October 16, 2010
By Kim Roberson
Kim Roberson
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The second class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame (2011) was announced in Charlotte last week, and while I am beginning to think that no class will come without some kind of controversy, this one has some excellent choices with careers well worth the honor.
The Silver Fox, David Pearson, who has 105 victories and three Cup championships, was about as close as he could be to a shoo-in -- after many felt he had been snubbed by failing to make the first class selection. He received 94% of the vote -- as close to unanimous as you will likely get from here on out.
The other four inductees are Bobby Allison, the 1983 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion and winner of 84 races; Ned Jarrett, a two-time NASCAR Cup Champion and well know TV announcer; Bud Moore, who has 63 wins and two NASCAR Cup titles as a car owner; and the late Lee Petty, founder of Petty Enterprises, father of Richard Petty, winner of first Daytona 500 and first three-time series champion.
The interesting thing is that Allison and Pearson drove for Moore, making the grouping especially meaningful for the men.
On Saturday before the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte, Jarrett, Allison, Moore, and three of Lee Petty’s grandsons -- Ritchie, Timmy and Mark -- met with the media to talk about their selection for the Hall.
“It really helped get me back going,” said Allison when asked how important it was to have worked for Bud Moore. Bobby’s career, which had begun 12 years earlier and included driving for great teams like Holman-Moody and Penske Racing, was in a slump when Moore hired him to drive the No. 15 Ford in 1978. The driver eventually won 14 races, including his first Daytona 500 in 1978, while driving for Moore between 1978 and 1980.
“Even after we parted ways, Bud has always been a friend and someone I’ve maintained contact with down through the years,” Allison noted that it was “really special” to be going into the Hall with Moore.
“Gentleman Ned” Jarrett was surprised at his selection for the Hall. He stated, with a smile, that he had been taking good care of himself so he would live long enough to make it into the Hall. “I mean, I want to live for other reasons as well, but I wanted to live to make it into the Hall of Fame.”
Jarrett, who turned 78 last week, stated that he was asked to be a part of the nominating committee when the Hall of Fame was created, and so had an interesting look at how the voting is done. “I am on the voting committee and I was put on the voting panel long before the nominees,” he said. (Inductees become voting members of the nominating panel). He then drew a laugh by adding, “After I was nominated (last year), I knew I would get one vote, and maybe never get another one, to be honest with you. And then going into this year I knew I'd get one more vote.”
He then addressed one of the biggest discussions happening since the inductee class was announced: the fact that two three-time Champions were passed over in favor of a driver who didn’t have the same statistics over the course of his 13-year Grand National (Cup) career. “(The nominating committee) were looking at more than just stats. Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough, certainly with the three championships, (were worthy) but they did it in a different time (than Jarrett did). The panel looked at other things than just what you had done in racing.”
When asked why he left racing at the height of his career, he commented that his family was more important than racing, and he didn’t want to miss out on his children’s childhoods because “Glen was 15, Dale was nine and Patty was six.” Instead, he chose a safer aspect of racing -- broadcasting. He actually started working in radio while he was still racing, but didn’t make it a career until 1978 when he took a job with NASCAR's Motor Racing Network (MRN), where he covered races and hosted the show “Ned Jarrett’s World of Racing” until just last year. He also worked in TV, broadcasting races in the early 1990’s, including the famous call of his son, Dale, winning the 1993 Daytona 500.
85-year old Bud Moore, who stormed the beaches of Normandy as part of the “Greatest Generation” before becoming one of the founding members of NASCAR, says that despite his 37-year history with the sport and his great record -- with drivers such as Allison, Pearson, Joe Weatherly, Buck Baker, Billy Wade, Tiny Lund, Parnelli Jones, Fireball Roberts, Cale Yarborough, and Dale Earnhardt -- he had his doubts as to whether he would make it into the Hall’s second class.
"I wondered whether or not I might have a shot. I figured I might have had a 50 percent chance, but when we got into the meeting with the voting panel, like I said, I knew I was going to get one vote. I was one of the people who helped start NASCAR in 1947, there are only two of us still living, myself and Cotton Owens. All we did to help France and get NASCAR going, I felt like I had a pretty good chance of going in. I didn’t think I was going to make it this trip. I figured we would make it along the way sometime. But going in with Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Ned Jarrett and Lee Petty -- Bobby drove for me and we won a lot of races over the years.”
When asked what his thoughts were when he heard his name announced, Moore said he was speechless. “It was so amazing for them to put me in the NASCAR Hall of Fame like they did, and especially on the second round. I was so thrilled I couldn’t even talk for a while. Tears came to my eyes. I really didn’t expect it to be this early, but I’m real grateful now. It’s a beautiful thing.”
Lee Petty, who was represented by his grandsons, was one of the founding drivers of our sport. He finished in the top five in points in the first 11 years that NASCAR existed, and won the Grand National Championship in 1954, 1958 and 1959. He had 54 wins and an amazing 338 top 10’s in his 15 year career. It has been said that he was the King of NASCAR before his son Richard became “The King”.
When asked about having their grandfather join their uncle in the Hall of Fame, the grandsons smiled proudly. “It’s unbelievable,” said Ritchie. “We knew our granddaddy was special. Now we know the world thinks he was special.”
“We are really honored and proud of our grandfather,” added Timmy. “We are all just country folks, and it’s nice to be included with these other guys.”
Modern day drivers seem to agree with the choice of the new class.
Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 33. Chevrolet for Richard Childress -- another of the nominees who was considered for the Hall of Fame himself -- says he sees the inductees as the history of the sport. “You know, you hear all those names and they are the grandfathers of the sport. You are hearing all the biggest names in this sport getting inducted in and it’s very exciting and I know that it has to be so gratifying for those guys and it has to be something they are so proud of.”
Jeff Gordon, who had a rough night on Saturday after starting on the pole, said “I think it’s a very deserving group. To me at this point there are so many that are capable of being in it that it is hard to narrow it down to five each year, but I think (the voters) did a great job.”
Pearson, Allison, Petty, Jarrett and Moore will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in a ceremony in May of next year.
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