Full Throttle

The first spade full of dirt has been turned over during groundbreaking ceremonies for NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Unsurprisingly the event has spurred on a few to opine on its future and what amenities the building should provide and who should be among the first inaugural class.

Richard Durrett of the Dallas Morning News suggests NASCAR shouldn’t overload the inaugural boat the first year. He notes Mike Helton, and his staff, are still discussing the voting procedures and the size of the first class.

That’s to be expected, it’s still early days in the process, you can only hope it’s decided before the key is turned to open the door at the grand opening. A debatable proposition given NASCAR’s history.

Durrett believes the first class should be small, “maybe no more than five.” He offers Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Bill France Sr, Junior Johnson and David Pearson as dead on cinches to be recognized first.

Anyone would be crazy not to agree. Which probably explains why I didn’t include David Pearson in my list of 18 months ago, I’m mentally a little off-kilter.

Durrett’s list of only five isn’t without precedent, the Baseball Hall of Fame had only five inductees at its opening in 1936 and both lists worked from 4 to 5 decades of history to draw from.

That’s really the key to any discussion over the inaugural class, starting it is the simplest of jobs, where to make the cut-off will fill up a lot of column space, gallons of printers ink and a gazillion gigs of bandwidth as soon as the nomination criteria is announced.

Tom Sorensen avoids the inaugural class debate and slides into a discussion on what type of displays and entertainment should be included, with an emphasis on maintaining a link to NASCAR’s root.

I suggest you read the entire article but here are three ideas that caught my eye.

1. As a testament to the outlaw past, I want the hall to provide a secret concession stand. While everybody else orders light beer, umbrella drinks or chardonnay, I give the bartender the secret code — “Junior sent me” — and get a glass of hooch. I don’t want a glass. I want a jar. Cover it with a paper bag if you have to. Ever notice drinks covered with a paper bag taste better?

2. If you say something nice about Kurt or Kyle Busch, and mean it, you get in for half price.

3. And if Teresa Earnhardt, CEO of Dale Earnhardt Inc, was spotted at the track that week, everybody gets in free.

Post your counter arguments in the comment section, although I suspect there will be few to those three.

NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, NASCAR Hall of Fame, Sports, Busch Series, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle