NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Former longtime NHRA Competition Director and Vice President Steve Gibbs is among the list of inductees in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America’s Class of 2026.

Gibbs will be joined by Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Stock Car), road racer John Morton (Sports Cars), 2000 MotoGP world champion Kenny Roberts Jr. (Motorcycles), winged Sprint Car racer Sammy Swindell (Open Wheel), Unlimited Hydroplane champion Dave Villwock (Powerboats), and motorsports reporter Pete Lyons (Media).

NHRA founder Wally Parks, a 1993 MSHFA inductee, hired Gibbs in 1969 to sell ads for NHRA National Dragster. Six months later, they decided they needed the man who started in the sport helping out at the San Gabriel, Irwindale, and Fremont tracks, even more, to help run the burgeoning number of NHRA national events.

Soon, he was the sanctioning body’s competition director, where he became known as “a racer’s best friend.” During his 25-year tenure, he oversaw more than 400 national events and implemented numerous ideas to make the sport faster, better, and safer, including reestablishing the NHRA Safety Safari. In 1990, Gibbs started NHRA Historical Services. In 1992, he created the California Hot Rod Reunion to raise funds for the proposed Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum. Six years later, it became a reality, and Gibbs was its first director.

Gibbs received the Ollie Award, recognizing career-long contributions to drag racing, from the Car Craft Magazine All-Star Drag Racing Team in 1991, the NHRA Lifetime Achievement “Wally” in 1995, and was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2006.

Gibbs joins a distinguished list of drag racing personalities previously inducted in the MSHFA: Joe Amato, Dale Armstrong, Raymond Beadle, Kenny Bernstein, Keith Black, John Buttera, Art Chrisman, Jack Chrisman, Austin Coil, Larry Dixon Jr., Ed Donovan, John Force, Don Garlits, Bob Glidden, Darrell Gwynn, C. J. Hart, Eddie Hill, Tommy Ivo, Bill Jenkins, Warren Johnson, Connie Kalitta, Chris Karamesines, Dick LaHaie, Dave McClelland, Ed McCulloch, Tom McEwen, "Ohio George" Montgomery, Shirley Muldowney, Paula Murphy, Don Nicholson, Danny Ongais, Wally Parks, Ed Pink, Don Prudhomme, Tony Schumacher, Don Schumacher, and Ronnie Sox and Buddy Martin.

Two additional inductees — the Class of 2026 Historic category inductees — will be announced this summer.