73. CONNIE SWINGLE

Don Garlits said Connie Swingle was the best welder he ever saw. He just may have been, and he also was a pretty good driver. Throughout his long career, Garlits would occasionally abandon his driver’s seat and when he did, either Art Malone or Swingle

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would fill in. On August 5, 1961, Swingle ran the first 7-second time when he hit a 7.88 at Palmetto Dragstrip in Columbia, South Carolina. He also ran the best speed of that year when he clocked a 198.66 at Thompson, Ohio. The following year, he won Fuel Eliminator at the Cordova World Series, but broke in the final of Top Eliminator against Pete Robinson. On March 3, 1962, Swingle won the Drag News No. 1 Top Fuel spot in a match against Texas racers Vance Hunt and J.L. Payne. At the 1963 AHRA Nationals in Green Valley, Texas, Swingle just missed setting Top Speed with a 207.36-mph charge in Jim Duet’s dragster. He won the first Mickey Thompson 500 aboard Ed Pink’s “Old Master” in 1965, beating his sometime employer Don Garlits in the final. He also drove the AMT “Piranha” Funny Car to an astounding 196.92-mph speed at the 1966 Drag News East vs. West Funny Car show. At the time, it was the best speed ever for a Funny Car.

74. RICHARD THARP

Tharp was one of the more colorful drivers in the sport and one of the very best. He won three Top Fuel World Championships, two NHRA titles 1976 and 1981 (with Candies & Hughes), and an IHRA title (with Kilpatrick & Connell) in 1983. Tharp’s first bit of fame came in 1969 when he drove the Carroll Bros. dragster to the Division 4 Top Fuel title. He was an accomplished Funny Car pilot as well, winning five IHRA titles aboard Harry Schmidt’s “Blue Max” Mustang. He also drove for other owners including Larry Huff’s “Soapy Sales” Dart, Rich Guasco’s “Pure Hell,” Don Schumacher, and Mike Burkhart.

75. MICKEY THOMPSON

Mickey Thompson’s fame in auto racing emerged from success in several disciplines. For a time in the 1960s, Thompson was highly successful at land speed racing in Bonneville, Utah, holding the piston-driven engine LSR at 406-mph. He also raced Indy 500 cars, but maybe his biggest fame came in drag racing. At the 1955 NHRA Nationals, he perfected the slingshot dragster as embodied in his streamlined Panorama City Spl. That same year, he became the first driver to go 150 mph in a single-engine dragster, clocking 151.26 in Ray Brown’s unblown Chrysler. He won the inaugural 1961 NHRA Winternationals’ Middle Eliminator title in a four-cylinder Pontiac X/Dragster, did breakthrough work with Pontiac 421-cid, aluminum front-ended Factory Experimental cars, and was the owner of the revolutionary Mustangs that Danny Ongais and Pat Foster won consistently with in 1969.

And now a few more names that warrant some consideration for entry into the drag racing hall of fame.

DALE ARMSTRONG

An absolutely stunning career as a driver, tuner and innovator. Who can forget his "Canuck" convertible Chevy II on nitro and nitrous?

Driving an alcohol funny car in the old NHRA Pro Comp class he was practically unbeatable at the U.S. Nationals during a stretch running from 1974 to 1977. During that four-year period all he did was go to four straight Pro Comp finals -- in a dragster, an altered and a coupe! -- winning three of them. He won a total of ten NHRA national events, and in 1975 was the Winston World Champion in Pro Comp. He returned as a fuel funny pilot in the '80s and was moderately successful making it to two final rounds before losing to Kenny Bernstein and Don Prudhomme. He went on to become a tuner for Bernstein and the pair won numerous NHRA World championships.

For all of his accomplishments as a driver and tuner, his development of the lock-up clutch for nitro cars ranks as one of the seminal developments in the sport of drag racing. That accomplishment alone should be enough for the man to be enshrined in the drag racing hall of fame.