10 Current Drivers Who Deserve To Be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame Someday
The true mark of a lasting legacy in NASCAR is one’s induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame — an 86,000-plus square foot, Charlotte, North Carolina-located shrine to the history and heritage of the sport.
Although it will likely be a while before any current drivers are inducted into the Hall, the day is inevitably coming for some of the Sprint Cup Series’ top wheelmen. With this in mind, let’s take a look at 10 full-time drivers who absolutely deserve future enshrinement in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Kyle Busch
Tied with Kevin Harvick for most NASCAR Cup Series wins among active drivers, Kyle Busch is the sport’s all-time wins leader among its three national series — Cup, Xfinity, and Truck — with an incredible 224 victories. Given that statistic, it’s not surprising that he’s also the all-time Xfinity and Truck series wins leader and one of only two two-time Cup Series champions who still compete today. But Busch’s success doesn’t stop there. The Kyle Busch Motorsports organization that he co-owns with wife, Samantha, has won two Truck Series driver championships and 98 races in NASCAR’s No. 3 division.
Kevin Harvick
Tied with Kyle Busch for most wins among active Cup Series drivers, Kevin Harvick has been to Victory Lane 60 times in NASCAR’s premier division, where highlights of his Hall of Fame career include wins in all of the sport’s marquee events: the Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600, the Southern 500, and the Brickyard 400. Harvick also rang up some impressive numbers during his former days as a team owner in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, where Kevin Harvick Inc. won two championships — both with 2018 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Ron Hornaday Jr. — and recorded 43 wins. As a driver, Harvick owns 121 victories among NASCAR’s three national series.
Joey Logano
The newly reigning two-time Cup Series champion is a lock for the NASCAR Hall of Fame for obvious reasons. Not only is Joey Logano just one of only two active drivers with multiple championships, but he captured the 2015 edition of NASCAR’s biggest race — the Daytona 500. It also doesn’t hurt Logano’s case for the Hall of Fame that he owns a total of 62 wins across NASCAR’s three national series at the ripe old age of 32.
Brad Keselowski
Along with winning the 2012 Cup Series championship in runaway fashion, Brad Keselowski is a 35-time winner in NASCAR’s premier series and has been to Victory Lane 39 times at the Xfinity Series level and once in the Truck Series. Keselowski has also enjoyed success as the owner of Brad Keselowski Racing — which captured 11 Truck Series wins before ceasing operations at the end of 2017 — and as the co-owner of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, a Cup Series organization that went to Victory Lane once during Keselowski’s first season in leadership. The only big item missing from Keselowski’s resume? A Daytona 500 victory.
Denny Hamlin
A three-time Daytona 500 champion and one of just four drivers in NASCAR history to win back-to-back Daytona 500s, Denny Hamlin is in rarefied air when it comes to his accomplishments in The Great American Race. Where Hamlin’s resume is lacking is in the area championships, as the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has never walked away with the title despite being a perennial championship contender and having come close to ascending NASCAR’s highest mountain on multiple occasions.
Kurt Busch
Although not as successful as his younger brother Kyle, Kurt Busch has enjoyed a stellar career nonetheless. His defining achievements include the 2004 Cup Series championship, a victory in the 2017 Daytona 500, and having a total of 43 wins between NASCAR’s three national series. His 34 Cup Series wins have been divvied among multiple teams, including Roush Fenway Racing, Team Penske, Stewart-Haas Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, and 23XI Racing, where he prevailed once in 20 starts before suffering a season-ending concussion in 2022.
Chase Elliott
A NASCAR Xfinity Series champion before he ever jumped in a NASCAR Cup Series car, Chase Elliott is as popular as he is talented. The second-generation driver’s biggest achievements over seven full seasons in NASCAR’s premier series are winning the 2020 championship, making the Championship 4 in each of the past three seasons, going to Victory Lane 18 times, and being named NASCAR’s NMPA Most Popular Driver in each of the past five seasons. Whenever Elliott goes into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, he won’t be the first Elliott to do so. He’ll join his father — 1988 Cup Series champion Bill Elliott, who is a 2015 inductee.
Kyle Larson
The first NASCAR Cup Series champion of Asian ancestry, Kyle Larson reveled in a season for the ages in 2021 when he not only won the title but went to Victory Lane a whopping 10 times — the most wins in a season since Jimmie Johnson’s 2007 championship-winning campaign. Widely considered one of NASCAR’s most all-around talented drivers, Larson will, in all likelihood, only continue to pad his Hall of Fame resume for many years to come.
Martin Truex Jr.
A two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion and the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion, Martin Truex Jr. has boasted NASCAR Hall of Fame credentials for some time now. The only missing item on his impressive list of race wins — which is highlighted by a victory in the Southern 500 and two Coca-Cola 600 triumphs — is a win in the Daytona 500, where he took the checkered flag a heartbreaking .01 seconds behind Denny Hamlin in 2016.
Bubba Wallace
No, this isn’t a misprint or a mistake. The first African American driver ever to snare multiple victories in NASCAR’s premier series absolutely deserves inclusion in the NASCAR Hall of Fame someday. On top of that, in scoring Cup Series career victory No. 1 in 2021 at Talladega, Bubba Wallace became just the second African American driver to earn a win in NASCAR’s premier league, joining 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Wendell Scott, whose lone triumph came on December 1, 1963 at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Florida.
