First-time Nominated Drivers
Johnny Anderson. Johnny Anderson, born in Florida but raised in Sacramento, California, was among the most dominant open wheel competitors in the late 1960s and 1970s, winning in hardtops, supermodifieds, midgets and sprint cars. Anderson was a West Capital Raceway hardtop competitor at age 16, moved to supermodifieds and won his first sprint car race at Champion Speedway near San Francisco before age 21. After purchasing the ex-Parnelli Jones Fike Plumbing Special, Anderson scored victories up and down the West Coast and piloted U.S. Auto Club Championship cars for Ernie Ruiz and J.C. Agajanian/Leonard Faas. In 1974 Anderson won his first of two Gold Cup Race of Champions – last time the event was won by a supermodified car. In 1976 he won the Northern Auto Racing Club (NARC) championship. Two years later Anderson was crowned point champion of a six-race World of Outlaws Western tour. From 1971 through 1974 Anderson appeared in nine NASCAR Cup Series events at Riverside Raceway, Ontario Motor Speedway and Texas World Speedway. Anderson suffered near-fatal injuries in a 1980 race at Corona Speedway, leading to his retirement. Anderson, a resident of Carmichael, California, is a member of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and the Bay Cities Racing Association Hall of Fame.
Kyle Busch. Kyle Busch is a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, winning titles in 2015 and 2019 for Joe Gibbs Racing. He is the younger brother of Kurt Busch, the 2003 NASCAR Cup Series champion and a West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee. Entering the 2026 season, the younger Busch won a combined 232 times in NASCAR national competition: Cup Series, 63; O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, 102 and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 67. In 2010, Busch set a Modern Era single season record with 24 victories across NASCAR’s three national series. As an owner, Busch is a seven-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, his drivers winning a pair of titles – Erick Jones (2015) and Christopher Bell (2015). The Las Vegas native began shortly after his 13th birthday and won 65 Legends Car races between 1991 and 2001. Racing at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Kyle won 10 Late Model Stock Car events in 2001 and joined Roush Racing for a limited NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule at age 16. His son, Brexton, competes in a variety of open wheel cars.
Ron Capps. Ron Capps was born in San Luis Obispo, Calif. and became involved in drag racing at a young age, attending races with his family and learning to work with his father on race cars. Capps began his professional Funny Car career in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), driving for such notables as Don Prudhomme and Don Schumacher. He won the NHRA Funny Car championship in 2016 and 2021-22. The third of the three titles was notable for winning for his own NAPA Toyota team during its rookie season. Capps is the second winningest Funny Car driver in NHRA history with more than 75 national event wins including the 2022 U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. He’s also an eight-time Funny Car event winner at Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway. Capps also has competed in short track stock car competition.
Frank Deiny. Frank Deiny, born in Los Angeles in 1936, founded Speedway Engineering, dedicated to manufacturing precision-built rear ends and chassis components for race cars. The company became a primary source for racers in the top divisions of NASCAR, ARCA and many other sanctioning bodies. Speedway Engineering cars were driven to many victories and championships by West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame members Sonny Easley, Jim Robinson, Joe Ruttman, Ken Sapper, Bill Schmitt and Jim Thirkettle. The company built the Pontiac in which Ruttman won the 1980 U.S. Auto Club (USAC) stock car title. Deiny built his first race car, a 1936 Ford jalopy, before he was old enough to get a license. He turned it over to another Hall of Fame driver, Parnelli Jones. Deiny won the 1966 Saugus Speedway sportsman stock car championship. He competed in three NASCAR Cup Series races at Riverside Raceway and was second in a sportsman race at the Southern California road course. Deiny also competed in the NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Model (now West Series) with a best finish of second at Speedway 605 in Irwindale, California. Deiny died in 1986 at age 50.
John Force. John Force is a 16-time National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) champion and the winningest driver in NHRA history with 157 career victories. Force, born in 1949 in Bell Gardens, Calif., briefly attended Cerritos Junior College to play football before pursuing a career in drag racing. He began his professional career in 1974. Force won Funny Car titles in 1990-91, 1993-2002, 2004, 2006, 2010 and 2013, making 269 final round appearances as well as 166 No. 1 qualifiers. John Force Racing, based in Brownsburg, Indiana, is one of the premier NHRA nitro teams. Under Force’s leadership, the team has won 23 championships and produced multiple champion drivers, including his daughters Brittany Force, Ashley Force Hood and Courtney Force, as well as drivers Austin Prock and Jack Beckman. The Force family is collectively known as the First Family of Drag Racing.
Cory Kruzeman. Cory Kruzeman is a second-generation competitor from Ventura, Calif., and a 2022 National Sprint Car Hall of Fame inductee. Kruzeman began his racing career in karting at the age of 13, later moving into non-winged sprint cars. With the Sprint Car Racing Association, he won feature races in 11 consecutive seasons, capturing the championship in 2006 on the strength of 15 victories. Kruzeman won 64 times with the association. He also won 35 times with the United States Auto Club/California Racing Association and the group’s 2006 title. Kruzeman counts 16 USAC national championship victories – 15 in sprint cars and one in midgets. He is a two-time Chili Bowl main event winner and the 2011 USAC Western States champion. Kruzeman owns and operates a racing school at the Ventura Speedway in Southern California.
Michael McDowell. Glendale, Ariz. competitor Michael McDowell has won two NASCAR Cup Series races over a career spanning more than 500 starts but both were big ones: the 2021 Daytona 500 and the 2023 Indianapolis Grand Prix. McDowell began racing karts at the age of eight, winning a World Karting Association championship and a pair of International Karting Federation titles. McDowell added to his open-wheel credentials, winning the 2002 Formula Renault USA championship and the 2004 Star Mazda Series title, which included seven victories and the opportunity to compete in two Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) events. McDowell joined the GRAND-AM Rolex Series and won the 2005 Mexico City finale driving a BMW/Riley. He competed in the ARCA Menards Series the following season, finishing second in the points standings with four victories. McDowell’s best NASCAR Cup Series championship finish, 15th, came in 2023. He qualified for the Playoffs in 2021 and 2023. In 2016 McDowell won the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series event at Road America driving for Richard Childress Racing.
Roger and Casey Mears. Roger and Casey Mears – father and son – are part of the Bakersfield, Calif. “Mears Gang” that includes four-time Indianapolis 500 winner and 2020 West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee Rick Mears. The eldest Mears is a member of the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame, a winner of 20 World Off-Road Championships at Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway; four Baja 1000 wins; two HDRA/SCORE titles and a Mickey Thompson Stadium Series Truck crown. He competed in two Indianapolis 500s among 31 U.S. Auto Club and Championship Auto Racing Teams events. Casey Mears began his racing career in karts and off-road Super Lites. He entered the Indy Light Series in 1996, was points runner-up in 1999 and won his first race in 2000. Mears competed in five CART events with one top-five finish. Mears won the 2007 Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, driving for Rick Hendrick. He competed in 494 events (through 2025) with 51 top-10 finishes and three poles. Mears’ O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career of 107 races featured one victory, at Chicago Speedway. He won three ARCA Menards Series events in 2003 and teamed with Scott Dixon and the late Dan Weldon to win the 2006 Rolex Daytona 24 for Chip Ganassi.
Jeff Schrader. Jeff Schrader, a Saugus native, is the reigning NASCAR ARCA Menards Series West championship crew chief, guiding Trevor Huddleston to the 2025 title. The team won four times during the 12-race season. Schrader has been a nine-time West Series runner-up, boasting 33 wins and 27 poles working with several prominent competitors including WCSCMHOF Bill Sedgwick and nominees Sean Woodside and Lance Hooper. In 2017, Schrader and Huddleston came within three points to winning the NASCAR Whelen All-American National championship. Schrader briefly competed in Pro Stocks at tracks throughout Southern California and Nevada. He was named 1994 rookie-of-the-year at Saugus Speedway. He also was Irwindale Speedway’s Director of Competition. In January 2000 Schrader founded the Race Car Factory, building short track cars. His chassis has won more than 160 Late Model main event and 15 Irwindale championships. Schrader lives in Azusa, California.
Bruce Yackey. Bruce (The Moose) Yackey is a native of Greeley, Colo., building his first race car – a Chevrolet Vega – to run in the mini-stock class at Big Country (Wyo.) Raceway in 1984. Yackey won his first race in his rookie season and captured the division championship in 1986-1987. Moving to Street Stocks, he won that title in 1988 and won his first Late Model event in the season-ending event at Cheyenne, Wyo. Competing at Colorado National Speedway in Erie, Colo., Yackey finished first or second in each event on his way to the 1989 Sportsman division. Yackey became a regular in CNS’ Super Late Model Division in 1990, in addition to touring throughout the Midwest. He won 11 track championships, at CNS and I-25 (Pueblo, Colo.) Speedway; was NASCAR’s Great West Region champion in 1997; and won six NASCAR State of Colorado titles. He also won the 1999 NASCAR Southwest Series Colorado 125 at CNS. Yackey was named “Circle Track Driver of the Year” by Denver’s Rocky Mountain News and “Driver of the Year” by the Greeley Tribune.
Previously Nominated Drivers
Ken Boyd. Ken Boyd was California’s pre-eminent pavement Late Model car racer of the 1980s and 1990s, winning five championships at Stockton (Calif.) 99 Speedway. Boyd was the first to win four consecutive championships (1988-91) at the quarter-mile track, where he recorded 71 victories and 84 fast times during his career – including 39 consecutive fast times, believed to be a national record. His first title came in 1977 at Madera (Calif.) Speedway. The Ceres, Calif. resident finished fourth in the 1991 Whelen All-American Pacific Coast Region, winning 14 times. He also won twice in the NASCAR Elite Division Southwest Series. Boyd, age 69, fielded entries for a number of prominent competitors, including West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Famers Ivan Baldwin, Jeff Gordon and Ernie Irvan. Baldwin was the biggest winner in Boyd equipment, posting 15 of 29 total victories. His other winners were Kenny Kitchens, Chad Nichols and Jim Reich. Boyd spent two decades servicing tracks and traveling series as a provider of tires, fuel and parts.
Mike David. Mike David of Modesto, Calif. is the 2007 ARCA Menards Series West champion. David competed in 91 NASCAR West Series (now NASCAR ARCA Menards Series West) events between 2001 and 2012, most of them behind the wheel of the Bennett Wineries Ford owned by 2013 West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee Randy Lynch. Three of his seven victories – including David’s first, in 2004 – came at the Stockton 99 Speedway, a quarter-mile paved oval in California’s Central Valley. David previously captured a Stockton late model title. His final series victory came at Phoenix Raceway in 2008 driving Lynch’s Toyota. David’s ARCA Menards Series West line shows 43 top-five and 66 top-10 finishes and three poles. He finished third in 2006 at the 2006 Toyota All-Star Showdown at the Irwindale Events Center and competed in the NASCAR Elite Southwest Series with a best result of second at Madera (Calif.) Speedway.
Lance Hooper. Lance Hooper is a member of the “Palmdale Posse,” a group of NASCAR racers that raced out of Palmdale, Calif. headed by West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr. Hooper, like Hornaday, is a second-generation competitor whose family raced stock cars throughout Southern California and called Saugus (Calif.) Speedway home. Driving for West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Famer Ray Claridge, Hooper won championships in consecutive seasons – NASCAR Elite Southwest Series in 1995 and the NASCAR West Series (now NASCAR ARCA Menards Series West) in 1996. Hooper won four times in West; seven times in the late model Southwest Series. Later, Hooper competed in all three NASCAR national series, finishing 10th in a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Nazareth (Pa.) Speedway. Hooper transitioned to a crew chief’s role with nearly 100 events over seven seasons. He posted top-10 finishes with Clay Rogers and Jeff Green and spent a full season at ThorSport Racing with Kerry Earnhardt.
Rip Michels. Thomas (Rip) Michels, Mission Hills, Calif. grew up in a racing family in the east San Fernando Valley (Calif.) in the 1970s. Michels began racing at Saugus (Calif.) Speedway in 1987 in the Hobby Stock Division, posting his first Super Stock victory in 1990. He claimed five overall championships before the track closed in 1995. A Grand American Modified title at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield, Calif. was added to his accomplishments in 1997. Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway became Michels’ home in 2000, where he won five championships in two divisions and 67 victories – a record that stood for 10 years. Michels is a two-time winner of NASCAR Elite Series All-Star Showdown. He was the 2004 NASCAR Elite Series Southwest Series champion and rookie of the year. Upon retirement from competition, Michels became a full-time crew chief, winning six series titles in a variety of divisions primarily competing at Irwindale and Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway in Bakersfield. Michels continues to be a consultant and driver coach associated with late model, super late model and NASCAR’s ARCA Menards Series West teams.
Brad Noffsinger. One of the West’s premier competitors in non-winged sprint cars, Brad Noffsinger also raced in the NASCAR Cup Series, became a Cup crew chief and – for 20 years – was an instructor at the Richard Petty Driving School at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Noffsinger, from Huntington Beach, Calif., began his sprint car career in 1979, becoming the California Racing Association’s Rookie of the Year the following season. He won back-to-back CRA titles in 1986-87, at the wheel of the Jack Gardner Jr. sprinter. Noffsinger won 50 CRA features. Noffsinger also competed part-time in USAC’s Silver Crown division, winning once at Memphis Motorsports Park. He moved to the NASCAR West Series (now NASCAR ARCA Menards Series West) in 1987, then to the Cup Series where over portions of three seasons competed in 17 events, with a best finish of 19th at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In 1997 Noffsinger joined SABCO Racing as the crew chief for Wally Dallenbach Jr. The No. 46 team competed in 18 races with a best finish of 10th at The Glen. Noffsinger was inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2013.
Ted Stofle. NASCAR weekly stock car racing California’s dirt tracks in the 1970s were the property of one competitor: Ted Stofle. The Merced resident won 29% of his starts – 110 – from 1974 through 1980, an unheard-of percentage. Stofle finished in the top five 256 times, 166 of those first or seconds. His top 10 total – 302 – represented 80% of his 373 racing appearances. Stofle won eight track championships – including six consecutive titles at Merced Speedway, even adding the quarter-mile clay venue’s Figure 8 championship in 1977. He won both Merced and Watsonville – now Ocean – Speedway championships in 1980, his final season. Stofle won NASCAR’S State of California championship three times and was its Pacific Coast champion twice. NASCAR did not award a national short track championship in 1980 but based upon its subsequent system, it would have crowned Stofle. Stoffle died in a hunting accident, a few days after the 1980 season ended. Merced Speedway continues to honor its champion with a Ted Stofle Memorial race.
Ron Strmiska Sr. Strmiska was born in Wisconsin in 1941 but moved to California’s Central Valley in childhood. Growing up near the Central Valley town of Manteca, he became known as “The Manteca Missile” after beginning his racing career in 1969. Strmiska also was known for his pink late model stock cars which found Victory Lane at many weekly tracks. He won back-to-back championships at Stockton 99 Speedway in 1978-79. He retired in 2000. Strmiska also competed the NASCAR West Series (now NASCAR ), finishing eighth at Roseville’s All American Speedway in 1979. Strmiska also was a part-time member of the NASCAR Southwest Series with a best finish of third at Stockton in 1990. His son Ron Jr. and grandson Ross followed in Strmiska’s tire tracks with the latter winning the 2007 Spears Racing League title. Strmiska passed in 2014 at age 73.
Sean Woodside. The Saugus, Calif. competitor won the 1999 NASCAR West Series (now NASCAR ARCA Menards Series West) championship, following two seasons of second-place points finishes. Woodside drove for two West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame inductees – Bill McAnally in his championship season and Ray Claridge. He won seven times – five in Claridge’s Pontiacs and two as a McAnally Chevrolet driver. Three quarters of Woodside’s 74 series starts resulted in top-10 finishes (49). Woodside also won 12 poles. The competitor also raced in the NASCAR Elite Series Southwest Tour, winning twice and pursued limited schedules in NASCAR Cup, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Craftsman Truck series.
Previously Nominated Owner/Crew Chief/Industry Figures
Ernie Cope. Ernie Cope is a native of Spanaway, Wash. whose father and uncle built professional dragster engines. His cousin, Derrike, is a Daytona 500 winner and West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee. Cope began racing in the NASCAR Northwest Series at the age of 19, posting 24 top-five finishes in the late model stock car touring series. He finished third in the championship in 1994 and moved to the ARCA Menards Series West the following year, scoring two victories in Lew Miller’s Chevrolet en route to a second-place points finish. Cope swapped driving gloves for a crew chief’s headset, competing in more than 400 national series races. He won nine times in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – six of them with Kevin Harvick. Cope’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series record shows 285 races, 16 poles, 15 wins, 106 top fives and 170 top 10s. His drivers finished runner-up in two seasons – Elliott Sadler in 2011 and Chase Elliott in 2015.
Jim Naylor. Jim Naylor, Camarillo, Calif. is a lifelong native of Ventura County in Southern California. He began lettering race cars at age 12 and following graduation from Ventura College opened Auto Graphics, now known as JN Designs. In 1976 Naylor took over a speedway motorcycle track at the Ventura County Fairgrounds and turned it into Ventura Raceway which became the “best little dirt track in America.” For the past 46 years Ventura Raceway has provided a place for many racers and families to enjoy competitive motor sports. Through the years some of the greatest in dirt track racing have demonstrated their talents at the 1/5-mile clay oval. Since 2016 the track has been the home of The Turkey Night Grand Prix for USAC Midgets. The raceway also has provided opportunities for Cory Kuzman’s driving school and Maxwell Industries. Naylor’s awards include the 1991 United States Auto Club Race Organizer of the Year; USAC National Championship Midget Series Jim Blunk Memorial Award; and the Western Fairs Association Blue Ribbon Award. Naylor is a 2010 Ventura County Sports Hall of Fame inductee.
Jan Quakenbush. Quakenbush, owner of Jan’s Towing in Glendora, Calif., began his career in the motorsports industry as a 16-year-old drag racer at the old Irwindale Raceway strip in California’s San Gabriel Valley. He competed in Junior Fuel dragsters throughout Southern California and -leaving the cockpit – Quakenbush became a member of the National Hot Rod Association’s Safety Safari. Quakenbush became the official towing service at a number of California tracks including Auto Club Speedway and Irwindale Speedway. He donated cars and trained safety crews in recovery operations, classes Quakenbush transitioned into his public street crews. Quakenbush long has backed races and teams at Irwindale Speedway, including for West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame inductees Butch and David Gilliland. He currently owns a NASCAR ARCA Menards Series West team, winning for the first time in 2025.