NASCAR Hall of Fame Thoughts
With reports of Charlotte being all but assured of being the “winner” in the NASCAR Hall of Fame bidding process some have turned their eyes towards thoughts of who should be among the first to be enshrined.
Mark Zeske of Sport Illustrated has a piece up on the first Hall of Fame inductees. When this process first started in June ‘05 I posted my selections and soon found it’s not an easy task. With 50 plus years of NASCAR history to wade through, and so many that have made a lasting mark on the sport, a inaugural class of 25-30 would still leave some waiting for enterence to the Hall.
Everyone has their own thoughts and Zeske is no different, some of his selections I have on my list, but would also agree with those of his that are not. But he brings up a couple points I didn’t think of.
First is the cars themselves. It’s his belief, and I agree, the NHoF should have an exhibit of the cars that provided the means for NASCAR legends to become “legendary” and as he puts it, “showcasing the cars in essence puts the visitors on pit row.” The only problem I see would be some of the cars deserving at place in the Hall have long since been wrapped around a can of tuna fish and many others are on display in other museums. Two solutions would be to have replicas built for those that are gone and follow the practice of art museums and rotate one of a kind original cars through the various Halls of Fame that exist.
His second point is to make the Hall interactive. To be honest, (and it goes without saying but I will anyway), if the NASCAR Hall doesn’t have hands on pit stop simulators and actual race car simulators for fans to enjoy they are living in the digital dark ages of Pong.
Zeske’s most intriguing suggestion is probably not feasible, at least not without one hell of a lot of prior planning and land acquisition, but is an excellent idea.
Put the museum in the middle of a test track.Let every team have 10 free tests at the track during the year. That way, on every visit the fan will be right in the middle of one of his or her driving heroes in action.
Far and away this is his best suggestion and I have no idea whether the location Charlotte has aquired would facilitate it but it has a lot of merit. A suggestion I would add is to have NASCAR, Goodyear and the ARCA Series all contribute to the tracks construction.
Why ARCA? Simple, it has become the defacto development series (along with the BGN and NCTS Series’) for the multi-car NASCAR teams. And with Goodyear hand picking drivers this year for tire testing, and in the process giving certain teams a testing advantage over others, they could take a portin of the ten testing days for their own use and allow all teams to tire test on certain days.
Be on the look-out for a post in the next few days of my top ten cars that should be on display in the NASCAR Hall. I can almost count ten without thinking, just as the first drivers/owners/broadcasters, the legendary cars may far exceed what a “short list” can contain.
Now, this is a cool blog Marc!
I take it you use your own hosting for this one.
Anyway, thanks for your help with the query on the forum.
Shem.
i think that the first class inducted is very crucial because it will set precedent for all future entries. i looked at your predictions and i have to say that you cant put a guy in just because he’s black. you might as well put derrick cope in, 1 win, just happens to be the daytona 500. i for one hope that they are very picky as far as who they let in. i would say (down the road) mark martin is very borderline, plenty of wins, but none too monumental and no championships. i certainly wouldn’t let him in on the first ballot. i hope they have a waiting period similar to the pro football hof. i’d say the only locks in the series now would be gordon and stewart. i wonder about guys that are successful exclusively in trucks/busch, certainly that shouldnt compare to acheivements in cup, but they shouldnt be overlooked either. as far as the first class, i say richard and earnhardt definately. woods are good. why not pearson? there are a lot of names, but i dont think popularity should be a strong factor and i think you should have atleast 2 championships and atleast one daytona 500 win and atleast 1 win at one of the other crown jewel tracks.
and i have to say that you cant put a guy in just because he
What I want to know is, who will appoint the members to the Hall? Will it be like football or baseball, where select sports writers annonomously vote and you need a minimum percentage of votes to gain admission? Will it be Brian France? I honestly haven’t cared enough about the issue to keep track of any process that may have been discussed.
As far as the first class, it should consist of one, and only one, honoree: Richard Petty. As the man that did more than anyone else to singularly lift the sport into America’s conciousness, he should receive the singular distinction of being the first and only inductee. Sure Dale Sr. took Petty’s popularity and expanded the sport even further, but without Richard’s achievements Dale would not even have had the chance.
one career win doesnt make a hall of fame career, if it did, like you said, there’s plenty of names that got a win under similar circumstaces (and who picked cope to win the 500) and you cant put them all in, so then you are puting him in because he’s black.
there has to be some sort of understood criteria, exceptions could be made of course. but jarret, b.labonte, kenseth, busch, these guys (at this time) with one championship, still haven’t done enough to get in, imo. many would disagree, but i wouldn’t put dale jr. in. as “famous” as he is, he hasn’t come close to doing enough on the track. terry labonte is another question mark for me, 2 championships in two different eras really, surrounded by less than spectacular years. i really just dont want this thing over saturated. and i also hope they have a provision that keeps guys from getting in just because they are on a weak ballot.
i’d be very pleased with george’s idea.
As far as I know George their has been no talk about the mechanics of how potential entrants would be selected.
I suspect it may go the way of the the NFL and MLB but that’s a guess. It would also be sad in a way. It would lead to drivers that may be qualified but have shown some type of distain to the media getting lees votes than deserved.
Of course any input they would allow by the fans would be infinatly worse.
I like the idea of Petty being the one and olny member in the first class. Although I would add the entire family. They all deserve it for their dedication to the support, not to mention the loss they have suffered along the way.