
The ceremony began by honoring Janet Guthrie with the Landmark Award for outstanding contributions to NASCAR.
Guthrie was the first woman to ever compete in a NASCAR superspeedway race, finishing 15th in the 1976 World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. She went on to become the first woman to qualify for the Daytona 500, finishing 12th in the 1977 running of the event. Along with several appearances at the Indianapolis 500, she would go on to compete in the Daytona 500 a second time, finishing 11th in 1978.