Former NASCAR driver Jack Sprague enjoyed a 13-year career in the stock car racing series. During that tenure, he picked up one Xfinity Series win, and 28 Truck Series wins. Additionally, he won the Truck Series on three occasions, but never quite managed to replicate his success in the Cup Series. Now, he recently received a nomination for the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Class of 2025.

However, he missed out on being inducted, losing to Carl Edwards, Ralph Moody, and Ricky Rudd. Recently, he spoke to Dale Earnhardt Jr and spoke about how he found out about his nomination. Safe to say, it came as a massive surprise to the 60-year-old, and he was admittedly still in a state of disbelief.

The one who broke the news to Sprague was former NASCAR Xfinity Series director, Wayne Auton. As it turned out, Auton ended his long career as Xfinity Series director, in 2024. The 67-year-old has long been a much-loved figure in the NASCAR community, and worked with NASCAR for 40 years. Coming back to Sprague though, he was a force of nature in the Truck Series scene, as evidenced by his 3 titles and 28 wins.

Jack Sprague told Dale Earnhardt Jr how he found out

Sprague told the Dale Jr Download, “My phone rings and I look, it’s Wayne, Wayne Auton. I answer it and he says ‘Hey! I just wanted to let you know, you’re nominated for the Hall of Fame.’ I’m like, ‘Really?.’ He said, ‘Yep! You’re next, buddy! See you later.'”

Frankly, given his Truck Series accolades, the nomination was well justified. Unfortunately, only 3 candidates can be chosen for the NASCAR Hall of Fame, each year. Who knows, maybe 2026 will be his year, or maybe some year beyond that. After all, NASCAR has plenty of legendary drivers on its roster, and Sprague’s statistics will give him a leg up on the competition.

Of course, he must have been bitterly disappointed to never win a Cup Series title. However, Sprague is choosing not to dwell on what could have been. He acknowledged that not everyone gets to be a champion at the end of the season, but he was glad to have been part of it. Between 1995 and 2003, he enjoyed just a handful of Cup Series starts, with a best finish of 14th in the 2003 Daytona 500.

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The ex NASCAR driver is satisfied with his career path

He confessed, “I didn’t have much bitterness left at that point anyway. Now to sit back and look at it, it obviously is a hell of an honor. It’s a big deal, and I don’t have any regrets about not being a Cup champion. It would have been great, sure. Ohly 30 people every week get to do this, in the whole United States of America.”

After the 2008 season, he practically disappeared from the NASCAR map. Some would suggest that he was just too ashamed of his results in the latter stages of his career. As a result, he felt it was prudent enough to just walk away from the sport and hide away. Other factors that contributed to his departure, were the loss of his sponsor, and beyond that,t his career was done.

Some fans still held out a bit of hope that he would someday return. Case in point, when rumors emerged in 2012 that he struck a deal with Randy Moss Motorsports, to make his comeback. Sadly, those rumors did not hold true, and the final hopes of a Jack Sprague swan song were brutally dashed. However, as he told Dale Jr, he had no regrets about how his career ended and was satisfied with sitting back and enjoying the slow life.