Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton voted into NASCAR Hall of Fame. Meet the 2027 class
The NASCAR Hall of Fame has voted on its Class of 2027.
And that class consists of three drivers — a five-time weekly series national champion, a Cup Series champion and a driver whose work as an ambassador of the sport after his racing days were done still impacts NASCAR today.
The future inductees: Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, Larry Phillips. Harvick and Burton were chosen from the “Modern Era Ballot”; Phillips was from the “Pioneer Ballot.”
Induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame will take place Jan. 22.
This year’s class was selected by the NASCAR Hall of Fame voting panel, which met, deliberated and voted in uptown Charlotte on Tuesday. The voting panel includes an assortment of the sport’s dignitaries, including but not limited to representatives from NASCAR, track owners, former drivers, former owners, manufacturer representatives, media members and the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion.
There were 50 ballots cast on Tuesday, according to the hall. Those 50 ballots voted on the 15 nominees who were established in March. Harvick received 92% of the vote — in other words, 46 of the 50 had him on the ballot. Burton received 32% of the vote. Neil Bonnett finished third of the modern-era nominees, followed by Randy Dorton and Greg Biffle. Larry Phillips received 38% of the Pioneer Ballot votes.
Lesa France Kennedy was named the 2027 Landmark Award winner, which goes to those who made significant impacts to the sport of NASCAR. Kennedy is the niece of Jim France, who currently serves as NASCAR’s chairman.
Here’s a closer look at the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2027.
Kevin Harvick: A Cup Series champion who filled massive shoes
Harvick is the only first-ballot Hall of Famer in this year’s class, and such a fact doesn’t need extra explanation: He accumulated 60 Cup Series victories in his career — 11th all-time. Harvick also has the 2014 Cup Series championship to his resume and was named one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023.
It’s true that Harvick’s legacy sits, in large part, on his on-track success. But it also rests in a larger lore — one about consistency, about closing out races, about showing up no matter the circumstances, about meeting the most difficult of moments. The biggest race of his career, he later told The Charlotte Observer, was his first Cup start, in fact. That came in Rockingham in February 2001, the day he replaced Dale Earnhardt Sr., who’d died on a last-lap crash at the Daytona 500 the week before. Harvick helped navigate not only Richard Childress Racing but the entire sport of NASCAR through the unthinkable tragedy.
He remains a massive voice in the sport, too. After retiring from full-time competition, he joined FOX Sports as a NASCAR analyst during Cup races and also has a successful racing podcast.
Harvick was standing out in the parking lot, in his truck, waiting for the call on Tuesday. He was indeed a shoo-in, but he didn’t want to come off arrogant by being in the building at the time of the announcement, he said. He didn’t want to be “disrespectful,” he said, to use his own word.
And if you listened closely, Harvick referred to that idea a lot. “Respect” — what it means to have, what it takes to get. He had to earn such respect throughout his Cup career on- and off-track, and something he has in abundance now.
“Your reputation is the first thing you have,” Harvick told reporters Tuesday. “The second thing is your results. And I think ultimately, hopefully, whether I was high-strung or competetive or rambunctious or, you know, the guy that everybody didn’t like or liked, or whoever it was — hopefully they can still respect you.
“From the competition side, from the ownership side, whatever that is. You might not like my opinion. Or you might not like what I did on the racetrack. But hopefully, in the end, you respect it, and I’d rather be respected even by the people that didn’t like racing me or didn’t like me from the other team because you did everything that you could do every week to get the most out of your car.”
Jeff Burton: ‘The Mayor’
Jeff Burton has a great resume as a driver: 21 Cup wins, 27 O’Reilly Series wins. He’s one of only 10 drivers to have at least 20 wins in each series, in fact. But beyond that, the 1994 Cup Series Rookie of the Year earned his lasting impact on the sport — and his nickname, “The Mayor” — for his insight as a broadcaster and his representation as a leader of the Driver’s Council since retirement.
Burton said he was playing golf when he received the call — and sprinted over the moment he learned of the award. He said he is forever grateful to be in such rarified air.
“It’s human nature, right, when you don’t get in (to the hall) to be like, ‘Damnit!’” Burton said with a chuckle Tuesday. “Because everybody wants to be in. And you have to take a step back. And I know the first year that I learned a lesson my first year I didn’t get in.
“I wouldn’t say I have my feelings hurt. But for just a few minutes, I’m like, ‘Man, people don’t appreciate me, right?’ And I took a step back, and I’m like, ‘That’s not what this is about at all.’ You’re being compared to someone to be in the Hall of Fame. It’s OK that you didn’t get in. The fact that you’re being considered at all is pretty amazing. ...
“It took me a year to understand that.”
Imagine how good the view is from where he sits now.
Larry Phillips: An ultimate winner
One famous crew chief, James Ince, estimated that Larry Phillips won 1,000 times, NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell said on Tuesday. And that’s because Phillips raced anywhere — and anything. Phillips is the first of two drivers to win five NASCAR Weekly Series national championships, according to the NASCAR Hall of Fame website, and was named one of NASCAR’s 75 greatest drivers.
This was his 12th year on the ballot.
Phillips passed away in 2004. He was 62.
This story was originally published May 19, 2026 at 4:48 PM.
