For those who have dedicated their lives to the sport of sprint car racing, there is no greater honor than induction into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame.

It is the ultimate validation of years of hard work.

But induction doesn’t signify the culmination of giving to the sport. Instead, a new mission is added: supporting the Hall of Fame itself.

The National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum sits outside turn two of Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway. Complete with a full floor of museum displays, the Hall of Fame, a movie theater and even a gift shop offering a full catalog of sprint car-related items, the building is home to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Foundation, a nonprofit tasked with helping to further the sport of sprint car racing by “promoting the future by preserving the past.”

Executive Director Bob Baker cites the inductees themselves as one of the foundation’s greatest assets.

Far and away, the most active inductee is Shane Carson. The former outlaw racer and second-generation promoter (his father, Bud Carson, is also a HoF inductee) spends much of his free time as an ambassador to sprint car racing and endlessly promoting the NSCHoF.

“There are so many inductees that do things for us,” Baker said with his usual infectious enthusiasm. “The photographers are always helping us with pictures for inductees or for a program we’re doing. Jim Chini helps us with photos, John Mahoney helps us. Mike Arthur is another photographer that helps us. Gene Marderness helps us anytime we need pictures.”

Many of the images featured on the inductee’s permanent plaques are provided from the archives of Hall of Fame photographers.

“Shirley Kear (Valentine) helps us with anything in Ohio,” Baker continued. “If we need anything in Ohio, Shirley’s usually the person we call. She helps us if we’re looking for a wing or a part or something for the raffle car. Because she’s in the parts business, she knows everybody and she’s done it for so long.

“Kenny Jacobs, just for an example, he builds things and right now he’s trying to get a bunch of car parts and engine parts together to build some kind of lamp to donate to us for our auction.

“In Washington, look at Steve Beitler. Steve invites us to his race track all the time and now he’s on our board of directors,” Baker added. “And those guys on the board have to fly to be at all these meetings on their own dime and their own hotels and everything. He’s always at our auctions.

“When I think of races, I think of Emmett (Hahn) and Lanny (Edwards) because of the Chili Bowl. I mean, they have welcomed us down there and been so gracious to us. They let us announce our poll awards and our new Hall of Fame inductees there every year.

“Bob Mays, who works over at Speedway Motors’ museum, he’s been instrumental in helping us swap cars back and forth between our museums and he knows so many people in the business — as far as the museum business goes — that if there’s something that we’re looking for that he doesn’t have he can usually find it for us.

“And, likewise with Lynn Paxton,” Baker continued. “Lynn Paxton is probably the closest ambassador for sprint car racing to Shane Carson that our sport has. He’s got the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing, he’s always promoting racing wherever he goes and he comes here to our induction banquet every year and spearheads our Friday night racing roundtable that we do with all the inductees. It’s kind of like a bench racing thing we do where they tell stories but the fans get to interact with them and talk with them.”

The Hall of Famers are great supporters of the sport as a whole.

“Whenever we’re at a trade show — it doesn’t matter if we’re at PRI or a race track — Danny Smith always stops by and buys raffle tickets and tells everybody with him to, then he tells people that he meets at the event to buy tickets,” Baker said. “He’s always very positive about the Hall of Fame and he’s always sending people to visit as they’re crossing the country. They come in and say, ‘Danny Smith told me to stop by,’ and ‘Danny Smith told me I should see you.’”

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MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Hailie Deegan has joined DGR-Crosley for Thursday’s NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Bush’s Beans 150 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.

The 18-year-old Toyota Racing Development driver will drive the team’s No. 54 Camry with primary sponsorship from iK9.

Deegan currently competes full-time in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West for Bill McAnally Racing, where she sits second in driver point standings with six races remaining in the season. Deegan also runs a part-time schedule in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and ARCA Menards Series.

“It’s awesome that we were able to work with DGR-Crosley on running the K&N East race at Bristol,” said Deegan. “They have top notch equipment and people within their organization. Every weekend they are competing for wins, and as a driver, that’s all you want — a chance to win.”

In 2018, Deegan secured her first NASCAR win as she took the checkered flag at Meridian (Idaho) Speedway becoming the first female to be victorious in the K&N Pro Series. She also went on to finish fifth in driver point standings, earning Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors. So far this season, Deegan has a career-best season going as she has two wins, five top-five finishes and two pole awards in eight races this season.

The NASCAR Next member has two previous starts at Bristol, including most recently in April of this year.

“Bristol [Motor Speedway] is one of my favorite tracks and there’s just so much NASCAR history at that track. It’s a tough track to figure out, but I feel like it really fits my driving style. The short track beating and banging always makes for an exciting race. The seat time and experience this weekend will help me be at the top of my game when I go back to race on the west coast.”

iK9, a comprehensive canine solutions provider for detection and service dogs, along with professional handler education, will adorn the sides of Deegan’s No. 54 Camry at Bristol Motor Speedway along with Monster Energy and TRD.

Deegan will be joined by DGR-Crosley teammates Tanner Gray and Ty Gibbs in the Bush’s Beans 150.

KNOXVILLE, Iowa — The names Jeff Gordon and Mark Webber were thrown around the Jason Johnson Racing camp all week during the 59th annual NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals.

However, when the dust settled Saturday night at Knoxville Raceway, David Gravel was the only name that mattered.

The 27-year-old Connecticut driver became the third first-time winner of the world’s biggest sprint car race in the past four seasons and gave the JJR operation its second victory in that same span. Jason Johnson won the Nationals with the team he built in 2016, but was killed in a crash last June at Wisconsin’s Beaver Dam Raceway.

His widow, Bobbi, decided to keep the team together and after running a limited schedule, Gravel was hired as the full-time driver.

While Gravel played a key role in keeping Johnson’s legacy alive, the $150,000 triumph was the coming out party that Gravel had been chasing.

In 2017, Gravel started on the pole aboard the CJB Motorsports entry and led until a blown engine ended his night. While he’d been a player in the Nationals A-main numerous times, he’d always come up short.

This time, Gravel, who has a reputation for driving hard, was patient and calculating in keeping the No. 41 under him throughout 50 laps of the half-mile oval.

“I put myself in position a lot of times after prelim nights and never really had anything to show for it,” Gravel acknowledged. “My best finish here was 10th. I feel like I’ve always been pretty good here, but no results to show for it. Obviously, the JJR No. 41 gets around good here and Phil (Dietz, crew chief) did a great job. It’s just a dream week.”

Gravel was patient early on, starting second and falling back to third.

“I got a bad jump and we were detuned a little bit in hot laps,” Gravel explained. “I didn’t feel fast around the top. Joey (Saldana) had a fast car in the beginning and I didn’t get too excited. I knew if I fell back to fourth or fifth that it would be hard to get back up there and contend for the win.

“I fell back to third there and then got by Joey and Aaron didn’t know where to run in three and four,” he continued. “He was running the bottom and the top and sliding himself. I was able to commit to the top and get some runs on him and it all worked out. I just let the race come to me.”

Gravel took the lead on lap 14 and held the point at the halfway fueling break. From there he was never seriously challenged, but did have some close calls in lapped traffic.

“I thought things were going to get hairy there a couple of times,” Gravel noted. “The 18 (Ian Madsen) hit the wall and protected the bottom and the 09 (Matt Juhl) pulled square out in front of me. I knew I was losing time on those laps and I don’t know if Daryn was close to me or not, but it was getting sketchy.

“I was able to recover and put those guys behind me. There were definitely some close calls. There were 25 straight laps with no yellows,” he added. “You don’t know if they are close to you or not. I just had to keep rolling, but I think I set a pace where I was kind of under control in open track and then turned it up a bit in lapped traffic.”

Gravel said he tried not to think about misfortune that dispelled him in the past.

“I was so focused on trying to make good laps. Obviously, I was thinking about it a little bit, whether or not something was going to break,” he acknowledged. “It’s a brand-new engine. It only has four or five nights on it. It’s something a little bit different. We had a shock fall off in the Capitani … and you just don’t know what can happen.

“The guys dotted their I’s and crossed their t’s. We had a stagger issue on our prelim night, but we checked everything out tonight 110 percent.”

Gravel followed Brad Sweet’s lead and became the second consecutive driver to win the Capitani Classic, his preliminary night feature and Saturday’s night’s A-main.

“I always have confidence here, but to win the Capitani and to win your prelim night just makes you feel good about yourself,” Gravel said. “It’s just a confidence booster. All three nights, we had the car pretty similar.

“A lot of times you are out there just searching, but we knew what we had. I’ve been there on Saturday searching and then you try to make it better on the break and you can make it worse.”

On his night, Gravel knew the sacrifices of those who made it happen for him.

“For Bobbi to keep this team going and Phil Dietz is busting his butt. He lost his best friend and kept this going,” Gravel said. “It made it all worth it. It just feels amazing. I am numb. I wasn’t that tired in the car but after the checkered flag I feel like I have boulders on my shoulders.

“It’s surreal. It doesn’t feel real at all.”

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SPEED SPORT has been reporting on and covering motorsports happenings from all over the world for 85 years, so we thought it would be fun to take a look back in the archives to see what happened 10, 25 and 50 years ago each week.

So check out what SPEED SPORT was covering 10, 25 and 50 years ago this week in Looking Back!

10 Years Ago (Aug. 12, 2009): Joey Saldana outran his Kasey Kahne Racing teammate Craig Dollansky to win the inaugural running of the Ironman 55 at I-55 Raceway in Pevely, Mo. Saldana started fourth and chased Dollansky until the 19th circuit, when he used a slide job off of turn four to take the lead. He would lead the remaining 37 laps to take home the $20,000 top prize.

Other Happenings: Scott Dixon knocked out the competition by winning the Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course; Terry McCarl became the first three-time winner of the ASCS 360 Knoxville Nationals at Knoxville Raceway; Jimmy Mars earned $50,000 for winning the North/South 100 at Florence Speedway; Gil de Ferran, an Indianapolis 500 winner, announced his second retirement, this time from sports car racing; Tony Stewart took top honors in NASCAR Cup Series competition at Watkins Glen Int’l.

25 Years Ago (Aug. 10, 1994): More than 300,000 people watched as as the NASCAR Winston Cup Series made its debut at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with 23-year-old Jeff Gordon winning the inaugural Brickyard 400. The race attracted more than 80 entries for the 43-car field, with Gordon outrunning Brett Bodine and Bill Elliott to earn the trophy and more than $600,000 for winning the inaugural event.

Other Happenings: Kevin Doty drove the Rusty and Keith Kunz Fontana-powered Stealth to victory in the 17th Belleville Midget Nationals; Mike Wallace scored his third Busch Grand National victory of the year at Indianapolis Raceway Park; Joe Amato topped the Top Fuel field at Seattle Int’l Raceway; Billy Hagan shuttered his NASCAR Winston Cup program due to a lack of sponsorship.

50 Years Ago (Aug. 13, 1969): Lee Roy Yarbrough bumped his season-long earnings to $140,000 with a victory in the Dixie 500 at Atlanta Int’l Raceway. He had planned to use a relief driver, but instead went to a local hospital that morning to receive a shot that helped him complete the race without a relief driver. He averaged 133.001 mph in the romp, setting a race speed record.

Other Happenings: Tiny Lund was declared the winner of the Music City 200 for the NASCAR Grand Touring Series at Fairgrounds Motor Speedway when rain stopped the race early; Don White won the USAC stock car race at Wisconsin State Fair Park; Gary Bettenhausen drove his Willie Davis Chevy to victory in the 50-lap USAC sprint car race at Indiana’s Terre Haute Action Track.

Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson is set to be out "the next few weeks" with a calf injury he suffered in the Reds' 4-1 victory over Norwich on Friday, according to manager Jurgen Klopp.

"[It's] not too cool. It's a calf injury, which takes him obviously out for a while," Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com on Monday.

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"I don't want to make now [an] exact prognosis on when he will be back but it will not be Wednesday for sure, so now then we have to see. It takes a while, it takes a couple weeks for sure, and we have to see.

"I saw already like 'six weeks' and stuff like this, but Ali was not a lot injured in his career so I would like to wait a little bit to see how he develops in that process now, but he is not in for the next few weeks."

The Brazil international came off in the 39th minute of the match after slipping and holding his calf. He waived off the stretcher but needed assistance from the team's trainers to come off the pitch at Anfield.

Newly signed Spanish goalkeeper Adrian came on for the Reds, his first game in uniform since joining from West Ham on a free transfer this week.

Liverpool sold longtime keeper Simon Mignolet last week to Belgian side Club Brugge. Caoimhin Kelleher is expected to serve as Adrian's understudy for Wednesday's UEFA Super Cup fixture against Chelsea in Istanbul, with the youngster having recently returned to training following a broken wrist.

Alisson -- who started all of last season's 38 Premier League matches -- was instrumental in Liverpool's Champions League title run in May, as well as Brazil's Copa America victory this summer.

Singer Taylor Swift has urged her millions of fans to get behind the U.S. women's soccer team in its fight for equal pay, saying the world champions took a "historic stand" for equality.

The American singer-songwriter said that discrimination on pay is "happening everywhere" as she accepted the inaugural Teen Choice Icon Award on Sunday.

Alex Morgan, co-captain of the U.S. women's team, presented Swift, 29, with the award.

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"While they were winning the World Cup, they were also taking a historic stand in terms of gender equality, gender pay gap," Swift said.

"Please, please, please support [Morgan] and her teammates, because this isn't over yet. It's not resolved. Get online and talk about it."

The squad's 2-0 victory in the World Cup final in July capped a campaign that attracted vast television audiences.

In March, the team sued the U.S. Soccer Federation, arguing that their pay and working conditions amounted to gender discrimination.

The players, including Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd and Morgan, said they had been consistently paid less than their male counterparts despite performing better.

The prize money for the women's World Cup doubled to $30 million this year, but this paled in comparison to the 400 million euros ($448 million) available for the men's tournament winners last year.

"Let people know how you feel about it, because what happened to them is unfair. It's happening everywhere, and they are heroes and icons for standing up," Swift said.

Last week, the U.S. Soccer Federation hired the services of two lobbying firms to counter the U.S. women's claims, a USSF spokesperson confirmed to ESPN FC.

In the wake of the U.S. women's team's World Cup victory, legislation was introduced in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives requiring the USSF to pay players on the respective U.S. women's and men's national team equally.

The House bill, put forward by Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), would withhold federal funding for the 2026 World Cup, set to be hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico, if U.S. Soccer fails to pay the women's and men's teams equally. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) introduced an identical bill in the Senate last month.

USSF spokesperson Neil Buethe told ESPN FC that the hiring of the firms was not intended to combat the legislation being put forward, but rather an effort to ensure that the information available is accurate.

He added that the USSF received two separate letters asking for information, and that the hiring of the lobbying firms -- FBB Federal Relations and Van Ness Feldman -- was the best way to get that information across.

Buethe said in a prepared statement: "Due to the large number of requests we've received from policymakers since the Women's World Cup, we are taking the proper steps to make sure that those leaders have accurate information and factual numbers that will inform them about the unmatched support and investment the U.S. Soccer Federation has provided as a leader in women's football across the world."

Molly Levinson, a spokesperson for the players in the equal-pay lawsuit, said via text message: "We are stunned and disappointed that U.S. Soccer Federation -- the governing body for soccer in this country and a nonprofit organization -- would spend sponsor dollars and revenue to advocate against laws that ensure that women are paid equally to men.

"We can't imagine that fans or sponsors would support USSF's effort to misinform and mislead lawmakers about the facts by blatantly inflating numbers and minimizing and diminishing the work women players do.

"USSF should use their platform and resources to support equality in this country, not constantly fight against it."

Information from Reuters and ESPN FC U.S. correspondent Jeff Carlisle contributed to this report.