Two Missouri natives, including Carl Edwards, make NASCAR Hall of Fame’s 2021 ballot

A pair of Missouri natives are among a group of 15 auto-racing heavyweights who’ve been nominated for induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame next year in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The list of Hall of Fame nominees for 2021 includes five first-timers — three on the modern-era ballot and two on the pioneer ballot. After balloting is complete, the 2021 class will consist of two modern-era inductees and one pioneer inductee.

Columbia’s Carl Edwards, winner of 28 NASCAR Cup Series races and the 2007 Xfinity Series champion, is on the modern-era ballot. Edwards, 40, regretted never driving a car to a Cup victory at Kansas Speedway, which he considered his home track, but he twice finished runner-up there.

Springfield’s Larry Phillips, the first five-time NASCAR weekly series national champion, is also on the modern-era ballot. Phillips, who died in 2004 at 62, became a well-known star on the Midwest’s dirt tracks before making the jump to asphalt racing in 1989.

In 1996, Phillips’ final Cup-championship season before his retirement early in 2001 after he’d developed lung cancer, he won 14 of 20 NASCAR races in which he competed.

The other modern-era nominees include:

• Neil Bonnett (18-time race winner in the NASCAR Cup Series, including consecutive Coca-Cola 600 victories)
• Jeff Burton (21-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner, including the Southern 500 and two Coca-Cola 600s)
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. (15-time NASCAR Cup Series Most Popular Driver and two-time Xfinity Series champion)
• Harry Gant (18 NASCAR Cup Series race victories, including two Southern 500 wins)
• Harry Hyde (1970 NASCAR Cup Series championship crew chief)
• Ricky Rudd (23-time race-winner in NASCAR Cup Series, including the 1997 Brickyard 400)
• Kirk Shelmerdine (four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion crew chief)
• Mike Stefanik (winner of a record-tying nine NASCAR championships)

Three-time Cup-champion crew chief Jake Elder and car-builder Banjo Matthews join three previous nominees on the pioneer ballot, which honors those whose careers began more than 60 years ago (before 1961 for the Class of 2021).

Nominees were selected by representatives from NASCAR and the NASCAR Hall of Fame, track owners from major facilities and historic short tracks, living Hall of Famers and past award-winners.