Hometown: Chesapeake
Sport: Racing
Rank: 7 (ahead of LaShawn Merritt and behind Curtis Strange)
Born: 1956
Claim to fame: Won at least one race on NASCAR's top circuit for 16 consecutive seasons
Baseball had Cal Ripken, and before him, Lou Gehrig. NASCAR's Ã’IronmanÓ is Rudd, who started a record 788 consecutive races from 1981 to 2005. He won 23 races on NASCAR's top circuit in his career and finished second in the points standings in 1991. Consistency was his hallmark, though. He won at least one race every season from 1983 to 1998, and finished in the top 10 in 374 of his 906 career starts. What lengths did Rudd go to avoid missing a race? After crashing at the Busch Clash at Daytona in 1984, Rudd's eyes were swollen to slits and closed completely in turns during practice. So Rudd duct-taped them open and raced in the Daytona 500. He retired after the 2005 with $36 million in career winnings and a place as one of the sport's top 50 drivers of all time — a long way from his humble beginnings racing go karts locally.
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