The NASCAR Hall of Fame - Who Should Go In? Part 1

Yesterday we took a look at the fact that there will be a NASCAR Hall of Fame opening in the spring of next year. We also went over how the induction process will work to select Hall of Famers. Finally we talked about the list compiled on a website made up by taking five votes from 28 folks who know their NASCAR. Today we will take a look at the top two vote getters and why they should be inducted.

For those of you who are not into NASCAR, there are really only two names that can go at the top of the list when inducting the Inaugural NHOF Class.

Petty and Earnhardt... or Earnhardt and Petty.

The most die-hard fan will tell you that it must go one way or the other.

The panel that was polled voted unanimously on only one name.

The individual who received the most votes (28) was the man with more NASCAR victories than any other driver, "The King" - Richard Petty. In a career that spanned from 1958 until 1992, "King Richard" has certainly earned all of that and I wouldn't be surprised to see him unanimously voted in by the actual voting committee. With 200 NASCAR Cup Series victories and 7 NASCAR Cup Series Championships (tied with only one other driver for most Championships), Richard Petty should undoubtedly be in the inaugural class.

This means that the individual to receive the second most votes (25 of 28) is the man who tied Petty for most NASCAR Cup Series Championships in 1994, the late Dale Earnhardt. Earnhardt won 76 NASCAR Cup Series races between his first start in 1975 until his death in 2001. Earnhardt also won 7 NASCAR Cup Series Championships, tying Richard Petty's record. Many of his peers and fans, including yours truly, consider "The Intimidator" the greatest stock car driver of all time! Whether you put him above, beside, or below Richard Petty, the margin between them is so close that Earnhardt is certainly worthy to be in the Inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame Class.

Why is there a debate? Because there are too many factors that allowed Petty to accomplish what he did in the era that he did it.

Petty fans will say, "200 wins and 7 Championships vs. only 76 wins and 7 Championships... DUH!", but in the 1950s and 60s, NASCAR sponsored races on small tracks all over the south, mid-west and north-east. A driver could accumulate points by driving around to small tracks 4 and 5 times a week, beating up on the locals. This explains how Petty was able to attain 200 wins. Once a stable points system was established and NASCAR tightened their way of picking the races that are sanctioned as Cup Series events, this was no longer possible. Also during this time period, many drivers did not have much sponsorship or backing from car manufacturers, while Petty was backed by Dodge for a large majority of those years. What he did at the track translated as a testing ground for Dodge on equipment, parts, etc. and translated into money that poured into backing Petty's racing efforts. Such an advantage over the other drivers for so long must be taken into account.

Meanwhile, all of Earnhardt's wins came in NASCAR's "Modern Era" (1971-today), which has been a time when a larger group of the competition had factory money coming in combined with large corperate sponsors funding more race cars/teams, making more drivers capable of winning any given week.

Certainly, the debate will rage regardless of logic and reasoning and there is no doubt that both of these men deserve their place in the Inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame Class.

Tomorrow we'll look at the individual who got the third most votes. It would be blasphemy not to put him in the first year, since with out him there probably wouldn't be a NASCAR, much less a NASCAR Hall of Fame. See ya tomorrow.