Hendrick, Childress highlight Friday night's NASCAR Hall inductions

Rick Hendrick and Richard Childress – who together have won 26 championships in NASCAR’s three national series – lead the latest five-member group which will be inducted in a ceremony Friday night at the Hall in uptown Charlotte, N.C.

There others are Mark Martin, who won 96 races in the three national series – Cup, Xfinity and Trucks during his career; Raymond Parks, NASCAR’s first champion car owner; and Benny Parsons, who won the 1973 Cup title and was a popular NASCAR TV analyst.

In addition, the Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR will be presented to the late H. Clay Earles, who founded Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

Parsons led in the Hall voting, which was done last May, appearing on 85 percent of ballots. He was followed by Hendrick (62%), Martin (57%), Parks (53%) and Childress (43%).

Hendrick Motorsports owns an all-time record 12 championships in what is now called the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, collecting his most recent in November when driver Jimmie Johnson won his NASCAR record-tying seventh Cup title.

Hendrick has also won four with driver Jeff Gordon and one with NASCAR Hall of Famer Terry Labonte. In all, Hendrick has won 15 championships in NASCAR national series competition.

“If there’s a problem I have it’s going to be so many people have contributed to this thing, so many drivers, so many crew chiefs, so many folks at Motorsports, I won’t be able to mention everybody,” Hendrick said.

“I could stand up there and take a day-and-a-half to talk. I know I’ve got about six minutes, so I’m going to be nervous.”

Childress won six Cup titles with the late Dale Earnhardt, who was member of the inaugural Hall of Fame class in 2010. Childress has won 11 titles in NASCAR’s three national series.

“I really didn’t expect to get in because I was told the only way you're going to get in is to retire or be deceased,” Childress said after the announcement of his nomination. “I sure like the first one better.

“I haven’t gotten plans to retire yet, either.”