NASCAR Hall of Fame: The First Class will be seen at 8 p.m. Thursday on SPEED, hosted by Ken Squier. The 25 nominees for the inaugural group of five will be made.
Making appearances on the program will NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France and NASCAR Hall of Fame historian Buz McKim.
The official opening of the Hall will be May 11, 2010. Buz said there will be a “soft opening” in April next year before the big blowout events. And, if the NASCAR Members Club has anything to do about it, next year’s annual convention will be at the Hall in mid-May.
The NASCAR Hall of Fame has announced May 11, 2010, as the official grand opening date for the state-of-the-art facility under construction in Charlotte.
OK, the leak from those who know, says DW and Bobby Allison are 2 of the 25 nominees. On NASCAR Live Tuesday, when asked if he deserved to be in the first HOF class, Bobby Allison said, “yes, I believe I do.” You gotta love honesty.
At the NASCAR Members Club convention in May, Buz McKim said The King, Richard Petty doesn’t believe he should be in the inaugural class. Does that surprise anyone? No, the Richard Petty we’ve met is a humble, grateful man.
I tried to get Buz to tell us his picks for the first group of enshrines and he threw the question right back at me. But then again, he IS a member of the selection committee. But I still want to know who he'd pick.
So, who would I pick? Remember, I’ve only paid attention to NASCAR for not quite 9 years now.
Bill France Sr. DUH! I would be tempted to lump the entire France family together as one member. Heck, they could fill the first class by themselves.
I’d go Bobby Allison. He’s already in four motorsports halls of fame and was NASCAR’s most popular driver six times.
Darrell Waltrip, yep, he’s a keeper here. Driver, owner, commentator and Emmy award nominee, and motivational speaker. Like Bobby Allison, named one of top 50 NASCAR drivers of all time.
There’s three. Who else?
Maybe the Petty family as a whole and certainly Richard Petty at least. Yeah, The King doesn’t think so, but plenty of people do.
OK, four. One more to go.
What about the RJ Reynolds Company. Winston Cup 1971 to 2004. The company certainly stepped up and promoted the sport to a new level. Buz said crew member, crew chief, driver, pretty much anyone related to the sport in any way. But I’d contend the tobacco company made a substantial contribution to stock car racing. Go ahead, say it, “tobacco’s not good for you, you’re promoting smoking.”
There you have it. That’s my five. Well, two were already givens, actually three including the France family individually or as a whole.
Who would you choose?
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