Jan
30
So Who Gets a Ride into the Hall of Fame?
January 30, 2007 | Posted by VroomDude
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Joe Menzer has a nice article up at NASCAR.com that touches on an issue I hadn’t really though about. Once you finally get your butt in gear and build a NASCAR Hall of Fame, who the heck do you let into the thing, as far as Hall of Fame drivers?
It’s an interesting question for lots of reasons, not the least of which is that NASCAR and fans are in a bit of an odd situation, as compared to other sports that have had Hall of Fames for many years.
Not only does NASCAR have to devise a fair system to vote drivers in moving forward, but it’s also got to play some catch up, as far as not only getting deserving drivers into the Hall of Fame, but giving them the spotlight and moment in the sun they’re each due, and not just lumping in 20 drivers immediately and calling it good.
Who should be in charge of voting, moving forward? The Frances? Fans? Sportswriters? Some combination of all of the above? Should we conjure up a benchmark figure out of air, as far as wins, that should be the standard to shoot for, like in baseball when reaching 3,000 hits or 300 wins pretty much guarantees you’re a Hall of Famer?
As Menzer points out in the article, you also can’t just focus on drivers, as owners and announcers could be just as deserving (or more). Should a driver be completely out of the sport for a certain number of years before being eligible, as in other sports? Would DW running some Busch and Craftsman Truck races start the clock ticking again for his inclusion, if you did require them to be retired for a certain amount of time?
If the powers that be decide to let five people in to kick things off, who would your first five to be elected to the Hall of Fame be? It’s hard to argue with the top four, I think, as far as:
1) Bill France
2) Dale Earnhardt
3) Richard Petty
4) David Pearson
but that fifth slot gets hard. I’m too young to know some of the older names or announcer types that might get bandied about, but just looking at the numbers and results, it’s hard to ignore DW, especially if you add in his role as an announcer and bringing general awareness of the sport to more fans.
I’d probably put him into the five spot, but here are likely all sorts of great arguments for any number of other people to be more deserving.
It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out, as I’m sure the chatter will increase as we get closer to the Hall of Fame finally opening its doors.
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The legendary announcer Barney Hall…vroom!