The new nominees announced on Wednesday are 1999 Sprint Cup champion and ESPN analyst Dale Jarrett, engine builder Maurice Petty, Speedway Motorsports Inc. chairman Bruton Smith, 1960 Cup champion Rex White and five-time NASCAR weekly series national champion Larry Phillips.

Jarrett is the son of two-time Cup champion Ned Jarrett, a member of the 2011 Hall of Fame class. Dale Jarrett won 32 times, including three Daytona 500s.

Petty was the chief engine builder for Petty Enterprises. He is the brother of Hall of Famer Richard Petty, a seven-time Winston Cup champion and NASCAR’s all-time winner with 200 victories.

Smith built Charlotte Motor Speedway and is known as an innovator among track owners, introducing condominiums, VIP suites and club-like restaurants to the sport. As the chairman of SMI, he owns eight tracks that host 12 Cup events.

“It is a great honor to be nominated as a candidate for the NASCAR Hall of Fame,” Smith said in a release. “Bill France Jr. once asked me to help him build NASCAR and I have literally been building monuments to the sport for my entire lifetime. Millions of people have attended NASCAR events at our speedways over the years and we’ve tried to be creative and innovative in an effort to help push the sport to a higher level. It’s always been a perfect fit for me because I love racing and I love NASCAR fans.”

White was considered one of the sport’s most consistent drivers, recording top-five finishes in nearly half of his 233 races. He finished outside the top 10 only 30 percent of the time in collecting 28 wins.

Phillips won an amazing 226 times en route to an unprecedented five wins in NASCAR’s Whelen All-American Series.

The five nominees join 20 others previously selected by a 21-person nominating committee.

The five 2014 inductees will be selected from the list of 25 by a 54-member voting panel for the Hall’s fifth class on May 22.

The entire list of 25 includes:

• Red Byron: First champion in NASCAR’s premier series now known as the Sprint Cup series in 1949.

• Richard Childress: 11-time car owner champion in NASCAR’s three national series, including six with Dale Earnhardt in the Cup series.

• Jerry Cook: Six-time NASCAR Modified champion.

• H. Clay Earles: Founder of Martinsville Speedway.

• Tim Flock — Two-time Cup series champion.

• Ray Fox: Legendary engine builder and owner of cars driven by Buck Baker, Junior Johnson and others.

• Anne Bledsoe France: Helped build the sport with husband, Bill France Sr.

• Rick Hendrick: 13-time car owner champion in NASCAR’s three national series.

• Jack Ingram: Two-time champion in NASCAR’s second-tier series (now Nationwide) and three-time Late Model Sportsman champion.

• Bobby Isaac: 1970 Cup champion.

• Dale Jarrett: 1999 Cup champion and three-time Daytona 500 winner.

• Fred Lorenzen — Winner of 26 Cup races, including the Daytona 500 and World 600.

• Raymond Parks: NASCAR’s first champion car owner.

• Benny Parsons: 1973 Cup champion.

• Maurice Petty: Chief engine builder for Petty Enterprises.

• Larry Phillips: Only five-time NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national champion.

• Les Richter: Former NASCAR executive, former president of Riverside International Raceway.

• Fireball Roberts: 33 Cup wins, including the 1962 Daytona 500, and the sport’s first true superstar.

• T. Wayne Robertson: Helped raise NASCAR popularity as R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company senior vice president.

• Wendell Scott: First and only black driver to win a Cup race in 1964.

• Ralph Seagraves: Formed Winston-NASCAR partnership as an executive with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.

• O. Bruton Smith: Builder of Charlotte Motor Speedway and chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc. that owns eight NASCAR tracks that host 12 Cup events.

• Curtis Turner: Early personality known as the “Babe Ruth of stock car racing.”

• Joe Weatherly: Two-time Cup champion.

• Rex White: 1960 Cup champion.

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“Nobody in the whole field had any clue what was going to happen,” he said, “so we felt like we had a good chance.”

Harvick dominated Saturday night’s exhibition Sprint Unlimited, winning the kickoff to Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway for the third time in five years. Harvick ties Tony Stewart and Dale Jarrett as three-time winners of the event, while the late Dale Earnhardt holds the record with six wins.

But no one has a firm grasp on what the season-opening Daytona 500 will look like in NASCAR’s brand new car. The non-points race only had 19 cars at the start, and the field was whittled down to 12 after an early accident.

The Daytona 500 will start with a full 43-car field in much warmer conditions.

“It’s going to be a pack, absolutely,” Harvick said. “I don’t think there’s going to be too many chances. You’ll see some cars break away. I think if you turn on a 2000 race, one of those races, it’s going to be very similar.”

Second-place finisher Greg Biffle agreed the Daytona 500 should have a throwback feel.

“I heard some guys talk about old-school racing, and it is a little bit like that,” he said. “The thing about it is that when you get 43 cars out there, it is going to be a ton different. Then the bottom lane is going to work. There will be a middle. With more cars out there I think it will be better.”

Fans hope so after Saturday night, which was somewhat uneventful because of a nine-car accident just 15 laps into the race. It turned the final two segments into something resembling a parade until a late push to catch Harvick.

Harvick threw a block on Biffle and Stewart, Joey Logano couldn’t get to the leaders and Matt Kenseth, who might have had the strongest car, faded late as Harvick rolled to the win. He led 40 of the 75 laps.

“I’m glad we got Speedweeks started off the right way,” he said.

The race was split into three segments and fans got to vote on the format. The result was 30 laps, 25 laps and then a 20-lap sprint to the finish.

But several big names were knocked out a mere 15 laps into the race. Stewart was running second when he cut across the front of Marcos Ambrose, making slight contact that turned Stewart sideways and required a save to keep from crashing. Traffic stacked up behind him, triggering a chain-reaction, nine-car crash that wiped out seven cars.

Taken out were defending race winner Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin from Joe Gibbs Racing, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson from Hendrick Motorsports, Mark Martin and Kurt Busch.

“I didn’t see much. I was just cruising along and I saw sparks in front of me — I knew that wasn’t good,” Johnson said.

It was a costly crash for Kurt Busch, who also wrecked in practice Friday and has two damaged race cars just two days into Speedweeks. His Furniture Row Racing team was getting assistance from Richard Childress Racing on car repairs to ensure Busch has enough in the fleet to get to the Daytona 500.

“We’re going to help them in any way we can,” Childress said. “We’ll probably have one of those cars back (Sunday), repaired. We got two or three more back at the shop.”

Stewart, who took responsibility for triggering the crash, went on to “win” the first segment.

“I made a move for the lead and probably was a little anxious too early,” Stewart said of his first segment gaffe.

Fans then voted for the drivers to make a four-tire change during a pit stop between the first and second segment, and it was largely Harvick’s race from there. He dominated the final two segments, and held off challenges from Stewart and Biffle on the final lap to win in his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

It’s a strong opener to what’s going to be Harvick’s final year with RCR. He’s already signed on to drive for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014.

“It’s about winning races,” Harvick said. “The politics and everything are one thing, but when we get to the race track it’s about sitting in this race car making it as fast as it will go. And those (RCR) guys, they don’t care about anything but winning and wanting to do good, so we owe it to them and everybody at (sponsor) Budweiser.”

Budweiser was the longtime sponsor of the race, which was called the Budweiser Shootout until series sponsor Sprint took over the rights this year.

Harvick broke his engine trying to do a celebratory burnout, and his car had to be pushed to Victory Lane.

Biffle finished second and Logano was third in his Penske Racing debut. Stewart was fourth and Kenseth fifth in his Joe Gibbs Racing debut.

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