NASCAR Hall of Fame Welcomes Matt Kenseth, Hershel McGriff, Kirk Shelmerdine

• McGriff, 95, raced successfully for decades on the West Coast and made occasional runs in the NASCAR Cup Series.

• Kenseth won the Cup championship in 2003, won 39 Cup races.

• Shelmerdine was a standout along Cup pit rows in the 1980s and ’90s, guiding the Richard Childress Racing crew and driver Dale Earnhardt.
  

Membership in the NASCAR Hall of Fame reached 61 Friday night with the induction of Matt Kenseth, Kirk Shelmerdine and Hershel McGriff in a ceremony at the Charlotte Convention Center.

McGriff, 95, raced successfully for decades on the West Coast and made occasional runs in the NASCAR Cup Series. He raced for the final time in 2018 at the age of 90 and joked—apparently—Friday that he would hit the track again at 100.

McGriff had the good fortune to meet NASCAR founder Bill France Jr. in 1950 when both raced in the first Pan-American race, a five-day marathon across Mexico. France invited McGriff to venture south to run in NASCAR, and the Oregon driver made a mark immediately by winning four races in 1954. He had several opportunities to become a regular in Cup but decided to stay in Oregon to raise his family and tend to his business interests there.

After his induction, McGriff recounted much of his long life, including the fact that he drove a hearse, an ambulance, a milk truck and dump trucks before race cars.

“My speech shouldn’t be too long because most of the people I want to thank are dead,” McGriff joked.

He said team owners Richard Childress and Bill McAnally have offered to build a race car for him when he turns 100. “I hope they both stay healthy,” McGriff said.