Dale Earnhardt Jr. sets record straight on Ray Elder, calls out misleading NASCAR information: ‘Huge disgrace’

Ray Elder is among the names on the Modern Era Ballot for the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2027. The newer generation of fans might not be too familiar with Elder, who competed in the 60s and 70s, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesn’t believe NASCAR is doing a good enough job of highlighting his accomplishments in the sport.

On the NASCAR Hall of Fame website, Elder is listed as a “Six-time ARCA Menards Series West Champion.” Earnhardt, speaking on the latest “Dale Jr. Download,” called out NASCAR for putting out “incorrect” and “misleading” information.

“Ray Elder is a six-time NASCAR Winston West champion. I’m looking on the NASCAR website at the Modern Era Ballot and next to Ray Elder’s name, it says, ‘Six-time ARCA Menards Series West champion.’ That is absolutely incorrect; that is misleading information. It absolutely downgrades it,” Earnhardt said. “When Ray Elder was racing in the 70s, it was the NASCAR Winston West championship, and they were Cup cars.

“He bought cars from Richard Petty and when the NASCAR Cup Series would come out to Ontario or Riverside, Ray Elder and the other West competitors would race in that race with the other Cup cars. It was a Cup Series, it was a Cup-level series, and he won six championships in that series.”

Ray Elder was dominant in his day

Elder competed in what was known as the Winston West Series, a Cup Series-level circuit on the West Coast. He compiled six championships in Winston West, winning 47 races in 240 starts.

Elder also held his own against Cup competition. Elder made 31 Cup starts, picking up wins at Riverside International Raceway in 1971 and 1972. He raced in three Daytona 500s, finishing as high as 10th in 1969.

Elder was legit, and Earnhardt is concerned his achievements will be made to be less than by the Hall of Fame calling him an ARCA champion. ARCA, now a development series, wasn’t a NASCAR-owned property until 2018.

“To call it the ARCA Menards Series West is a huge disgrace,” Earnhardt said. “I promise you this is no disrespect to the ARCA Series, but back in the 70s, NASCAR didn’t even own ARCA. Ray Elder was basically the West Cup Series champion. … This is so confusing and misleading. I’m afraid this hurts Ray’s reputation to fans because they read it and go, ‘Oh, he’s an ARCA champion?’ But he wasn’t; he was a Cup Series champion.

“NASCAR had two divisions — they had the regular Cup on the East Coast and the West Coast Cup Series. They were Cup cars. The competition was a little thinner, for sure. But when we would go out to Riverside to run and Ray would enter the race, he won Riverside twice. [He] beat Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, David Pearson. Beat ’em. He came to Daytona, run in the top-five at the 500, run in the top-five in the Duels. He would come out to Daytona for the 500 and hang in there.”