Jeff Gordon leads 2019 NASCAR Hall of Fame class

Nick Bromberg
·College football and motorsports writer
Jeff Gordon won 93 Cup Series races and four championships throughout his career. (AP Photo/Terry Renna, File)
Jeff Gordon won 93 Cup Series races and four championships throughout his career. (AP Photo/Terry Renna, File)

As expected, Jeff Gordon is heading to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Gordon was elected with 96 percent of the vote in his first time on the NASCAR Hall of Fame. He’s joined in the 2019 Hall of Fame class by Roush Fenway Racing owner Jack Roush, Team Penske owner Roger Penske and former drivers Davey Allison and Alan Kulwicki.

Gordon is a four-time Cup Series champion and has 93 wins at NASCAR’s highest level. He officially retired after the 2015 season but came back in a substitution stint for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2016.

Gordon’s run of dominance from 1995-1998 is incredible. He won three championships in that span and won 40 of a possible 127 races over those four years. His four overall titles are the fourth-most in NASCAR behind Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson.

How he wasn’t a unanimous selection is truly inexplicable. Gordon was by far the most deserving candidate for induction on the ballot. Hell, ballots should have simply included Gordon and four empty spots for voters to fill in.

Roush has won championships with Matt Kenseth in 2003 and Kurt Busch in 2004. His teams have won 137 races over 31 years. Roush got 70 percent of the vote.

Penske’s drivers have won 105 races in the Cup Series and Brad Keselowski won the 2012 Cup Series title while driving for Penske. He got 68 percent of the vote.

Allison got 63 percent of the vote. He was likely on his way to a Cup championship at some point in his career but was killed in a helicopter crash in 1993. He won 19 races in 191 Cup starts.

Kulwicki won the 1992 Cup Series title, the last true driver/owner to win a Cup title. His story has become a large NASCAR fairytale over the years as teams have become like corporate behemoths. He was killed in a plane crash in 1993 just five races into the season.

Kulwicki got 46 percent of the vote. It’s the second-straight year a member of the Hall of Fame class has been elected with less than 50 percent of the vote.

Former NASCAR and track executive Jim Hunter won the series’ Landmark Award.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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