The NASCAR Hall of Fame - Introduction

The NASCAR Hall of Fame (NHOF) will open in the Spring of next year. It will be located in Charlotte, NC, just a few miles from the sight of the first NASCAR Cup Series Race. It's goal is to "honor NASCAR icons and create an enduring tribute to the drivers, crew members, team owners and others that have impacted the sport in the past, present and future."

Ever since the process of creating the NHOF began, the two big questions in the NASCAR community/fanbase has been who will go in the first NHOF Class and how will potential inductees be selected. Well recently the NHOF announced how their selection process will work.

1. To be eligible for induction, drivers as well as other candidates will be considered eligible after 10 years of competition or work in the industry. Careers of shorter duration can be considered under unusual circumstances. Individuals must be retired from the sport for at least three years.

2. The nomination committee, who will nominate the potential NHOF inductees to be voted on, will consist of (1) seven top-ranking NASCAR officials (chairman of the board, president and five vice presidents); (2) the NASCAR Hall of Fame executive director and its historian; (3) two track owner representatives from International Speedway Corp. tracks, two from Speedway Motorsports tracks, one from Indianapolis, one from Dover and one from Pocono, and one representative from each of four historic short tracks - Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C., Greenville-Pickens Speedway in South Carolina, Riverhead in New York and Irwindale in California. This comes out to 20 members of the nomination committee. These committee members must nominate no more than 25 candidates by June each year.

3. Once the nominees have been selected, a voting committee will vote on which nominees will go into the NHOF. The voting committee consists of (1) members of the nominating committee; (2) 14 media representatives (three each from the National Motorsports Press Association, the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Eastern Motorsports Press Association and one each from Fox, Turner, ESPN, Motor Racing Network and Performance Racing Network); (3) one representative from each manufacturer; (4) three retired drivers; (5) three retired owners; (6) and three retired crew chiefs. (7) Also, a fan vote will take place between June and Sept. 1 and their selections will count as one vote in the process. This comes out to 47 members of the voting committee plus one vote representing the fans. The voting process is to be completed by Sept. 15.

4. Once the votes have been received, the top five vote-getters each will be elected to the Hall of Fame. Ties in voting will be broken by the Hall of Fame nominating committee. The NHOF class is scheduled to be announced in October with induction the following May.

With all of that said, all we know so far is that we will see the list of the first 25 nominees for the Inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame Class this upcoming June.

Although the opinions of a large majority of the nominating committee are not known, stockcarhistoryonline.com surveyed 28 people, including well-known motorsports competitors, journalists, officials, and one super-fan to see who would go in if they were choosing the first Class of NHOFers. Some of the folks polled are or may be involved in the process, others are not. Those polled includes Jim Hunter - Vice President of NASCAR Corporate Communications; Retired driver - Richard Petty; Current drivers Kyle Petty, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Tony Stewart; Track presidents Roger Curtis (Michigan) and Eddie Gossage (Texas); and NASCAR media personalities Dr. Jerry Punch, Jay Adamcyk, Steve Waid, Randy Hallman, Monte Dutton, Rick Minter, Godwin Kelly, Marc Fein, Joe Menzer, Mark Aumann, Dick Conway, Duane Cross, Mike Fresina, Bryan Hallman, Mike Hembree, Jeff Owens, Dave Rodman, Jim Utter, David Poole, and Rick Houston; and one "super-fan". Some of these names are known by every fan, some are not, but trust me when I tell you that these folks (except for maybe the "super-fan") KNOW their NASCAR! Each person was allowed to name 5 picks for who should go into the Inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame Class.

Over the next few days I'll be reviewing their picks for the Hall and commenting on each possible HOFer. Without revealing the list, let me say that these folks put out a very good list of five who should go in during the first year. I agree whole heartedly with the top 4. Tomorrow I'll profile the first two picks. If you follow NASCAR at all, it won't be any surprise who they are. See ya tomorrow.