How The NASCAR Alumni Network Is Keeping Legacies Alive

In NASCAR, honoring the legends who paved the way goes beyond tradition–it’s about preserving their legacy. Showing appreciation and strengthening connections with those who helped shape the sport has become a vital mission, one that NASCAR has fully embraced.

Last year, the NASCAR Alumni Network was formed, ensuring that its legends are never forgotten. The Network offers a way back into the sport they love, allowing former competitors to rekindle old friendships and reconnect with the fans who cheered them on week after week.

This organization is more than annual gatherings and handshakes between formal rivals though. It’s the culmination of a deep love for the sport and the people who helped shape it.

Amber Wells, the Executive Director of the NASCAR Alumni Network, has always had an appreciation for the sport’s history. With over 25 years in the industry, she has worked closely with, and managed, the NASCAR Hall of Fame for the company, welcoming each Hall of Fame class since its inception. Throughout her career, Wells has focused on building lasting connections between NASCAR’s living legends, their families, and the community that continues to honor them.

But as she worked to celebrate those cementing their place in the Hall of Fame, one recurring issue kept surfacing – an issue she couldn’t ignore.

“I quickly realized that there was no database, there wasn't an existing document or a file or a Rolodex, if you want to go back that far, of contact information for these guys,” she explained. “As we're going through the Hall of Fame process, and we need to find Cale Yarborough. Well, you make phone calls and send emails and eventually, you get connected with Cale Yarborough.”

That missing Rolodex wasn’t just a logistical gap–it symbolized a disconnect between the sport and many of those who helped build it.

Fast forward to 2023, when the issue came into focus during NASCAR’s 75th anniversary celebration. As the sport launched the ‘75 Greatest Drivers’ initiative, Wells was looking to contact those who had made that list. What started as a simple task of gathering these NASCAR legends quickly revealed how difficult it had become to reconnect with some of those iconic names.

“Well, any of the guys on that list that were Hall of Famers, I knew him. I knew how to get in touch with them. I knew where they were," Wells recalled. "But there was a handful of guys, Sterling Marlin, for example, that nobody knew where he was or what he was doing, or where he lived. [He] might still be in Tennessee, they didn't know. And so we started doing some research to track down everyone that was on that '75 Greatest Driver' list. And I was like, there's something more to this.”

That “something more” would eventually grow into a broader mission – one that’s not just about honoring the past, but reconnecting with it in a lasting, meaningful way.

Introducing the NASCAR Alumni Network. Launched in 2024, this organization is a way to reconnect past competitors to each other and the sport, giving them a chance to reengage with the industry through annual at-track reunions and easier access to the tracks. Wells, who was named the Executive Director of the NASCAR Alumni Network, works relentlessly to ensure those who gave so much to the sport feel reconnected once again.

A key highlight of the group is its annual reunion at Darlington Raceway during Throwback Weekend. This past Sunday, NASCAR welcomed around 30 former industry members, bringing together old colleagues and competitors at the historic track. In the past, returning to the racetrack might have been a challenge, but with events like this and the help of the Network, NASCAR is embracing legends, like Ron Hornaday, and helping them reengage with the sport they love.

“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 the 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.”

A moment like this happened this weekend at Darlington in the Fan Zone when a few alumni attended a gathering called a Tweet-Up, where the fans and drivers were able to interact with one another, allowing them to reconnect with those who cheered them on week after week.

“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.”

Geoff Bodine, who was one of the drivers to venture out to the Fan Zone echoed that 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!”

The reconnection with fans and the industry is something that was expected for Wells. However, what came as a pleasant surprise was seeing the fellowship that these drivers have built, all thanks to the environment the NASCAR Alumni Network has helped foster.

“They may have had these adversaries on the racetrack, but for the most part, they're all in the same place now, right? They've retired, they've stepped away from competition, they've aged in their lives, and they're just at a different point in their journey. And they want to reconnect,” Wells shared. “They want to say, ‘Hey, do you remember this? Do you remember when the two of us were battling at this race and it came down to this, and you bumped me?’ ‘No, I remember you bumping me.’ It’s about giving them the platform to do that. You know, they’re not going to call each other up and say, ‘Hey, do you remember this race?’ But if they’re at an event, we give them the platform to do that. I think it’s amazing.”

Many stories like this resurface at these events. One notable example from this weekend came from the 1995 NASCAR SuperTruck Series race at Martinsville Speedway with Geoff Bodine leading the race trying to fend off Mike Skinner. Bodine struggled to get through lapped traffic and was held up pretty heavily by Ron Hornaday. The delay caused Hornaday’s No. 16 Chevrolet allowed Skinner to catch up to Bodine where they both battled it out for the win before crashing together on lap 148. Back then, Bodine pointed fingers at both Skinner and Hornaday, but today, the trio is able to laugh about the incident.

“When we were competitors we didn’t like each other because we had to compete. Now we’re in there having a great time telling stories and just having a good time taking pictures,” Bodine shared. “So, what NASCAR’s doing with us older guys, these retired guys is great.”

This group is more than just connecting with former competitors and reminiscing about old times – it’s also a chance for these members to show their appreciation for one another.

“It’s super special. I mean, Amber’s group and the NASCAR folks doing this alumni deal is brilliant,” Mike Skinner said while talking to the media outside the NASCAR Alumni Network hospitality tent. “A lot of times we want to come back to the race track—well, a lot of us still motorcoach. So we want to be able to get a motorhome spot. We want to come and shake hands and see people. I mean, Richard Petty gave me my first job in NASCAR in 1983. I get to go see him, shake his hand, and, you know, hug his neck. You know, it’s really cool to see people.”

Darlington is the perfect place to gather these legends, for its history and celebration of said history on Throwback Weekend. Part of that celebration also entails the throwback paint schemes that honor the drivers and their families.

One moment that stood out involved Todd Gilliland’s No. 34 Ford Mustang Dark Horse, which carried a Ray Fox-inspired throwback. When one of Fox’s daughters saw the car reveal, she knew she had to be at the track – and the Alumni Network helped make that happen.

“She 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.”

As the NASCAR Alumni Network continues to grow, Wells is hopeful about its future. She envisions more at-track events like those at Darlington and Indianapolis Motor Speedway – where during the 30th anniversary of the Brickyard 400, the Network helped bring drivers from the inaugural 1994 race to the track. She’s also working to expand her Rolodex and welcome more back into the sport.

“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,” She said. “I want as many people that are interested in being a part of it. I want to find them. I want to connect with them, and I want to make sure that they know that they're welcome and that they still have a place here with us.”

Former drivers, crew chiefs, team owners, team members, and other industry competitors are encouraged to apply to join the NASCAR Alumni Network at www.nascar.com/alumninetwork.

Featured Photo Credit: James Gilbert/Getty Images