A moderately inebriated Jimmie Johnson once got stuck in the elevator in Tony Stewart’s near-mansion in North Carolina while celebrating Stewart’s 30th birthday, and he had to use his cellphone to call Stewart, who was in the middle of a speech at a fan engagement party in Charlotte, for advice on how to get out of the elevator.
NHRA team owner Don Schumacher started his own engine department because his former engine builder, Alan Johnson, left and started his own business, taking with him much of the crew. “That pissed me off,” Schumacher said — and rather than buy engines from his former employee, he began building them himself, parts and all.
World champion road racer Kevin Schwantz, in his first race on an actual cycle, ran it through a fence and hit his head, requiring eight stitches, which “explains a lot,” Tony Stewart said, about the crazy chances Schwantz took in his professional career.
Dario Franchitti, IndyCar star, was lying prone in the dirt after a motorcycle crash in Scotland when he phoned team owner Michael Andretti, telling Andretti he may have just broken his back, and he might need a replacement for the upcoming Indianapolis 500.
Those tidbits, and dozens more, are what you missed at the 31st Annual Induction Ceremony for the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, located at Daytona International Speedway. Emceed by the best in the business, broadcaster, former driver and 2009 inductee David Hobbs — who managed to get in a funny dig on keynote speaker Chase Carey, chairman and CEO for dropping Hobbs from the F1 broadcast team — it was arguably the smoothest, best-run ceremony in the MSHF’s history.
The inductees:
—Tony Stewart, three-time NASCAR Monster Energy Cup champion, inducted by seven-time champ Jimmie Johnson, who flew in from California just for the occasion.
—Dario Franchitti, three-time Indianapolis 500 winner, inducted by fellow IndyCar champ Scott Dixon.
–Former drag racer and current seven-car team owner Don Schumacher, inducted by former NHRA Funny Car champ Jack Beckman.
—Kevin Schwantz, champion motorcycle road racer, inducted by Mel Harris, the former president of Suzuki.
–The late Augie Duesenberg, racer and car builder; Augie and his brother Fred (class of 1997) dominated the Indianapolis 500 in the mid-1920s. Augie was inducted by Doug Boles, president of IndyCar.
–The late Phil Remington, ace sports car engineer who worked for Dan Gurney and Carroll Shelby, where he worked alongside the man who inducted him, Peter Brock.
–And in the “at large” category, the larger-than-life Linda Vaughn, spokesperson and model spanning six generations, inducted by former NHRA champ Don “The Snake” Prudhomme.
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