For many years, fans barely noticed when famous NASCAR faces would vanish without a trace. Some went on to become analysts, others moulded back into family life and some just faded away. Think about it, when was the last time Hornaday Jr. was either tearing it up on a racetrack or Jack Sprague was climbing out of the truck to greet a sea of fans? Down the memory lane of pit lane, their names now collect dust on old speedway seats. The drivers were the ones who paved the tracks for current generations-most times without a thank you and other times without an invitation.

“They didn’t care about me when I was there, and they didn’t care about me when I left. I gave my heart and soul to NASCAR. I did all the stuff they needed,” said Kevin Lepage

But now, NASCAR has turned the tables. It feels as if the sanctioning body has decided to throw this long-overdue lifebuoy to the legends of the past who were once the heart and soul of this sport, giving recognition to the underdogs of recent history. The NASCAR Alumni Network is born, an initiative that is not only about restoring relationships but delivering redemption.

The NASCAR Alumni Network was launched in 2023, an initiative to connect former race drivers, crew chiefs, and industry personnel back to current-day NASCAR. According to NASCAR, the program is designed to ‘celebrate the legacy of the sport while supporting the long-term well-being of those who helped build it. And it’s about time.

Veterans like Bobby Labonte and Ken Schrader praised the initiative while noting that NASCAR became too “quiet” over the years. It’s how the whole idea came into being. When Amber Wells, a NASCAR employee who manages incoming NASCAR Hall of Fame classes, was tasked with calling drivers inducted into the Top 75 drivers list couldn’t find legendary drivers, she knew there needed to be a change. 

She explained, “That group of guys, when they walked out of the garage or stepped out of the race car, they weren’t able to stay connected. I don’t think it was ever an intentional thing, I just think we move so fast, and there wasn’t a place within the NASCAR walls that owned the responsibility for that connection.” It was when she began talking about her Alumni Network idea, and Jim France was on board.

Prior to this, NASCAR expanded to IMPACT, a collaborative initiative that has partnered with organizations like PsychArmor and Hiring Our Heroes into the program for such clerks. These alliances provide full transitional assistance to veterans, particularly targeting those transitioning in and out of the motorsports environment. “From day one, NASCAR was willing to really lean in and say ‘how can we activate our fanbase to become direct supporters of other veterans and service members’ in a way that not all organizations are willing to,” said Sound Off Founder and CEO William Negley.

More than the allure of PR and media, it is the emotional dimension of the Alumni Network that takes the cake. “If you can take that video camera and walk through there and see all the people, they’re smiling, the stories they’re talking about inside there, that’s the coolest part,” said Ron Hornaday Jr., a four-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Champion as he gestured towards the NASCAR Alumni Network hospitality tent. “The best part is standing out there with qualifying going last night, and there are fans out there in the fan zone, and [Mike] Skinner and I out there talking, doing a question and answer, and seeing how people really followed your career through the years. It’s pretty cool.”

But now perspective has shifted. At an annual reunion at Darlington, Todd Gilliland’s No. 34 Ford Mustang Dark Horse, carrying a Ray Fox-inspired throwback, was displayed. “She (Fox’s daughter) said, I feel like my dad is alive again, seeing his name on that car, and seeing how they’re honored, that honoring them,” Wells explained. “I think that’s just the way that current NASCAR can connect back to our history and how our sports started and has evolved.”

It is an initiative necessary, especially in a sport that has always been faulted for youth obsession and digitization appeal. “I’ve been at NASCAR a long time, and this is one of the most rewarding things that I’ve had the opportunity to work on,” said Amber Wells.

It’s not just the fans loving the initiative, it’s the drivers too. “The drivers are getting as much out of it as the fans are,” Wells said. “They’re feeding off that energy because our core fans have an experience with Mike Wallace. They have an experience with Ron Hornaday or Mike Skinner, and they want to tell them about it. And the beautiful thing is these guys want to hear it.”

Nostalgia The New Currency in NASCAR

For growth in terms of fan loyalty and preservation of that famed culture and grit, fostering this alumni community becomes a very crucial aspect of NASCAR’s future. In a fast world, nostalgia could just be the most underutilized currency of NASCAR. 

Driver-turned-mentor Geoff Bodine echoed this sentiment: “We didn’t have the TV and all the coverage like they have today, so we really appreciate what NASCAR’s done is putting us together and showing us to the crowds, getting on stage and introducing us and doing media things and doing autographs… the generation I came from in racing, we appreciate all of that,” he said. “Now back then, yeah you’re racing, you’re focused, you’re busy, sometimes drivers didn’t want to sign autographs but today ‘please come here, I want to give you an autograph, come on over here’, we love it!”

And the drivers are noticing. “All the things we went through for this sport, we expected to just get this sent to us without asking (in years past),” 18-time Cup Series winner Geoff Bodine said, grasping his Alumni Network hard card. “But there was a time when we had to beg. What they’ve done now is say, ‘Come on, the tracks are open to you.” Feeling this way is a sentiment as common on the pit road as it is at private gatherings, where more alumni are returning to places they once ruled. 

Even the fans have started to get in on it. One X user, @shannon Roe, put it succinctly: “I’m aware of the program because friends are in it, but it’s cool to see what got it rolling. I hope it grows. Enjoyed walking around the garage at Darlington and seeing the smiles on the faces  of the alumni.“