The 2016 NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony is this Friday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina. Five new members will be enshrined: Jerry Cook, Bobby Isaac, Terry Labonte, Bruton Smith, and Curtis Turner. This is the first of five 2016 NASCAR Hall of Fame profiles. Jerry Cook Born: June 20, 1943 Hometown: Rome, N.Y. Championships: Modified – 1971, ’72, ’74, ’75, ’76, ‘77 Modified Series Stats Competed: 1963-1982 Starts: 1,474 Wins: 342 Poles: 26 Jerry Cook made his name in modifieds, winning six NASCAR Modified championships, including four consecutively from 1974-77. All the while, he was vying with another driver from his hometown of Rome, New York, nine-time champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer Richie Evans, for supremacy in NASCAR’s open-wheel realm. The rivalry was home-grown – and intense. Modified racing is NASCAR’s oldest form of competition – the staple of the very first NASCAR season in 1948. Cook has said the cars’ appeal was based on that history and the fact that the racing is unique within NASCAR. After retiring from racing in 1982, Cook stayed with the sport and helped shape the series known today as the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Cook served as the series’ director when it began in 1985 and remains with NASCAR as competition administrator. In 1998, he was named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers. Photo Gallery (photos – ISC Archives via Getty Images) One of the Pinto-bodied cars he used on his way to winning the 1971 NASCAR National Modified championship, the first of his six titles 1975 NASCAR Modified champion , one of six modified titles. Jerry Cook inside his modified stock car. September 1975 at Martinsville Speedway. At Thompson Speedway’s ‘Spring Sizzler’ .
