With most of the motorsports world on hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve decided to highlight some of the sport’s legends on a daily basis. We begin each story within the pages of National Speed Sport News.

Enshrined in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum in 2005, Steve Butler was one of the most successful sprint-car drivers of the 1980s.

The Kokomo, Ind., native raced winged and non-winged cars, but his biggest success came racing in USAC, where he won five championships. He took the sprint car title for the first time in 1986 and won it again in 1987 and 1990.

Butler, who was born in 1956, also picked up a pair of Silver Crown championships in 1988 and 1992. He won 25 USAC sprint car races and three Silver Crown events before retiring in 1993, still several years shy of his 40th birthday.

He is also a member of the Hoosier Auto Racing Fans Hall of Fame.