Hall of Fame voting experience proves humbling for this panel member
Humbling. In a word, that’s what it was like to be on the panel that determined the inaugural class for the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Overwhelming. That’s No. 2. Simply because it’s a rare day indeed when you can walk into a room and see Junior Johnson, Cotton Owens and Bud Moore sharing a laugh in one corner, Ned Jarrett, Harry Gant and Humpy Wheeler conversing in another.
There were references to Mount Rushmore and conversations about what should carry more weight, honoring the pioneers of NASCAR or the stars of the sport. There was a bit of hand wringing, numerous personal recollections and in the end, maybe just a little bit of soul searching.
There were no passionate pleas for consideration of particular individuals. The bigger question, as NASCAR television analyst Mike Joy put it, surrounded “the philosophy of the first class.”
“Fans expect us to pick the five greatest names in NASCAR,” Joy said. But in recalling a conversation with Richard Petty, Joy said the seven-time champion believed that “the sport was already great when I came along.”
So, Joy asked, “Do we honor the five greatest, or look to history and the building blocks of the sport?”
I wanted my picks to reflect a broad group of figures whom I believed had been instrumental not just in getting NASCAR off the ground, but in helping to make it the most popular form of motorsports in the country.
The one thing that stood out was how many on the 50-person panel (see right) had personal recollections of some of the individuals. Those who had been in the sport during its formative years, as well as those who had come along much later, all had stories to share. And those recollections made a difference. They helped to put a face on the person or persons being discussed. Had we been asked to pick the five most noteworthy individuals, and knew only what was presented to us on paper, the process would have been almost too mechanical.
So who got my votes? In no particular order, they were as follows:
• Bill France Sr.: If any individual was a lock, I thought it was the elder France. After all, without his vision and efforts, there would be no NASCAR as we know it today.
• Petty: The sport’s first true icon, Petty set the bar for competitors on and off the track.
• Dale Earnhardt: Like Petty, a seven-time champ and hero of the common man. He put a face on the sport when it began to expand outside the Southeast.
• Junior Johnson: One of the sport’s best pure drivers, Johnson proved even better at managing talent. As an owner, his teams won six championships.
• David Pearson: The sport’s best driver. No question. Second in career wins, despite spending much of his career running a limited schedule.
The glaring omission, obviously, was Bill France Jr., who made the top five while Pearson fell short.
Conversations regarding whether one or both Frances should be in the first class were indicative of how the whole process unfolded.
Jim Hunter, vice president of corporate communications for NASCAR, noted that France Jr. would no doubt have bristled at being inducted ahead of some of the sport’s stars.
On the other hand, Lee White, general manager, Toyota Racing Development, noted that were it not for France Jr., “I would not be here. That’s a fact.”
White recalled a meeting with France, in 2002, in which he was told, “Son, you’re welcome to compete [in NASCAR], you’re welcome to race and to win … but only by this much,” White said, holding his thumb and index finger less than an inch apart.
But in the end, White said, “We can’t go wrong, no matter who we vote for.”
No, we couldn’t. And we didn’t. Five got in. Many others are just as deserving. And their time will come.
