The Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum is getting even more star power for its Los Angeles debut — NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart will join Mike Joy and Clint Bowyer in the broadcast booth for the Feb. 6 spectacle, FOX announced Saturday night.
“To call the very first Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum AND the Daytona 500 is an opportunity you don’t pass up,” Stewart said in a FOX Sports release. “The size and scope of both these races is massive, and it’s an honor to be a part of them with FOX. Anytime you get to talk racing with Clint and Mike, you’re going to have a good time.”
The season-opening Busch Light Clash at The Coliseum exhibition race marks a historic first visit to the tradition-rich Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which will add NASCAR Cup Series racing to its 98-year-old portfolio. The event is to be contested around a quarter-mile asphalt oval that has been built on the facility’s football field.
The Los Angeles event (6 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM) will mark the first time the preseason Clash will be held outside of Daytona International Speedway since its inception in 1979, and it will give the sport its first competitive look at the Next Gen car in the non-points event.
There’s plenty more in store for fans in attendance or watching on FOX as well, including a Pitbull pre-race concert presented by Coca-Cola along with a race break performance by Ice Cube.
FOX also announced that two-time Daytona 500-winning crew chief Larry McReynolds will return as the FOX NASCAR technical analyst, with Jamie Little and Regan Smith reporting from the pits at the Clash and Vince Welch joining the team in Daytona.
The first evening of the 2022 Chilly Willy at Tucson Speedway is in the books.
Three classes — Super Late Models, Legends and Legends / Pro & Masters — took to the 0.375-mile oval Friday night, with the evening culminating in the A Features for the Super Late Models.
All of the action at the Chilly Willy is building up to Sunday’s main event, the Super Late Models Chilly Willy 150.
Below are the takeaways from Friday’s action.
Preston Peltier of Brighton, Colorado, proved to be the Super Late Model driver to beat Friday night at Tucson. He topped the division’s qualifying run by 0.2 seconds over second-place Tyler Tanner, putting Peltier on the pole for the A Feature 1. Peltier won that feature from the pole.
Blaine Rocha, Edward Vecchiarelli, Kody Vanderwal and Rudy Vanderwal rounded out the top five of the Super Late Models A Feature 1. Vecchiarelli was able to pass Kody Vanderwal after starting fourth.
Tanner finished second in the Super Late Models A Feature 2 after getting passed by Dustin Ash, who had finished third in the qualifier before winning his feature. Brett Yackey, Ross Strmiska and Dylan Jones rounded out the top five in the Super Late Models A Feature 2.
Sean Hingorani of Newport Coast, California, put together a perfect night in the Legends division at Tucson on Friday. He topped the qualifying chart before starting and finishing first in Heat 1. He then won the feature race after starting on the pole.
Bryceton Meyer, Ethan Nascimento, Chasen Groff and Nathan Quella rounded out the top five in the Legends A Feature race.
In the Legends / Pro & Masters division, Jake Bohlman and Jaron Giannini finished first and second, respectively, in qualifying. And they finished the same in Heat 1. Then Giannini flipped the script on Bohlman to win the feature race. Levie Jones, Jordan Holloway and Andy Hulcy rounded out the top five.
The 2022 Chilly Willy action continues Saturday beginning at 3 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. MT on FloRacing.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – AJ Foyt could win a race in a wheel barrel. Tony Stewart could win in anything that has a steering wheel. At least that is Red Farmer’s reasoning behind why he considers Foyt and Stewart to be two of the best racers he has ever seen. And Farmer is 89 years old, racing for at least 75 of those trips around the sun.
After being inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame Friday night and reminiscing on his still-active career, Farmer’s status and experience make him worthy of the question: Who is the best race-car driver – ever?
“I’d put Tony Stewart and AJ Foyt up there,” Farmer said Friday at the Charlotte Convention Center. “Now you’ve got this kid, Kyle Larson, coming up who looks like he’s in the same class. He can drive anything and win races in it. Road course. Dirt. Superspeedway. Asphalt. Mile-and-a-half.”
Not an exaggeration. Last season alone in the NASCAR Cup Series, Larson won 10 races, including at road courses, superspeedways, asphalt and mile-and-a-halves as well as the title race at Phoenix. He didn’t win a dirt race on the NASCAR schedule – there was only one – but he did win in multiple other dirt-specific circuits, including the oh-so-popular Chili Bowl.
“That’s kind of a hard decision, you know, to pick one that’s the best driver,” Farmer said. “I think you got to pick a driver that can drive anything on any type of track.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a self-described lottery-winning moment before he ever hit NASCAR’s big time. He had become a regular competitor on the weekly and touring Late Model circuit, and Dale Earnhardt Inc. was looking for a full-time replacement for Steve Park in its Xfinity Series ride for 1998.
Earnhardt Jr. recalled that his brief, nine-race Xfinity career to that point was middling at best, and that his Late Model record was a modest four wins in 159 starts. Yet when Dale Earnhardt approached crew chief Tony Eury Sr. to discuss the team’s direction, his suggestion hit close to home.
“Dale came to me and said, ‘what do you think about Dale Jr.? Do you think he’ll ever make a driver?’ ” Eury recalled. “And I said, ‘I don’t know. I haven’t been to Myrtle Beach (Speedway) to watch him race and I don’t have time to go to Myrtle Beach, but I see you spending a lot of money on some other people, why don’t you spend it on your own kids? Try it and see. That’s all we can do is see.’
“So we tried it, and it worked.”
From those modest beginnings sprang a NASCAR Hall of Fame career. Tony Eury Sr. and Jr., both of whom played pivotal roles in Earnhardt Jr.’s early years in racing, sat front and center Friday night at the Charlotte Convention Center to watch their former pupil’s induction.
Earnhardt Jr. eventually made Eury Sr.’s suggestion look prophetic. The two combined for 13 wins and a pair of Xfinity Series championships in consecutive years, launching him onto the national scene.
Rusty Jarrett | Getty Images
“I always thought he would be one of the greats,” said Eury Jr., who was atop the pit box for two of his Cup Series wins and one of his Xfinity triumphs. “I’d seen the talent that he had early, when we started the Xfinity stuff. Luckily we were in a position as a company where we were kind of finishing in the top five in points … so I told him, ‘look, just don’t hit nothing and you’ll have this championship in the bag. We’ll do what we gotta do and you’ll learn how to drive these cars and we’ll go.’
“He wasn’t really successful in his Late Model career, but he was consistent. He’d run top five all the time so you knew he could take care of his equipment. That’s what he did. It’s kind of like he says in his videos, in ’98, it was like, ‘wow, we did it.’ We weren’t supposed to do it, but we did it. That was cool, but in ’99 it was more like, let’s get serious about this. We’ve got to repeat. We’re supposed to do this.”
That combination and confidence carried into the Cup Series in 2000, with Earnhardt bringing the Eurys along for the ride. And Eury Sr. drew special mention during Earnhardt’s speech as one of the role models who held him accountable in the early stages of his career. “I think about you all the time, and every day I live my life to please people like you,” Earnhardt said, noting how the elder Eury grounded him as the sometimes chaotic career began to skyrocket.
The Hall of Fame stage gave Earnhardt a chance to thank his longtime crew chief, but it also presented the opportunity to mend a heartache from more than 15 years ago.
“For a long time there, I spent day after day with that man, racing in the Xfinity Series and then the Cup Series with the Bud car,” Earnhardt said after the ceremonies. “One of my biggest regrets, and I’ve said this before, one of the biggest regrets in my professional career was thinking that making a change in his position as a crew chief was what we needed to do. Me supporting that decision is without question my biggest regret in my racing career because I was not only coming off a successful year in 2004, but I needed his leadership and so did the team.
“So it was so nice to be able to look him in the eye and tell him that I think about him every day and the decisions I make in my life are influenced by him, and that he matters, at least to me. I’m glad that I got to share that with him.”
It was one of a multitude of stories on a welcoming, snowy night, from Julie Stefanik’s heartfelt speech honoring her late husband, Mike, a true Modified Tour ace. And Red Farmer stoked the racing hot-stove season with vivid tales pulled from his decades as a pioneer of the sport.
The Eurys had their own stories, either shared themselves or from the recollections of others. Those yarns included the contract negotiations that Earnhardt first had with team owner Rick Hendrick and the almost comically trivial write-in request – that his car’s side skirts always be painted to match the body color.
But the Eurys were also able to share their perspective on Earnhardt Jr.’s growth into his multi-faceted life as a husband, father, team owner and an insightful broadcaster. That public-facing role with NBC Sports marks a long-haul departure from the bashful young driver that they had first urged the Intimidator to promote.
“The media couldn’t get him to talk to them, and just gave short answers to everything. Real shy, didn’t want to talk, wouldn’t look at the cameras,” Eury Sr. said. “Then for him to turn into the TV guy that he is now, it’s really kind of amazing how he’s changed. I tell you, I’m really, really proud of him as a race car driver, but I’m really proud of him the way he’s doing his TV stuff and his Download (podcast). I couldn’t be any happier.”
Earnhardt Jr. has long been a steward of stock-car racing history. Now it’s a role he’s further able to embrace as a NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee.
“I think he’s always been kind of timid to be that guy, but I told him tonight when I saw him that one of the greatest things he can do is be an ambassador in this sport,” Eury Jr. said, noting his show of support for the Stefanik family before the Hall of Fame proceedings. “… Stuff like that goes further than you can ever imagine with people. Wins are great, titles are great, but the kind of person you are means more than anything.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — At first glance — aside from sharing the profession of “race car driver” — Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mike Stefanik and Red Farmer couldn’t be more different from one another.
A perennial Most Popular Driver at NASCAR’s highest level of competition, Earnhardt holds two Daytona 500 wins among his 26 career victories.
More than that, as a driver, team owner and television analyst, Earnhardt has transcended both the sport of stock car racing and his own legacy as the son of seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt.
Stefanik, a hard-nosed New Englander, drove modifieds with a relentless tenacity that carried him to seven Whelen Modified Tour titles. Stefanik, who died in 2019 at age 61 from injuries sustained in the crash of a private plane, also collected two championships in what was then the Busch North Series.
The patriarch of the Alabama Gang, Farmer accumulated innumerable victories — estimated between 700 and 900 — at short tracks located primarily in the Deep South. At age 89, he still competes on the one-third-mile dirt oval at the Talladega Short Track across the highway from NASCAR’s biggest superspeedway.
Despite their varying backgrounds and diverse racing pursuits, Earnhardt, Stefanik and Farmer now share one monumental achievement in common — after all three entered the NASCAR Hall of Fame during an induction ceremony at the Charlotte Convention Center on Friday night.
The climax of the ceremony was the induction of Earnhardt, who has made an indelible mark on a sport he was born into. Earnhardt joined his father, a member of the inaugural class of 2010 in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Earnhardt’s wife Amy performed the induction of her husband.
“My eyes are already watering,” Earnhardt said at the start to his acceptance speech. “…To join Dad in the Hall of Fame is probably as good as it’s going to get…
“I was a mechanic at a dealership. That was my destiny, or so I thought. I changed the oil in thousands of cars.”
From those inauspicious beginnings, however, Earnhardt followed his father into the NASCAR Xfinity Series, where he won back-to-back championships in 1998 and 1999, and then into NASCAR’s premier division, where he drove first for family-owned Dale Earnhardt Inc. and then for Hendrick Motorsports.
Earnhardt acknowledged the importance of uncle Tony Eury Sr., his crew chief; his sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller, who spurred the growth of JR Motorsports and Earnhardt’s broadcasting career; team owner Rick Hendrick; and Steve Letarte, his crew chief at that organization.
Key to his personal life, Earnhardt said, was wife Amy. “How do you explain someone who makes every day of your life better?” he said.
NASCAR Hall of Fame crew chief Ray Evernham opened the inductions by ushering Stefanik into the Hall. Stefanik’s wife Julie, who served as her husband’s spotter throughout his career, accepted the induction.
“This is a huge honor, and I know Michael would have been very humbled,” Julie Stefanik said of her husband, who set Whelen Modified Tour records for victories (74) and poles (48).
“He was more than just a racer to us. He was a beloved husband, father, brother and friend. And in his honor, I’ll have a Jack and diet (Stefanik’s favorite drink).”
Stefanik and fellow modified driver and mentor Richie Evans are the only drivers to win nine NASCAR championships. All of Evans’ titles came on the Modified Tour.
Three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart inducted his close friend and hunting and fishing buddy Charles “Red” Farmer.
“He doesn’t know how to be quiet in a deer stand — I can tell you that,” Stewart said. “But his stats speak for themselves. He’s a racer’s racer and he deserves to be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.”
Born in Nashville and starting his racing career in Florida, Farmer nevertheless considers Hueytown, Alabama his hometown, in part because of his association with fellow Alabama Gang members Bobby and Donnie Allison. Farmer has been racing for 75 of his 89 years.
“It’s something that gets in your blood, and you can’t get it out,” Farmer said in a “fireside chat” at the induction dinner before the official ceremony.
Though Farmer raced 36 times in the Cup Series over a 23-year span, with a best finish of fourth (twice) at Middle Georgia Raceway in Macon and Talladega Superspeedway, he routinely turned down full-time Cup offers in less-than-competitive equipment.
“I was not going to be an also-ran,” said Farmer, who preferred to win races and championships on the short tracks. That didn’t prevent him, however, from winning the Modified title in 1956.
The NASCAR Hall is the 10th hall of fame to honor Farmer.
“If these Hall of Fames were a Christmas tree with all the ornaments around it, this NASCAR award would be the gold star on top of that Christmas tree,” Farmer said during his induction speech.
As part of the Friday night program, the late Bob Jenkins was recognized with the Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence for his pioneering work in television and radio broadcasting.
The late Ralph Seagraves was honored with the 2021 Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR. As an executive with R.J. Reynolds, Seagraves was instrumental in bring the Winston sponsorship to NASCAR’s foremost series, as well as to the grassroots racing NASCAR supported.
The 2022 edition of the Chilly Willy at Arizona’s Tucson Speedway arrives this weekend with a hefty entry list.
Announced on Jan. 16 were more than 30 Super Late Model entries and 42 Legends entries for this year’s event, which kicks off a long season of short-track racing on the 0.375-mile NASCAR Home Track in the desert.
Not including Thursday’s practice day, racing action at the 2022 Chilly Willy begins Friday, Jan. 21 and runs through the main event — the Super Late Models Chilly Willy 150 — on Sunday, Jan. 23.
In Arizona, a season of short-track racing does not begin until the annual Chilly Willy is contested at Tucson Speedway, a NASCAR Home Track.
This year brings the ninth Chilly Willy, an event in which Super Late Models, Modifieds, Pro Stocks and Legends compete on the 0.375-mile paved oval over a three-day span each January or February.
The main event is the Super Late Models Chilly Willy 150, which caps the weekend with its Sunday evening running. But a full weekend schedule of racing, including practice and qualifying runs, will precede the 150-lap feature.
All of the Chilly Willy racing action can be seen live on FloRacing. Below is the schedule and entry list for this year’s kickoff to the short-track racing season at Tucson Speedway.
What TV channel is the Chilly Willy on in 2022?
All racing action from the 2022 Chilly Willy at Tucson Speedway can be viewed live on FloRacing, the new streaming home of all NASCAR Roots properties.
The Chilly Willy will not be shown on a television network.
Below is the complete schedule for Chilly Willy coverage on FloRacing.
Not including Thursday’s practice day, the Chilly Willy at Tucson Speedway features three days and nights of racing involving four divisions: Super Late Models, Modifieds, Pro Stocks and Legends.
The first on-track activity Friday is practice at 11 a.m. MT, and the action continues through the main event — the Super Late Models Chilly Willy 150 — on Sunday evening.
Below is the complete track schedule (subject to change) for the 2022 Chilly Willy at Tucson Speedway.
Friday, Jan. 21
Time
Event
8 a.m.
Registration/Pit Gates Open (SLM NASCAR Driver Membership Required)
8:30 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Tech Open
8:30 a.m. – close
Tire Barn Open
10 a.m.
Mandatory Drivers & Spotters Meeting
11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Scheduled Practice
4 p.m.
Qualifying – Super Late Models / Legends (Front Gate opens)
5:55 p.m.
Opening Ceremonies
6 p.m.
50 Lap Super Late Feature(s) / 25 Lap Legend Feature(s)
(All times MT)
Saturday, Jan. 22
Time
Event
8 a.m.
Registration/Pit Gates Open
8:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Tech Open
8:30 a.m. – close
Tire Barn Open
9 a.m.
Mandatory Drivers & Spotters Meeting
10 a.m. – noon
Scheduled Practice
1 p.m.
Qualifying – Super Late Models: Top 3 qualifiers -$250 / $150 / $100 … Top 2 Super Late Models are locked into Chilly Willy 150 … Qualifying – Pro Stocks & Legends … (Front gate opens)
1:55 p.m.
Opening Ceremonies
2 p.m.
Heat Races & Main Events – Pro Stocks & Legends … SLM Qualifying Duals (50 Laps): $1200 to Win / $250 to start … Top 10 from each qualifying main will advance to Chilly Willy 150 … (Bon Fire & Chilly feed after racing concludes)
(All times MT)
Sunday, Jan. 23
Time
Event
8:30 a.m.
Registration/Pit Gates Open
9:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Tech Open
9:30 a.m. – close
Tire Barn Open
10:30 a.m.
Mandatory Drivers & Spotters Meeting
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Scheduled Practice (All classes for the event) … (Front gate opens at noon)
12:55 p.m.
Opening Ceremonies
1 p.m.
Qualifying – Modifieds … Super Late Model Last Chance Qualifier: Top 6 from Last Chance Qualifier Advance to Chilly Willy 150 … Legends Main Event (50 Laps) … Modifieds Main Event (75 Laps) … Intermission … Super Late Models Chilly Willy 150
(All times MT)
Tucson Speedway (Meg Oliphant/NASCAR)
Chilly Willy 2022 entry list
More than 30 Super Late Model entries and 42 Legends entries for the 2022 Chilly Willy were announced Jan. 16.
Below is the list of drivers entered for this year’s event.
Although his NASCAR days are behind him, at 58 years old Johnny Benson Jr. has no plans of slowing down. When asked how many more years he can still race, he answered with a huge laugh.
“About four years ago – but I still go do it,” Benson told NASCAR.com. “Sometimes, I feel like, ‘Dang, I’m getting too old to go that fast because these (Super Modifieds) are some of the fastest cars on the planet.’ A lot of things that I’m going and doing are for fun.
“Yes, I’m very competitive, but I still understand I’m getting at the age competing against these people that are very, very good at what they do. … I feel like I’m the old guy out there, trying to do stuff. But at the same token, I’m still pretty good at what I do.”
Benson has at least eight Super Modified events scheduled in the 2022 season, mostly in his home state of Michigan, and in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
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Instead of racing, Benson has spent much more of his life actually building race cars for others, most notably over the last 15-plus years in the Outlaws Super Late Models and other Late Model series.
He grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the son of Johnny Benson Sr., who was known throughout the Midwest as the owner of Benson Speed Equipment, which built race cars primarily for Late Model competition.
The younger Benson was steeped in his father’s business from a very young age, including building his first race car at the age of 13.
But Johnny Jr. never had a desire to get behind the wheel and race. In fact, it wasn’t until his father decided to retire from his business that the younger Benson was kind of thrown behind the wheel out of necessity.
“I didn’t start running at 5 years old or 10 years old,” Benson told NASCAR.com. “I was 19. I was very old to start racing. My dad built racing components, and I built my first customer car at 13 years old. That was what I did; that’s what I loved to do.
“I never even thought about racing until my dad decided to retire. At that point in time, I was 18 going on 19 years old, and I didn’t have that desire to do that. I loved building cars, I loved that part. But when my dad retired, I was like, ‘Well, who’s going to race for the company?'”
Johnny Jr. didn’t have to look far. He found his team’s next driver while staring in the mirror.
He would go on to have a successful career in Late Models and Outlaws, primarily at the 7/16th mile long Berlin Raceway, his home track, in Marne, Michigan.
Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images
Inspired by other Midwest drivers like the late Alan Kulwicki, Dick Trickle and others, Benson decided to pursue fortune and fame in NASCAR, starting with the Xfinity Series (then-Busch Series). It didn’t take him long to find success, earning Rookie of the Year honors in 1994. He then won the championship in 1995 in just his second full-time season in the series, earning two wins, 12 top fives and 19 top-10 finishes in 26 starts.
“(Winning the Busch Series championship) surprised me,” Benson said. “The fact my first year I finished sixth and then go and win the championship the second year, it was just mind-boggling to me that this was so far out of my realm. I’m obviously very proud of it.”
After that title season in 1995, Benson moved to the NASCAR Cup ranks, where he competed full time for eight seasons. But success was not easy: he managed just one win (also took the checkered flag in the non-points Winston Open in 2001), 18 top fives and 58 top-10 finishes in 274 starts.
When asked who were the toughest drivers he ever traded paint with, Benson didn’t hesitate in his reply.
“Dale Earnhardt, the best of the best with a great team and was just fierce on the track,” he said. “Then you also had Tony Stewart, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon.
“Those are the guys I looked up to when I came down here. They were the fierce competitors that I saw on TV. They were very nice to talk to, but on the race track, oh, my God, it was business on.
“Those were the guys I looked at and told myself, ‘That’s my goal, to be them, to beat them.’ Yeah, I had my days where we were able to beat them, but not on a consistent basis. That’s what you look forward to. That’s what you do when you (move to the Cup series) and you’ve got those guys that are at the top of the realm.
“That’s your goal. That’s what my dad taught me, that there’s only one lap that pays money, there’s only one lap that that pays points. That’s your goal, it ain’t to dominate, it’s to try and win the race.”
Benson was lured to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series midway through the 2004 season and would find the type of success that he had long aspired for winning 14 races (all between 2006 and 2008), along with 58 top fives and 90 top-10 finishes all in just 138 starts. He was voted the series’ Most Popular Driver for three straight seasons (2006-2008).
The biggest part of his career in Trucks was earning the championship in 2008, making Benson only the second driver at that time to earn titles in both the Busch and Truck series (the other was Greg Biffle). Since then, Austin Dillon has also won an Xfinity and Truck championship, while Kyle Busch, Bobby Labonte, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott have won titles in Cup and Xfinity, but not in Trucks.
Another keen aspect of Benson’s second championship was that it was 13 years between his two titles. By comparison, NASCAR Hall of Famer Terry Labonte won two Cup championships 12 years apart (1984 and 1996).
He’s also one of just 36 drivers to win at least one race in each of NASCAR’s top three series.
While Benson enjoyed his 18-season career in NASCAR, he admits to one regret: “That I wasn’t able to achieve greater success in the Cup Series, I only won one race but we had a lot of great runs, I finished second (three) times and it seemed like we were always kind of like right there. But things just didn’t work out for me in that category.”
Since hanging up his NASCAR fire suit for the last time in 2010, Benson kept in the racing game, so to speak, by continuing to build primarily Late Model and Super Late Model race cars for customers in the United States and Canada.
But like many other business owners, Benson’s pursuit suffered during 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leading him to branch out into building and welding projects for non-racing customers.
“Building outlaw cars for asphalt, that’s what I love to do, that’s my passion,” Benson said. “Now it’s just more odds and ends that people I know will bring some to me that say, ‘Hey, interested in doing this job?’ I look at and go, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.'”
In addition to his Busch and Truck Series championships, Benson also won titles in the Outlaw Late Model championship and ASA circuits (1993).
“People always ask me which one better?” Benson said. “I tell them, ‘Look, they’re all great, but very different.
“I was all about I wanted to win races,” Benson said. “I won a couple championships and I enjoyed my time there, met a lot of great people, a lot of great racers.
“People don’t realize that when I come down South to NASCAR and had an opportunity to race in the Busch Series, I was 30 years old. That does not happen today. People are getting booted out at 30.
“So to come here and have the opportunity and then turn around and win a championship at 32 years old was amazing. And to still run near the top 10 in the Cup Series in my upper 30s. Then, going into my 40s I win a Truck Series championship at 45, it’s pretty satisfying.
“I shouldn’t have been there, I should have never been able to have that opportunity at the age I was, but to get in there and do that, it’s pretty cool. I’ve enjoyed my career but things of this nature, that is never going to happen.
Rusty Jarrett | Getty Images
“We’re one of the few racers that had poles and won races in every series and won two out of three championships in NASCAR’s top tier series. That is very uncommon.”
Even to this day, when he’s racing around in a Super Modified somewhere, Benson still approaches the sport the same way he did during his NASCAR career.
“I always looked at it as a job, always looked at it as a competition,” Benson said. “Your job is to go out and do your job. I went and did my job and I went home.”
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The Johnny Benson Jr. File:
* Age: 58
* Hometown: Grand Rapids, Michigan (now lives in Mooresville, North Carolina).
* Personal: Wife is Nicole. Johnny has two daughters and Nicole has a daughter and son.
Career highlights:
* NASCAR Cup career: 274 races, One win, 18 top-five and 58 top-10 finishes. Also two poles. Best season finish: 11th (1997 and 2001).
* NASCAR Xfinity Series career: 91 races, Three wins, 19 top-five and 35 top-10 finishes. Also one pole. Best season finish: 1st (1995).
* NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career: 138 races, 14 wins, 58 top-five, 90 top-10 finishes. Also five poles. Best season finish: 1st (2008).
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has seemingly always been a top vote-getter.
He headed the fans’ tally for the NASCAR Cup Series’ Most Popular Driver Award 15 times, all consecutively, during his career. When the NASCAR Hall of Fame voting panel met in June 2020 to decide the next class, Earnhardt was again a popular choice, named on 76% of the ballots cast.
His reaction when his election to the Hall of Fame was revealed was a mix of nerves and emotion. More than a year and a half later after a COVID-19 delay, Earnhardt’s induction along with legends Red Farmer and Mike Stefanik is finally set for Friday (8 p.m. ET, live on Peacock).
Earnhardt said he didn’t expect to be anxious before his name was first called. Now, with induction looming, he still doesn’t have a firm notion about how the night will go, except to make sure to savor the moment.
“Oh, I don’t really have any expectations,” Earnhardt said last week, in between preseason test runs at Daytona International Speedway. “I’m just gonna go and enjoy, and I’ve got a lot of friends and family that’ll be close and be around, so I don’t know what to expect. I hope that it’s a great experience for myself and for Red and Mike’s family. I hope that we can move back — it’s nice to be able to sort of get this process going again for the next round of guys and girls to get inducted and start getting that process going again, because we’ve kind of been on hold for a while and had to push back a class.
“But I’m just … I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I’m just going to go with a good, positive attitude and enjoy everything that happens, and I’m sure we’re going to see a lot of people that we haven’t seen in a while, so that’ll be fun.”
James Gilbert | Getty Images
Earnhardt won 26 times in NASCAR’s top division, and he is a two-time champion in what is now called the Xfinity Series. He joins the Hall of Fame with his father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., who was elected to the shrine’s inaugural class in 2010.
Earnhardt will be recognized alongside the late Stefanik, a nine-time champion who excelled in NASCAR’s Modified Tour and the former Busch North Series near his New England home. Stefanik, who died in an aviation crash in 2019, was the second inductee chosen on the Modern Era ballot.
The 89-year-old Farmer still races regularly on dirt tracks in the deep South, and his career spans generations of stock-car racing – from the sport’s earliest days to the current era. Farmer, a champion in Modifieds and the former Late Model Sportsman division, carried the vote on the Pioneer Ballot.
This is the first Hall of Fame class of three; the previous 11 classes consisted of five inductees each. NASCAR Hall officials announced Oct. 8, 2020, the Class of 2021 induction originally scheduled for last winter would be postponed because of COVID-19.
Friday night’s festivities will also recognize two special honorees. Ralph Seagraves, the colorful R.J. Reynolds executive who ushered in a dynamic period of growth in stock-car racing, will be honored with the Landmark Award for outstanding contributions to NASCAR. Bob Jenkins, a longtime broadcaster and voice for Indianapolis Motor Speedway, will be honored with the Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence.
Earnhardt has joined his NBC Sports colleagues in commemorating his induction in the days leading up, sharing stories in brief video vignettes about the mementos that will be featured in the Hall of Honor. The exhibits for all three class members will be opened after a private first showing this weekend for the inductees and their families and guests.
It won’t be the first time Earnhardt has taken the stage at the Charlotte Convention Center for an induction night. That first came May 23, 2010, when his father was welcomed in as part of the first class.
Earnhardt was among the family members to speak on his father’s behalf, and he shared a story about their famous 1998 run-in late in an exhibition event in Japan. “And that was the day I met the Intimidator,” Earnhardt said to laughs from the crowd.
“It was nice. I got up there and said whatever I wanted to say,” Earnhardt said after the ceremony, expressing how the memories shared by others put him at ease. “… It really basically came from watching everybody else’s speeches and how everybody else was enjoying themselves. And the atmosphere was really, really good. And I thought Kelley (Earnhardt, his sister) and everybody did such a great job providing that for us. And the program went so smoothly, it was really no effort at all. There was really no nerves at all.”
Tommy Catalano’s family has been racing since the early 1960s.
Some 60 years later, that tradition will continue as Tommy Catalano brings the family’s No. 54 car back to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour for a full-season effort in 2022.
Catalano is no stranger to the tour, running the majority of the year in each of the last four seasons, including the complete schedule in 2019 and all but one race in 2018. Last year, Catalano wheeled the No. 54 to five top-10 finishes, a career-high total, but luck turned sour in the second half of the season.
After scoring five top 15s in the first six races of 2021, Catalano suffered four DNFs in the next five races — three from incidents and one from an engine failure at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
“We tried to be as prepared as we could, and sometimes, some of the stuff that was happening (is) just completely out of our control, which, you know, nothing you’re gonna do about that,” Catalano said. “But obviously, we just kept pushing forward and doing the best we could.”
The 23-year-old enters the new year with a mindset similar to the one he carried through last season: Be ready for anything and maximize the opportunities at hand.
“Going into 2022, knowing how 2021 went, it doesn’t change much,” the third-generation driver said. “Just do everything we can to make sure that the issues, failures, etc. on our end is well maintained and that kind of stuff and do our best. Obviously, you can only control what you can control, but as long as you take initiative on that stuff, that obviously will help no matter what you can regain control of going forward and be able to set ourselves up to hopefully get all the way through the season.”
Tommy Catalano qualifies for the Buzz Chew Chevrolet Cadillac 200 for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Riverhead Raceway on June 19, 2021 in Riverhead, New York. (Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
Catalano was born to be a racer. His great uncle, Joe Catalano, started what became the family tradition in 1960s as a modified racer in Upstate New York before letting Dave, Tommy’s father, drive for him years later.
“Through his career, my parents met at the racetrack, and it kind of just evolved,” Catalano said. “My dad’s brothers, they raced growing up, so it started, obviously, a long time ago (in the) early ’60s, and just kind of been something that everyone’s stuck with and followed through with and continued along the way.”
Amy Catalano, Tommy’s mom, will make numerous open modified starts throughout the course of 2022 alongside Tommy’s younger brother, Tyler, who also competed full-time on the tour in 2019. Being around the sport from such a young age, little else was ever on Tommy’s mind outside of racing.
“Growing up, going to school, that kind of stuff, it was, ‘I can’t wait to get home, work in the shop, go racing,’ all that good stuff,” he said. “Friends, other kids or whatever, they’re looking to go to parties, go swim in the pool or whatever. And for me, it was, I can’t wait to go do something that I called racing, whether it was sweeping the shop floor or racing the car.”
The family hails from Ontario, New York, and frequented Spencer Speedway, Holland Speedway and Lancaster Speedway’s New York Raceway Park on the weekly circuits. Being able to compete on the tour full-time in 2019 alongside his brother, especially carrying his great uncle’s No. 54 on the door of his race car, was a significant moment for Tommy Catalano.
“Especially being based out of Upstate New York, kind of away from everything else, up here, we’re oftentimes considered a little bit of a bigger team because we had a lot of cars and stuff,” Catalano said. “But you go to the tour, and honestly, we’re one of the smaller teams when it comes to funding and that kind of stuff. So to be able to say that we went, we did it, we made the whole year, that kind of deal, it definitely is something to be proud of.”
Tommy Catalano pictured ahead of the Toyota Mod Classic 150 for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Oswego Speedway in Oswego, New York, on Sept. 4, 2021. (Bryan Bennett/NASCAR)
The season starts when the tour heads to New Smyrna Speedway in Florida on Feb. 12. The family began preparing their cars and equipment early so they aren’t rushing at the wire when the 2022 season actually begins. And while the competitive intensity is there, Catalano also carries a humble attitude into the driver’s seat, noting the goal right now is just to enjoy himself at the track and have fun.
“When we (went) to the tour last year, we got a few top 10s. Ultimately, my goal is still a top 10,” said Catalano, who finished 12th in the 2021 points standings. “I get people all the time, ‘Oh, your goal’s not a top five yet?’ Well, it’s one of them deals where if you can consistently finish in the top 10, you’ll eventually start finishing in the top five, just out of pure right-place-right-time type of deal.
“And the quickest way to suck the fun out of it is to have unrealistic expectations or expectations that can’t easily be backed. And not that you don’t want a challenge and whatever, but for us, to get a season where say 90 percent of the finishes are in the top 10, that would definitely be a step in the right direction for us.”
