Here are our Big 5 of top drivers to ever race at Rockford Speedway

Plenty of race car drivers have come through Rockford since the track opened in 1948, and as the final season of racing at the Rockford Speedway winds down, let's take a look at some of the most famous of those racers.

The Rockford Speedway is a world-famous 1/4-mile short-track high-banked asphalt oval in Loves Park, and it has provided the backdrop as a lot of young drivers actually learned how to race.

More: Rockford Speedway A look at Rockford Speedway's final season, through eyes of a veteran and a youngster

When it comes to the impact they had on the Rockford Speedway, and later on, the impact they had on the racing world itself, here are the five biggest names to come through the Rockford Speedway:

Dick Trickle, 1960s and '70s and '80s

Trickle was the first winner of the first Short Track Championship in Rockford in 1966 and the first winner of the first All-Star 100 in Rockford, then called the Tuesday Night Special, back in 1978. He edged Rusty Wallace for the title that year. That event created the template for midweek special races around the country, and Trickle dominated. He went on to become the oldest NASCAR Cup Rookie of the Year, at age 48 in 1989. And while he never won a NASCAR Cup Series race, he took third five times and had a solid career.

Mark Martin, 1970s and '80s

Martin, who still has the second most wins all-time in what is now the Xfinity Series with 49, was the National Short Track Champion at the Rockford Speedway in 1977, edging Rusty Wallace, and was an All-Star 100 champ in Rockford in 1981. While never winning a season points chase in NASCAR's top division, he finished second in the NASCAR Cup Series standings five times, and third four times. Martin's first big win, he has said multiple times, came in that '77 National Short Track Championship in Rockford when he was just 18-years-old and weighed just 110 pounds.

Rich Bickle, 1980s and '90s

Bickle was from Edgerton, Wisconsin, but he got the start to his racing career at Rockford in the Road Runner division in the early '80s, and eventually up to Late Models. Bickle, who has over 400 feature wins across the country, including three NASCAR Truck Series wins, has said multiple times that he plans to return to race in the final National Short Track Championships in Rockford on Oct. 1.

Travis Kvapil, 1990s

Kvapil started his racing career at the age of 16 as a weekly racer in Rockford back in 1992, coming down from Janesville, Wisconsin, to eventually win the Late Models series. That would only be the beginning, however, and he went on to win the 2003 NASCAR Trucks Series title and had a successful racing career for decades.

Matt Kenseth, 1990s and 2000s

This Daytona 500 winner raced at Rockford Speedway in his early racing days, then went on to become one of the most famous Sprint Cup drivers in the world. Matt Kenseth's son Ross also raced at Rockford Speedway, as recently as 2009. The Kenseth's were from Cambridge, Wisconsin, and still have relatives in the area, which made Rockford a nice and easy stop. He was recently inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Honorable mention list

There were plenty of other racers to hit the oval at the Rockford Speedway who went on to success at the upper levels in NASCAR, like (in alphabetical order): Bobby Allison; Greg Biffle; Erik Jones; Alan Kulwicki; Ty Majeski; Jamie McMurray; Brett Moffitt; Ted Musgrave; Pat O'Flaherty; Kevin Olson; Kyle Petty; Tom Pistone; Jim Rathman; Jim Sauter; Kenny Schrader; Joe Shear; Bill Venturini; Rusty Wallace; and Darrell Waltrip.

Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @JayTaft. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a wide variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears to youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star, and for over 30 years all together.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Find out who are our Big 5 of top drivers to race at Rockford Speedway