Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009

NASCAR Hall opens door to 5 - but which 5?

Junior Johnson and 49 other voters will gather in uptown Charlotte this morning for a simple but complex task - determine the first five inductees into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

This isn't like other racing halls of fame, which are scattered across the country, well intended but lacking the gravity and emotional horsepower of the sport's official shrine that sits shining on the corner of Stonewall and Brevard streets.

This will be NASCAR's version of Cooperstown, the almost mythical home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, a place where the faithful come to visit, to remember and to feel a little of the thunder that echoes across more than 50 years.

This is NASCAR, all grown up.

"It brings our sport from the gutter to the top," said Johnson, whose career took him from running moonshine on the backroads of North Carolina to being one of the sport's most successful drivers and team owners.

"We've had halls of fame, but some of them were in a motel."

When the new facility opens on May 11, 2010, it will include a splashy museum filled with race cars.

But it's called the Hall of Fame for a reason - five reasons, to start.

Who are the five who will be inducted in the inaugural class?

Richard Petty?

Dale Earnhardt?

Bill France Sr.?

They're the overwhelming favorites to get in on the first ballot, but that leaves two spots to fill.

Some would argue five inductees isn't enough for the first class. But that's what baseball did, and it's hard to argue with starting a Hall of Fame with Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson.

"Some say put more in, some say put less in," said Winston Kelley, the Hall's executive director and one of the 50 voters.

"Five is a hard number. It's easy for me to say, but I'd rather highlight five than have the 15th person that first year be something of an afterthought."

The 50 voters who will select the inaugural class are a combination of NASCAR officials, track owners, media members, former car owners, drivers, crew chiefs and others who have been around the sport for years. A 51st vote will be included based on an online vote by fans that was held earlier but the results of which have not been released.

A committee narrowed the list of potential inductees to 25. It's slanted toward the past more than the present, which means Raymond Parks, who helped Bill France Sr. start the sport, is on the list and Jeff Gordon isn't.

"The initial halls-of-fame deals are all the same," said Humpy Wheeler, former president of Lowe's Motor Speedway. "You have a lot of people who know about the current people but don't know the past. They tend to nominate those they know.

"To do it properly, you need to look at the past and at the people who got us here."

At 4 p.m. today, NASCAR president Brian France will announce the five inductees, two of whom could be his grandfather, Bill Sr., and his father, Bill Jr.

"The first-time vote, I've been struggling with that," retired driver Ricky Rudd, a voter, said. "There are so many great names. How do you choose? So many big names and so few spaces."

There are some intriguing story lines.

Let's start with the France family. Bill Sr. started the sport, and without him there wouldn't be a NASCAR and, therefore, no hall of fame.

The question of Bill Jr., his son and successor, adds a wrinkle. While Bill Sr. started the sport, taking it from the Daytona beach to tracks across the country, it was Bill Jr. who oversaw the sport's mushrooming success.

Between them, Bill Sr. and Bill Jr., oversaw NASCAR through its first 50 years, turning a family enterprise into a major American sport.

"I think they will (both get in)," Johnson said. "I say it because there was so much difference in what they did for the sport."Then there's the Petty angle. Who goes in first, Richard or Lee?

Richard, one of two drivers to win seven championships (Earnhardt is the other) has said several times that he should not be included in the first class. That honor, he said, belongs to the people who built the sport from its backroad beginnings, people like his father.

Lee Petty won 54 races, the first Daytona 500 and three NASCAR championships - and didn't start racing until he was 35.

It was his son, though, who became - and to many people remains - the face of the sport. His 200 victories likely never will be matched.

Think of it this way - what would the reaction be on ESPN's "SportsCenter" tonight if the first Hall of Fame class didn't include Richard Petty?

"I think common knowledge will tell you that Bill Sr., Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt are likely to be near-unanimous selections," said Dustin Long, a voter who writes for Landmark newspapers and is president of the National Motorsports Press Association.

Beyond that, it gets more difficult.

It may come down to France Jr., David Pearson and Johnson for the final two spots.

Pearson remains stock-car racing's second-winningest driver with 105 victories, and he was Richard Petty's fiercest rival for years.

"It would be a wow factor to have a Petty, Earnhardt, France and possibly Pearson and Johnson in the first class," Long said.

"Some feel NASCAR has lost some soul, but Johnson, Petty and Pearson represent that."

Someone deserving, more than one, will be left out. They likely will go in with the second class, or the third. Five new members will be elected each year.

What does getting into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot mean?

Let Junior Johnson explain it:

"If I went in, it would be the greatest thing (that) ever happened to me in racing. If I'm in that first class, you'll be able to hear me holler from miles away."

Get The State newspaper delivered to your home. Click here to subscribe.