Two legendary NASCAR team owners, driver named to 2016 NMPA Hall of Fame

Rick Hendrick was among three people named for the 2016 class at the NMPA Hall of Fame Tuesday. (Getty Images)
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Rick Hendrick was among three people  named for the 2016 class at the NMPA Hall of Fame Tuesday. (Getty Images)
Rick Hendrick was among three people named for the 2016 class at the NMPA Hall of Fame Tuesday. (Getty Images)

Three legendary names in all of motorsports were named as inductees into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame Tuesday. The 2016 NMPA Hall of Fame induction class consists of NASCAR multi-championship team owners Rick Hendrick and Joe Gibbs, along with four-time Indianapolis 500 winner and three-time IndyCar champion driver Al Unser.

Joseph Riddick Hendrick III, best known as “Rick” or simply “Mister H” was born in 1949 and raised on the family farm near Palmer Springs, Virginia. At 27, he was the youngest Chevrolet dealer in America, and built an empire that has grown into the sixth-largest automotive group in the country. But it is in NASCAR where Hendrick and his Hendrick Motorsports organization have made the biggest impact.

Since its first race in the 1984 Daytona 500 where the team finished eighth and its first win seven races later by Geoff Bodine at Martinsville Speedway, Hendrick Motorsports has amassed countless NASCAR records in its 32-year existence: 14 NASCAR driver championships, including 11 in the premier Sprint Cup Series and 14 owner championships across three national series. MORE>>>

Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.