NASCAR Hall of Fame Inductees

hudsontech

The first 5 Hall of Fame inductees have been announced. For those of you who didn't see the announcement on Speed TV at 4pm eastern time, as follows:



Bill France, Sr

Richard Petty

Bill France, Jr.

Dale Earnhardt

Junior Johnson



Really no surprises in that group, I'd say - tho I, personally, question Bill France, Jr. But that's NASCAR politics for you.



Still the 3 drivers well deserve this honor. They earned every bit of it during their careers.



Let the debate begin!!!!



Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

Ol racer

FYI

If a Hornet Driver does not make the Top 10 List its probably because 'the committee' is too young to remember the Fabulous Hudson Era and/or not enough of us in the Forum to make the difference....(Just my thought)

SuperDave

Ol racer wrote:

FYI

If a Hornet Driver does not make the Top 10 List its probably because 'the committee' is too young to remember the Fabulous Hudson Era and/or not enough of us in the Forum to make the difference....(Just my thought)

Yea..What he just said.



(Not enough geezers voteing):eek:

hudsontech

Ol racer wrote:

FYI

If a Hornet Driver does not make the Top 10 List its probably because 'the committee' is too young to remember the Fabulous Hudson Era and/or not enough of us in the Forum to make the difference....(Just my thought)

Interesting your comment about "too young" - the induction ceremony took about 10 minutes and after they announced the names I went elsewhere. I went back to it a little later and Rusty Wallace and Kyle Petty and a couple other people were discussing the selections. Kyle and Rusty both agreed that there were a lot of great people that should be in the Hall of Fame, but that much of the panel wouldn't be old enough to remember the early people in NASCAR. And at only UP TO 5 selectee's a year a lot of people that deserved the honor probably wouldn't get it.



Basically said what you said.



Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

RL Chilton

That's sad, but true. The way the balloting is done, people only know what they see, and 25-year olds don't know diddly about anyone past the last 10-15 years, unless they are astute.

Movie lists are similar (they're calling Ferris Bueller's Day Off a classic now).

Personally, I'm not a NASCAR fan, but 4 of the 5 choices, I would probably come to the same list. But I only know of Bill France from what Alex has told me-- I'm too young to remember that far back.

Browniepetersen

I expect that Bill France is before my day. First that I recal of he or his son. Being 65 I grew up with Richard Petty, Jr. Johnson and Cal Yarbourogh. Living in South Carolina it was only a short hop over to the Petty home. Since my room mate (That would be United States Air Force) was a Yarbourogh, the times I spent in the various shops I was treated like a family member.

Unknown

No intent to hi-jack this post, but as most of you know from personal experience, the older you get the less attention folks other than those you own age pay to you. As a long time Hudson owner, when club activities began I was a wipper snapper (name borrowed from my Grand Dad's favorite sayings) in those days I felt that the OLD GUYS were dragging their feet and not giving progressive ideas a proper hearing. Now as one of the OLD GUYS I know that was not the case... they were ignoring me as too young to know better... much the same as I find myself doing today.

What goes around somehow comes around.

SamJ

The whole thing was a sham...the results were determined before any "voting" took place...:mad:

[Deleted User]

When you read Smokeys book its a real eye opener to the early days of Nascar. Kind of puts what happens today into perspective. You had to work pretty darn hard to beat the "fix" that was always in place. Smokey didn't have a good word to say about France.



Dale and Petty deserved the nod.

SuperDave

51hornetA wrote:

When you read Smokeys book its a real eye opener to the early days of Nascar. Kind of puts what happens today into perspective. You had to work pretty darn hard to beat the "fix" that was always in place. Smokey didn't have a good word to say about France.



Dale and Petty deserved the nod.

When I read the rules for nominations, I noted that the rules were carefully crafted to not include Smokie. Old grudges die hard..

There should be a wild card write in catagory for legends. old cremudgeons or pain in the rears.. Maybe a catagory for special auto's? :eek:

Unknown

Today as then... dem that have the glove and ball get to make up the rules. In the case of auto racing the folks who were making the rules were also making the dough owned the ball, glove, bat and fields. Smart guys like SMOKEY and others were always coming up with ways to tar the bat, spit on the ball etc... The problem they posed was the rule makers were not smart enough to ID the tricks of the trade which allowed them to win. These tricks effectively took away the rule makers’ ability to stage a fixed outcome. When Smoky gave up ... the roof line for all the others cars (including his Chevelle) failed to meet the so called manufacturer’s template... but he got the boot ... and as a result never returned to that racing venue. Ever wonder how easy it would be to add TPFI to the restrictor plate engines?

hudsontech

You'll probably never see the likes of Red Byron, Ray Parks, Red Vogt and the other Geogia boys in the Hall of Fame - NO NO NO. Them boys started out as moon-shine runners (Junior Johnson was one they couldn't ignore, tho - but he wasn't a Georgia boy either). Got to keep the NASCAR family image squeaky clean, don't you know.



MAN, listen to them skeletons in the closet rattling away.



Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

hornet53

hudsontech wrote:

You'll probably never see the likes of Red Byron, Ray Parks, Red Vogt and the other Geogia boys in the Hall of Fame -

Gotta disagree there, I believe it was Parks who just donated a whole stack of early NASCAR trophies to the HOF museum. Not to mention the article about Park and the pictorial of the replica of the car Vogt built in the latest "Ol' Skool Rodz" magazine. The truth does have a way of rearing it's head eventually, ugly or not.



Although, I wonder if Brian France thinks the same thing I think of when I hear the word "Jocko"...

junkcarfann

NASCAR is a business. Period. Keep that in mind whenever you think about what they do. They are NOT a benevolent, kind, historical society.



Just checked...T-shirts with the winners of the "hall of fame" are available on the Nascar site .



The old guys and their cars (Hudson, etc) will very likely never be inducted, because there is a small and dwindling number of people who even know they existed in the first place.



Not many t-shirt sales.

hudsontech

hornet53 wrote:

Gotta disagree there, I believe it was Parks who just donated a whole stack of early NASCAR trophies to the HOF museum. Not to mention the article about Park and the pictorial of the replica of the car Vogt built in the latest "Ol' Skool Rodz" magazine. The truth does have a way of rearing it's head eventually, ugly or not.



Although, I wonder if Brian France thinks the same thing I think of when I hear the word "Jocko"...

Parks also kept NASCAR afloat, several times, in the early days with loans to France. My point was not that Parks and his racing team didn't win trophys - that they did. My point was France didn't want their involvement because of the whiskey running that Parks had going up in Atlanta and Dawsonville (at one time known as the moonshine capital of the south - if not the whole country). At one point in the formation meeting in Daytona in 1947 France stated that anybody involved with moonshine wouldn't be allowed to drive for NASCAR. Cooler heads pointed out that if that was the case France was going to loose three-quarters of his drivers at the outset!!! France was looking to build an empire that was clean and family oriented - and that he did; at least it's family oriented.



As I said before, an excellent book about Ray Parks involvment in all this is Neal Thompsons excellent book, Driving With The Devil - Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels and the Birth of NASCAR - available at amazon.com or alibris.com (search for Driving With The Devil).



Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

[Deleted User]

Ooooh, surprise, surprise, surprise! The Frances made it. The fix was in from the start there.



To begin a TRUE Hall of Fame, they really should've allowed 20 or so inductees for the inaguration, THEN five a year afterwards.



All it is going to be now is a Hall of Fame of drivers, owners, and maybe commentators from 1985 on. The real history of NA$CAR, and the stories of those early men, will be lost in favor or sponsorships and recency. What COULD'VE been, won't be.