February 7, 2009
By Brenda Benedict
Tough assignment: Pick the top five people in the entire NASCAR history to be the first to be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. That is the task that the NASCAR Hall of Fame is facing for the first induction ceremony which will be held in May 2010. That’s a short 15 months away.
I would like to hear from our readers about who they feel deserves this honor. You can email me at NascarHallofFamePick@gmail.com with your opinions. Which five people would you pick for the Hall of Fame and why? I will share the results over the next few weeks. This is NOT a NASCAR sponsored poll and the results will not be used to pick the five inductees.
NASCAR will be officially asking your opinion later this year. The first Hall of Fame class will be announced next October and will be inducted at the opening of the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, NC.
NASCAR has set the criteria for inclusion in the list of nominees.
”To be eligible, former drivers must have competed 10 years in NASCAR and be retired from racing for a minimum of three years. Non-drivers must have worked at least 10 years in the industry. (Potential candidates with shorter careers may be considered if there are special circumstances.)” (NASCAR.com)
The process of picking the first group for the HOF will use input from several sources.
After a 20-member nominating committee selects its list of candidates, the voting will entail a total of 48 ballots. Twenty ballots will be from the nominating committee; 27 ballots will come from a group consisting of former drivers, former owners, former crew chiefs, manufacturer representatives and media; one ballot will represent the results of a nationwide fan vote.
You can read more about the process at the NASCAR Hall of Fame website although details there are still sketchy.
Tom Sullivan, NASCAR Business Communications, stated, “Things are still being finalized in how that will be conducted and we will be working with some of our media partners to engage as many fans as possible.”
I would offer the following suggestions to guide your choices:
We know that in the 60 year history of NASCAR there are many more deserving candidates than will be chosen.
There seem to be three people who are shoe-ins for the first class.
a. Brian France Sr.
b. Richard Petty
c. Dale Earnhardt Sr.
It you are having trouble narrowing the choices down to five, it may help you pick the top ten. The picks 6 – 10 would become the second year’s inductees.
See That’s Racing.com article “How the hall’s business will be conducted” for a good explanation on the selection process.
David Poole has a good discussion of possibilities for the Hall of Fame in his blogs titled, “Who Do you love? Name your hall of famers.” and “Picking is easy but just on part of first hall class.”. You may want to make your personal picks before reading his opinion but he does give a good list of possible candidates.
The diversity in roles in NASCAR makes it hard to compare drivers, owners, crew chiefs with each other. I think it would be helpful if NASCAR had separate categories for those who actually race or support racing and those involved in the business side of racing. We could then compare drivers to drivers or crew chief to crew chief.
Send your suggestions for the first inductees to the NASCAR Hall of Fame to NascarHallofFamePick@gmail.com.
Stay tuned as I compile your responses and discussion.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.