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

Driver/owner Tony Stewart  has won titles in Indy cars and stock cars, as well
as midget, sprint and USAC Sliver Crown cars, giving him the recognition of
"one of the finest racers of his generation." Stewart currently owns and drives
the No. 14 (below) Office Depot Chevrolet Impala in the NASCAR Sprint Cup  
Series for his own team, Stewart-Haas under crew chief Darian Grubb.

Race car driver A.J. Foyt (seated) scored his first professional victory, in a U.S. Automobile Club (USAC) midget car race in Kansas City, Missouri. He was 22
years old. 

A. J. Foyt has been named the pace-car driver for the 2011 Indianapolis 500