Commentary
While everyone seems giddy about the recent selections that make up the first class of NASCAR’s Hall of Fame, I find it very disheartening on several fronts. Call me uninformed or prejudiced, but isn’t this sport about the guys on the track? Yes, Big Bill France thought up the whole idea, and Bill Jr. presided over its growth, but the guys on the track made it work. That’s taking nothing away from the insight of those two gentlemen, but how can you not include David Pearson and Cale Yarborough?
Since the heir to all of this, one Brian France, is always trying to emulate the stick and ball sports, can you imagine the National Baseball Hall of Fame inducting Happy Chandler and Ford Frick to their Hall and then selecting only three players, one of which was mostly a manager? Hardly. But we are talking about NASCAR here, and the iron hand has always been the NASCAR way.
It would have made more sense to me to have ten nominees for the first class. They could have gone with five in other years, but starting out I thought they needed more people to choose from. The NASCAR Hall is going to take years for the greats to get in. The other problem I had was with grouping drivers, owners, press types, and nearly everyone else in the same category. Excuse me if I’m wrong, but using this method, everyone who deserves to be in the hall will never get there under these rules.
There should have been four categories -- one made up of drivers (the most important category), car owners, management, and others who significantly contributed to the sport. I think you get the first group, but Junior Johnson would fit into the second, the France’s in the third and people like Chris Economaki and Ken Squier in the fourth (among others). If they had chosen seven from the drivers, one from the second, one from the third and one from the fourth, you would get a more valid class, in my opinion. In future years, you can bet that it’s going to be tough for Pearson and Yarborough to make it in if they have to compete against other icons of the sport. As an example, who has a better winning percentage than David Pearson? It apparently didn’t matter to the voters because the France’s had to be in there. My solution was to just put them in there. They deserved it, but they didn’t need to compete against the guys that made the show.
I thought it was telling that David Pearson, when asked for his reaction to not making the Hall on the first vote said it simply, as is his way. “I knew when there were two France’s in there, I didn’t have a chance.” So true. Now, you have to hope the voters remember Pearson in future years, but there is no guarantee it will happen. There will be too many crew chiefs, like Glen Wood and Maurice Petty, sure things in my opinion, to compete against.
If I had been voting, I would have placed my ballot for Earnhardt, Petty, Pearson, Yarborough, and Buddy Baker or Bobby Allison. Those are the guys who thrilled me and made the sport what it is to the fans. Big Bill and Bill Jr. did a good job in growing the sport and should have been automatic members, but without those four individuals the sport would have fallen on its face, I think. I guess I’m in the minority, but that’s nothing new. I also hope that a veteran’s committee, somewhat like they have in the baseball hall of fame, to pick individuals who are left out. Maybe then, guys like Pearson, Yarborough, Allison, Baker, and others will get their rightful place in the Charlotte museum. Otherwise, the whole thing is a mockery of what it’s supposed to be.
