Jimmie Kenneth Johnson is a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race car driver for
Hendrick Motorsports. He d rives the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet. Johnson began
racing motorcycles at the age of five. He started stock car racing in 1998. He
then moved to the national American Speed Association (ASA) series for late
model touring cars, and won a rookie of the year title.

In 2000, Johnson switched to the NASCAR Busch Series, now Nationwide
Series. He joined Hendrick Motorsports in the Sprint Cup Series in 2002. He
won his first Cup series championship in 2006 and with further wins from 2007
through 2010 became the only driver in NASCAR history to win five consecutive championships.

Johnson has recorded 54 wins, 214 top-tens, and 25 pole positions between
2002 and 2011. He was the first race car driver to become Associated Press
Male Athlete of the Year in 2009, and has won Driver of the Year four times,
most recently in 2010.

Jeffery Michael "Jeff" Gordon  is a professional NASCAR driver. He is the driver of 
the #24 DuPont Chevrolet Impala. Jeff is a four-time Sprint Cup Series champion
and a three-time Daytona 500 winner. He is tied for third with Bobby Allison and
Darrel Waltrip on the all-time wins list, and is also tied with Waltrip for the most
wins in NASCAR from 1972 to present. Gordon has won a total of 84 career
races. In 2009, Jeff became the first driver to reach $100 million in career
winnings in the Cup series. Jeff Gordon won his first Winston Cup win at
the age of 24.  

Richard Lee Petty is a former  NASCAR driver who raced in the Strictly Stock/Grand National Era and the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. He is most well-known for winning
the NASCAR Championship seven times, Dale Earnhardt is the only other driver to accomplish this feat, winning a record 200 races during his career, winning the
Daytona 500 a record seven times, and winning a record 27 races, ten of them consecutively, in the 1967 season alone. Petty is widely considered one of the
greatest NASCAR drivers of all time and is one of the most respected figures in    
motorsports as a whole.

He also collected a record number of poles (127) and over 700 top-ten finishes in
his 1,185 starts, including 513 consecutive starts from 1971–1989. Petty is a second generation driver. His father, Lee Petty, won the first Daytona 500 in 1959 and was
also a 3 time NASCAR champion. Richard’s son, Kyle Petty is also a well-known
NASCAR driver. The Petty family still resides in Richard’s home town of Level
Cross, North Carolina and operates Richard Petty Motorsports.

This #43 Richard Petty STP Pontiac Grand Prix ran at Daytona and
Talladega in 1984.

 
Here are the inductees:

It’s called The greatest Spectacle in Racing, the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, also
known as the Indianapolis 500, the Indy 500 or The 500. The auto race is held
annually, typically on the last weekend in May (specifically over the Memorial Day weekend) at the Indianapolis motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. The first “500”
was held at the Speedway on Memorial Day, May 30, 1911. It had a field of 40
starters, with Ray Harroun (below) driving a Marmon Model 32-based Wasp across
the finish line. He was the only driver in the race without a riding mechanic, who
checked the oil pressure and would let the driver know when traffic was coming. The
car driven by Harroun was outfitted with his invention, the rearview mirror. A total of 80,000 spectators were reportedly in attendance that day.

RACE WINNER RAY HARROUN (average speed of 75 mph)

Harroun’s  # 32 car as it looks today