CHARLOTTE, NC — Two-time Daytona 500 champion Matt Kenseth finally hit the pinnacle of his career on Friday night when he was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Kenseth, 50, who drove 18 full seasons in NASCAR before retiring in 2020 with 39 Cup wins and 20 poles, highlighted a class that also included longtime driver Hershel McGriff and chief executive Kirk Shelmerdine team.
The driver many called “brat Matt” when he first appeared in the race ranks 21st on NASCAR’s career wins list. He has won every major race in the sport, including the Daytona 500 in 2009 and 2012, the Coca-Cola 600, the Southern 500 and the All-Star race.
“I’ve always viewed my career as a ladder – you always start at the bottom and hope to climb to the top,” Kenseth said in his acceptance speech. “My ladder has hundreds and hundreds of rungs. And without any of them, low, middle or high – no matter how you fit into my life – I wouldn’t be here without any of you. So , from the bottom of my heart, thank you all.”
Kenseth’s wife, Katie, and father, Roy, inducted him.
“The internal drive is what put Matt on this stage tonight,” Katie Kenseth said.
Kenseth won the 2003 Cup Series championship after a dominant season in which he led the points standings for the final 32 weeks. He made the NASCAR playoffs in 13 of 14 seasons and finished second twice. He has also won 29 Xfinity Series races.
Kenseth has talked about learning to love NASCAR by watching his family race at Jefferson Speedway where he grew up in Wisconsin and begging his dad to take him to his Uncle Gary’s house so he can help work on his cars race.
“Running really is a family sport,” he said.
Kenseth earned the respect of his contemporaries, including Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick.
Johnson, a seven-time Cup champion, said some of his fiercest battles on the race track have been with Kenseth.
“There’s always been a deep level of trust that we’re going to give 100%, not to cross the line, not to clean up,” Johnson said. “As a competitor, he was one of the few that I knew we would run hard but not cross the line.”
Johnson said the two struck up a friendship away from trail bikes.
“I absolutely call him a friend,” Johnson said. “His family, his children are close to my children, our wives are close, like we really became friends and I’m very grateful for that.”
Harvick also described Kenseth as a fair driver, but added that he was “that sneaky guy who would dump you”.
“If you wronged him, he was going to give back exactly what he had,” Harvick said. “When you look at Matt, he was one of the few who always figured it out and found his way forward at the end of the race. He’s a hardcore good racer and I always respected him.”
Shelmerdine was the crew chief and front tire changer for four of Dale Earnhardt’s seven championships. Only two crew chiefs have more first-series titles than Shelmerdine: Dale Inman, inducted in 2012, with eight, and Chad Knaus, who will be eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2024, with seven.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. inducted Shelmerdine saying “he put my dad on the path to greatness”.
“What makes a great crew chief? It’s simple, a great driver,” Shelmerdine said. “What else can we say about him? When we first started together, Dale and I just intuitively clicked.”
McGriff, 95, has competed on race tracks for 68 years.
From 1954 to 2018, he participated in 271 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West (now ARCA Menards West Series) races, winning 34 races and posting 100 top-five finishes. He won the series championship in 1986 at age 58 and finished second in points in 1985 and 1987.
McGriff spoke at length about his career path, saying he started driving when he was 7 years old.
“I’ve had a happy life and this induction is just the icing on the cake,” McGriff said, crying repeatedly during her speech. He joked that he was still planning to write a book about his life.
Mike Helton was honored as a Landmark Award winner for his outstanding contributions to sport. Helton was the first person outside of the France family to manage the day-to-day operations of NASCAR.
Photographer T. Taylor Warren has been named the recipient of the 2023 Squier-Hall Prize.
