In Wednesday's newspaper and online, I advocated five driving pioneers of NASCAR to comprise the fourth class at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte.
Then the Hall of Fame voters went out and did what they wanted to, which was to induct only one of my favorite five (Herb Thomas) although, to be fair, they also did put in my honorable-mention choice (Buck Baker).
My other four choices, were not selected. They were Fireball Roberts, Curtis Turner, Wendell Scott and Tim Flock. The Hall of Fame panel instead went with Rusty Wallace, Leonard Wood and Cotton Owens to join Thomas and Baker. Fireball lost a tiebreaker to Baker for the fifth and final spot, so that at least means it is almost certain Roberts will go in with Class No.5 a year from now.
I have no argument with Wallace, Owens and Wood going in at some point. They are all Hall-worthy. Now I do wish the Wood brothers had been a joint entry and had both gone in as a team last year (when Glen Wood got the nod). The brothers who revolutionized the pit stop have always been linked together, and it made little sense to separate these two fine owners last year.
As for Owens, he was a fine driver and owner. And it's hard to criticize someone from my hometown of Spartanburg (he's the third from Sparkle City in the 20-man Hall now, joining David Pearson and Bud Moore). And Wallace certainly deserved entry -- although I wouldn't have put him in this year -- with 55 wins in NASCAR's premier series and the 1989 series title.
But my point was this, and I stand by it: NASCAR's hall of fame continues to be under-represented in drivers from its earliest, wildest era.
Turner, Roberts and Flock were great characters and great winners. Scott deserves entry for persevering through all he had to deal with as NASCAR's first -- and still only -- African-American winner at the highest level.
Thomas and Baker certainly address that under-representation to a degree. Thomas had the highest winning percentage in NASCAR history. Baker won two series championships. They both were stars of the 1950s.
But there are so many more driving trailblazers still on the outside looking in: Fred Lorenzen and Red Byron, to name a couple more. NASCAR was built upon the backs of its earliest drivers. I just wish more of them from the old days would be honored sooner rather than later.
We're moving!
9 years ago
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4 comments:
I was generally in agreement with your picks - the only difference between your "ballot" and mine would have been to include Cotton Owens instead of Wendell Scott.
Where I totally agreed with you was that Ann France should not be inducted, now or ever. The fact that she's even on the ballot shows that NASCAR has no clue what a Hall of Fame is all about. A Hall of Fame is a place to honor the best of the best in the field, not to be a monument to a founding family. The NASCAR Hall of Fame will soon be a complete farce as the Frances intimidate the voters in to voting Ann, Brian and Lesa in over people who actually developed the sport.
And this is on the Panthers page, because ?..................
I completely agree with you, Scott. Not having Curtis Turner in the HOF is like not having Babe Ruth in Cooperstown. Wendell and Tim Flock also deserve entry. And if they were going to consider a woman, why not Louise Smith?
On another note it is known that NASCAR was borne out of the moonshine bootleg runners in the NC/SC/GA/VA/TN mountains and hills and beach racing at Daytona where advanced education was never a priority.
Anyone who has a pilots license or had one knows from classes and training the Junior Johnson invented "drafting" in 1960 is a layman term for what airplane pilots call "vortex".
When large aircraft at airports fly they are always keenly aware of "vortex" and must keep a specific distance from other planes to avoid this otherwise they would crash and burn. In the air these large airplanes travel 500 mph leaving a dangerous massive vortex wind gush trail.
Junior Johnson never invented "vortex". Thats laughable. Its simple physics and the laws of motion. The rotation of the earth at 12k mph creates a similar vortex that is called a jew stream n meteorology.
Instead of calling it drafting, call it by its correct aero dynamic metabolical physics name as "vortex".
Juniorboy has been sippin white lightin moonshine way too many yrs.
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