(photo courtesy of NASCAR.com)
Hickory Motor Speedway honors Jack Ingram with third annual Jack Ingram Memorial.
by Julian Austin
June 8th, 2024
The third annual Jack Ingram Memorial 111 presented by ValAsta and Jeff Kincaid Insurance is set to take place at Hickory Motor Speedway tonight.
Jack Ingram was NASCAR’s original Iron Man but not for his consecutive start streak like Terry Labonte and Ricky Rudd would go on to do, he was an iron man due to his incredible grit and toughness.
Ingram won 12 track championships. The number of races he won is unknown due to records either being lost or not stored but some say it’s in the hundreds.
Ingram won the 1972, 73 and 1974 NASCAR Late Model Sportsman Division championship. This division ended up becoming the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series or the Xfinity Series as it’s known today.
When NASCAR turned the Sportsman Series into the Busch Series in 1982, it didn’t take Ingram long to make his mark. He won the inaugural championship that season. He would end up winning it again in 1985 after being the runner up in 1983 and 1984 to Sam Ard.
Ingram’s last win was in 1987 and retired from driving in 1991 but stayed involved in the sport in owning Busch Series cars and Late Models. Ingram’s 31 series wins was a record until Mark Martin broke it in 1997. Martins was broken years later by Kyle Busch. Ingram’s 31 wins is still within the top ten of the all time win list.
Ingram was announced as one of NASCAR’s 50 greatest drivers in 1998 and elected to the hall of fame in 2014. He would pass away in 2021 at the age of 80.
Ingram won his first Xfinity race at Hickory and his last. So it was fitting that the track would honor him with a memorial race starting in 2022.
(Josh Berry celebrates the inaugural 2022 Jack Ingram Memorial win. Photo from JR Motorsports.)
Josh Berry held off teammate Carson Kvapil to win the event in 2022. Isabella Robusto led laps early in the event as well as current CARS Tour star Ryan Millington. Layne Riggs was third, Justin Carroll and Millington completed the top five.
(Tyler Matthews celebrates the 2023 win. Photo from NASCAR.com)
In 2023, the event ran caution free to the shock of nearly everyone in the field. Weekly points leader at the time Tyler Matthews and Kade Brown waged battle most of the race. Before halfway, Matthews passed Kade Brown to take the lead. Ronnie Bassett Jr would attempt to get around Matthews but lapped traffic would ultimately not allow this to happen as Matthews took the win. Bassett, Brown, Michael Bumgarner with Austin McDaniel completing the top five.
This season, Kade Brown returns to add another jewel event on his impressive resume. He is joined by Thomas Beane who is a former track champion at Tri County Speedway and won last weekend’s Marty Ward Memorial at Anderson Speedway in South Carolina.
Michael Bumgarner leads the weekly points standings. In the last five events he’s finished no worse than third including a win back on April 20th.
Landon S Huffman has entered four late model stock events at Hickory this season and has won three of them including a win last Saturday. His Pinnacle Racing Group powered by his father Shane always is a contender.
Landon Huffman is scaling back his CARS Tour effort to return to his roots and re-energize his program. The former track champion returns to hickory to add this crown jewel to his resume.
Young Matthew Gould is coming through the ranks this season. He’s the son of Phil Gould who is a crew chief on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. He’s looking to make a name for himself himself and a win here would likely do just that.
Zack Miracle returns to Hickory hungry for success. He nearly won a weekly event at Florence earlier this year and was the runner up in the 2022 CARS Tour rookie of the year battle.
Skyler Chaney recently parked it in victory lane at Hickory back on May 11th and is second in weekly points this season at Hickory. A win here could go a long way towards a potential title.
Charlie Watson has done a ton of winning in the Super Trucks at Hickory. He has two runner up finishes this year in Late Models and a win tonight would be huge for his career.
These are just some of the entries tonight scheduled to race. The Paramount Auto Group Limited Late Models, Heritage Finance Street Stocks, Super Trucks and Renegades will all be in action beginning at 7pm on Flo Racing or in person at the track!