At long last, NASCAR's toughest customer gets his due

Ricky Rudd.

On Monday, the Class of 2025 was announced for the NASCAR Hall of Fame, with Carl Edwards, Ralph Moody and Ricky Rudd taking their places among the sport's all-time legends.

Edwards won 28 Cup Series races between 2005 and 2016 before abruptly walking away from the sport following an accident that cost him a shot at a championship.

Moody was a five-time race winner but was better known as the co-owner of Holman-Moody Racing, which earned 96 victories between 1958 and 1971 with drivers such as David Pearson, Bobby Allison and Fred Lorenzen.

Yet, the headliner here is Rudd, who has waited long enough to be inducted. His 23 Cup wins and no titles in a career that spanned more than 30 years may not scream "all-time great," but sometimes we need a reminder that this is the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Stats. Rudd was an icon of the sport, and for good reason.

NASCAR may never see another driver as scrappy as Rudd, nicknamed "The Rooster." He once raced with his eyes taped open after a horrific crash in the Busch Clash at Daytona and won two weeks later at Richmond. He also notably won at Martinsville in 1998 after his car's cooling system broke on a day so hot that three drivers were forced to retire from the race due to heat exhaustion.

Rudd was once the holder of NASCAR's "Iron Man" record, competing in 788 consecutive Cup Series races between 1981 and 2005. Though since surpassed by Jeff Gordon, it can be argued that Rudd's streak is more impressive since he raced predominantly in an era in which NASCAR was much less safe and drivers were much more frequently injured or worse.

All in all, the Chesapeake, Va. native encompassed NASCAR's blue-collar, grit-and-grind identity more than any driver of his era, and perhaps ever. Yet, in recent times, he had seemed to fall through the cracks of history, waiting his Hall of Fame turn year after year and seldom ever appearing at the track.

It was time — in fact, past time — for NASCAR to give Rudd his due, a well-deserved honor for a competitor who was as tough as they come.

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