrip’s joyous dance in Victory Lane remains one of the sport’s memorable highlights.

After that Daytona triumph, Waltrip would win five times more in his career.  He ended his racing days as an independent owner-driver, winning his final races under his own banner in an era where the owner-driver was a dying breed.  He began the 21st century in the broadcast booth, where he has brought races to life for fans since.

In his induction speech, Waltrip spoke of his appreciation of his place in NASCAR history, but also of the importance of his family.  His wife Stevie was one of the first women to be allowed in the pits, after Waltrip had her named a car owner and crew member to get around a NASCAR rule that banned women.  He told the story of his daughter Sarah, who flew 25 hours from a mission trip in the Philippines on Thursday to surprise her father for his induction.  And in what might have been his proudest moment of the evening, Waltrip announced that he's starting a new chapter in his life - as a grandfather, with daughter Jessica and her husband expecting their first child.  It's a far cry from the brash racer who earned the reputation of talking too much and driving too rough.  But in Waltrip, the two are truly one and the same.

Waltrip was inducted into the Hall of Fame by Jeff Hammond, his longtime crew chief and now his broadcast partner, who summed up the driver this way:  “Our sport has never seen the likes of Darrell Waltrip - on or off the track. And it’s entirely possible that it never will [again]." - Amy Henderson

Many of the newer fans will remember the memorable run of Jimmie Johnson winning five consecutive championships. But before Johnson's remarkable run, the standard bearer for consecutive titles was Cale Yarborough, who won three in a row from 1976 through 1978. Yarborough retired from the sport with 83 victories and was voted one of the sport's 50 greatest drivers.

Yarborough was the epitome of a hard charger when he was behind the wheel of a race car. He was the first driver to qualify over 200 miles per hour at Daytona, clocked on his first lap of time trials in 1983. But instead of being content with that lap he pushed it even harder on the second lap and ended up flipping his car out of the fourth turn.  Undeterred, he climbed into a backup car and won the race at the conclusion of Speedweeks. 

After Yarborough won his consecutive titles, he only ran two more full seasons for Junior Johnson before deciding to cut back on his schedule in 1981 and spend time with his family. That move opened the door for Darrel Waltrip to get behind the wheel and eventually win his own three titles for Johnson.  

Yarborough has been known to feud with the folks who run NASCAR from time to time, but he was very appreciative of the honor Friday night and said he considered it “the best day of his life.” He went on to thank NASCAR for providing him with the chance to pursue his dream of driving a race car and getting out of the tobacco fields of South Carolina. - Mike Neff

Most people think of Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt having the most wins in the history of the Cup Series. While that is true for drivers, there is one crew chief who has even more wins, and that is Dale Inman. The man who was on the box for all seven of Petty's championships was also on the pit box for the first championship for Terry Labonte, giving him a total of eight titles. Inman is credited with not only being the greatest crew chief of all time, but he also invented the position. Before Inman, there was no such thing as a crew chief leading the mechanical adjustments on pit road.

While Inman's career achievements, in and of themselves, were enough to merit Hall of Fame induction, his footprint on the sport reaches far beyond just his racing record. The list of talent that was tutored by Inman is long and distinguished. Mike Beam, Barry Dodson, Jake Elder, Tony Glover, Steve Hmiel, Robbie Loomis, Todd Parrott, Robin Pemberton and Wade Thronburg all were trained by Inman and went on to be winning head wrenches in the Cup series.

During the induction ceremony on Friday night, the man who piloted the cars for the vast majority of the wins Inman crew chiefed, Richard Petty, introduced his cousin to the amassed crowd. He talked about the fact that neither he nor Dale were mechanically inclined but his father, Hall of Famer Lee Petty, taught them quite a bit and the rest they learned on their own. 

When Inman addressed the crowd he pointed out that he finally had his own Hall of Fame ring that he could shake back at his cousin. Apparently, Petty had been pointing out to his former crew chief, for the last two years, that he had a ring and Inman did not. But Inman, never one to be shy about his accomplishments, joked on stage that he should have gone into the Hall first because he had more championships than Richard did.

While the list of people in the Hall of Fame is primarily made up of drivers, it expanded even more this year with the inclusion of the winningest crew chief of all time, Dale Inman... and deservedly so. - Mike Neff

Before NASCAR even existed, the Wood family was running stock car races around the Southeast, including the Daytona Beach race.  When NASCAR was formed Glen and his brothers Leonard, Delano, Clay and Ray Lee all worked together to form the Glen Wood Company that ultimately became the Wood Brothers. While Glen Wood has been known for years as one of the patriarchs of the family racing organization, he was a formidable driver in the early days. He only scored four wins in 62 starts as a driver but all of them were at Bowman-Gray Stadium, three of them in one season. 

Wood was ever the innovator, at one time realizing that bite off of the corner was critical at the Stadium that they actually moved the engine so far back in the car that he had to drive from the back seat. While he was soundly ridiculed when his fellow competitors saw the configuration, he had the final laugh when he rolled it into Victory Lane.

Wood's most important contribution to the world of Stock Car racing was the choreography of pit stops. In the late 1950s and 1960s Wood realized that as much, or more time could be made up on pit lane than could be gained on the race track. He began to work on the timing and assignments during pit stops and got to a point where the Wood Brothers' cars would routinely gain double digit seconds on their competitors on every one. They became so well known for their speed on the pit lane that Lotus hired them to pit Jimmy Clark's car during the 1965 Indianapolis 500. While the rear engine design of the car certainly had a role in Clark winning the race that year, the speed of the Wood Brothers pit crew most definitely helped get the British Racing Green car to the checkered flag first.

While the Woods seldom ran a full season in the Cup series, they were always successful when they did. Thanks to Trevor Bayne's victory in the Daytona 500 last year, the team has won races in seven different decades and Glen Wood has been there for every one of them. - Mike Neff