Kendall, Martin, Ruby and others inducted Friday night
"This is awesome, but at the same time it's hard to process – it's hard to believe," Kendall said. "I've kept active driving up until last year, but when I think about it, my real career ended nearly 20 years ago when I stopped racing full time at the end of 1997."
He ended his full-time career in spectacular fashion. He opened the 1997 Trans-Am season with an 11-race winning streak, giving him 16 wins, 27 poles and 27 podiums in 38 races over that three-year span.
Over the years, 216 motorsports luminaries have been inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. The 99-person nominating panel itself reads like a "who's who" of racing, with stars such as Mario Andretti, Don Garlits, Craig Breedlove and Richard Petty involved in the process.
"This year's class truly reflects the wide range of American motorsports – which has always been the foundation for our facility," said Ron Watson, president of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. "These gentlemen achieved success on two wheels and four, on dirt and pavement, on every kind of track, plus off the road entirely."
Martin said he was honored to be entering the Hall of Fame with such a talented group.
"I am overwhelmed by the news that I'm getting into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, especially with this 2015 class of inductees," said Martin, who retired from NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition last year. "I have a lot of respect for each [of the other inductees]."
Carmichael compiled 10 consecutive National Motocross titles, three riding 125cc bikes (1997-99) and seven in the premier class (2000-06). In the 2002 outdoor season, Carmichael won all 24 motos contested that year. He repeated that achievement in 2004. Carmichael amassed a career total of 150 victories.
"I am honored and humbled to be inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America," Carmichael said. "As a kid growing up racing dirt bikes I never would have thought something like this was possible for me. To be in the company of some of the greatest names in motorsports is surreal. As you look at all of the great athletes and people that are in the Hall of Fame, it is hard for me to believe that I will be included among names like Ward, Hannah, Earnhardt, Petty or Garlits."
Evans won nine SCORE World Championships, nine Baja 1000s, eight Mint 400s, eight Parker 400s, six Baja 500s, six Mojave 250s, six Fireworks 250s and two Frontier 500s, all in desert competition. Also racing in the Mickey Thompson Stadium Off-Road series, he was the 1991 Grand National sport truck champion, and his two-truck team won the coveted Manufacturers Cup for Dodge, breaking an eight-year monopoly by Toyota.
Johnson won six NHRA Pro Stock Championships and a total of 97 NHRA national events and became the first NHRA Pro Stock driver to exceed 200 mph with a pass of 200.13 mph at Richmond, Va. and won 30 percent of the races and appeared in 44 percent of the final rounds.
Martin made 882 starts in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series from 1981-2013 (two in active seasons in 1984-85), finishing second in the championship standings five times. After competing on and off for various team owners in the early and mid-1980s, he landed with Jack Roush's single-car outfit for the 1988 season. Together, Martin and Roush won 35 times in the Sprint Cup Series races through 2006, 41 times in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and seven times in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
Nalon's career spanned the pre- and post-World War II eras, and he may be best-known for his third-place finish in the 1948 Indianapolis 500 in a Novi. From 1946 through his retirement, Nalon led five different championship races for a total of 102 laps including his early domination of the 1949 Indy 500 when a mechanical failure sent his Novi crashing into the wall after winning the pole and leading for 28 laps. He also set a new one-lap pole winning qualifying record of 137.049 mph at Indy in 1951, also driving a Novi.
Ruby's career began on the dirt tracks of Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa and elsewhere with dozens of wins in midgets for Chet Wilson and Bob Nowicke, and culminated in 19 consecutive years in the Indianapolis 500 from 1960 through 1977, with a best finish of third in 1964. He also won in sports cars, including Ebb Rose's Micro-Lube Maserati, J. Frank Harrison's Lotus, and Carroll Shelby's Ford GT40 with Ken Miles.