{"id":1180,"date":"2016-03-15T14:22:09","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T19:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=1180"},"modified":"2016-03-15T14:24:30","modified_gmt":"2016-03-15T19:24:30","slug":"jeff-burton-to-be-inducted-into-texas-motorsports-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/15\/jeff-burton-to-be-inducted-into-texas-motorsports-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Burton to be inducted into Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT WORTH – As Texas Motor Speedway<\/a> celebrates its 20th season of racing, it\u2019s only appropriate that Jeff Burton, long synonymous with the speedway, will be inducted into the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

\"

Jeff Burton, driver of the #31 Prilosec OTC Chevrolet, in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 15, 2007 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway)<\/p><\/div>\n

Burton, the winner of the Texas Motor Speedway\u2019s inaugural Sprint Cup Series race in 1997 and the first Cup driver with multiple victories at the 1.5-mile track, will become the 18th member inducted into the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

Burton will be honored Thursday, April 7, at the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame Gala benefitting Speedway Children\u2019s Charities-Texas Chapter that will be held in The Speedway Club\u2019s Grand Ballroom during the Duck Commander 5000 NASCAR weekend. The event recognizes some of the most outstanding individuals in motorsports.<\/p>\n

In addition to Burton, NASCAR Hall of Famers Glen and Leonard Wood, three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart, 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship contender Martin Truex Jr. and 2015 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Erik Jones will be honored at the gala.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff

Jeff Burton, driver of the No. 99 Exide Batteries Ford, celebrates in Victory Circle by raising an Exide battery above his head while standing on his car following his victory in the Interstate Batteries 500, the inaugural NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series (then Winston Cup Series) race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas on April 6, 1997. The win was also the first of Burton’s Cup career.”<\/p><\/div>\n

Burton earned the first of his 21 career Sprint Cup Series wins at Texas Motor Speedway with his victory in the Interstate Batteries 500 in 1997. Ten years later, he became with first Sprint Cup Series driver with multiple victories at TMS when he led just one lap en route to the win in the 2007 Samsung 500.<\/p>\n

The Wood brothers will receive the Bruton Smith Legend Award for their contributions to the sport. Both Glen and Leonard have been instrumental to the success of NASCAR and Wood Brothers Racing, which was founded in 1950. Since that time, the organization has become cemented in the legacy of NASCAR. Still competing in the famed No. 21 car, the team holds the distinction of being the oldest active team in NASCAR. Some of NASCAR\u2019s legendary drivers competed for Wood Brothers Racing including Glen Wood, Curtis Turner, Joe Weatherly, Junior Johnson, Bob Welborn, Ralph Earnhardt, Ned Jarrett, Fireball Roberts, Tiny Lund, Marvin Panch, Fred Lorenzen, Cale Yarborough, A.J. Foyt, David Pearson, Neil Bonnett, Buddy Baker and Dale Jarrett.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff

Jeff Burton, driver of the #31 Prilosec OTC Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane with his team after winning the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 15, 2007 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway)<\/p><\/div>\n

Stewart will be honored with the prestigious Maj. General Thomas Sadler Award for his support of Speedway Children\u2019s Charities-Texas Chapter. Stewart\u2019s support as host of his annual \u201cSmoke Show\u201d fantasy camp and contributions with his parade lap for auctions has allowed Speedway Children\u2019s Charities to raise more than $1.5 million, all of which is distributed to North Texas non-profit organizations benefitting children.<\/p>\n

Truex Jr. will receive the Texas Motor Speedway Sportsmanship Award. Last year, Truex Jr. enjoyed a career year as he established career highs for top fives (8), top 10s (22) and points finish (4th). However, his on-track success came after dealing with news of his longtime girlfriend Sherry Pollex diagnoses of Stage III ovarian cancer in August 2014. Even before Pollex\u2019s diagnoses, Truex Jr. dedicated himself to helping end cancer through his work with the Martin Truex Jr. Foundation. The foundation, created by both Truex Jr. and Pollex, has a mission to help support underfunded cancer initiatives specific to ovarian and childhood cancers, and assist the individuals and families affected by them.<\/p>\n

Jones, one of NASCAR\u2019s promising young stars, experienced breakout performances at Texas Motor Speedway in 2015. In April, he defeated the likes of Sprint Cup regulars Brad Keselowski, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Denny Hamlin in the O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts 300 for his first career victory in the NASCAR XFINITY Series. His win came on the heels of qualifying on the pole for the race. He became the second-youngest XFINITY Series winner (18 years, 10 months) in the speedway\u2019s history, trailing only Chase Elliott (18 years, 4 months) who the O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts 300 in 2014. Jones followed up his victory in April with a win in November\u2019s WinStar World Casino & Resort 350 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. It was his first NCWTS victory at Texas Motor Speedway and it propelled him to his first truck series championship.<\/p>\n

The Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame Gala will begin with dinner at 7:30 p.m. followed by the start of the ceremonies at approximately 8 p.m.<\/p>\n

Table sponsorships, beginning at $1,500, and individual tickets ($150) are available by calling the Speedway Children\u2019s Charities at (817) 215-8421.<\/p>\n

Story and photos courtesy of Texas Motor Speedway Media Relations<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FORT WORTH – As Texas Motor Speedway celebrates its 20th season of racing, it\u2019s only appropriate that Jeff Burton, long synonymous with the speedway, will be inducted into the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame. Burton, the winner of the Texas Motor Speedway\u2019s inaugural Sprint Cup Series race in 1997 and the first Cup driver with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[110,21,111],"class_list":["post-1180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-texas-motor-speedway","tag-jeff-burton","tag-texas-motor-speedway","tag-texas-motorsports-hall-of-fame"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Jeff_Burton.jpg?fit=2931%2C1861","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-j2","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1180"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1186,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180\/revisions\/1186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}