Shortly after completing work on his third starring feature film, producer-director
George Steven’s Giant (1956), actor James Dean and his passenger, mechanic
Rolf Wutherich, started out on a trip to Salinas, California in Dean’s silver Porsche
(above) to compete in a sports car rally. As Dean was traveling down the highway,
he crashed almost head-on into a Ford sedan (shown below) that had crossed into
Dean’s lane in an attempt to turn at an intersection in the highway. Dean was killed instantly. Wutherich and the driver of the other vehicle, 23-year-old college student
Donald Turnupseed survived. Dean was only 24.

Junction of US Highways 46 and 41 near Cholame, CA. (2007)

The remains of Dean’s Porsche

The 1950 Ford Custom sedan, driven by Turnupseed 

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: