HEMBREE: A Matador? In The Hall Of Fame?

Sprint Cup

HEMBREE: A Matador? In The Hall Of Fame?

Bobby Allison drove a wacky AMC vehicle to four Sprint Cup victories...

Mike Hembree | Posted November 05, 2010 Charlotte, NC

SPEED.com NASCAR Editor Mike Hembree is a veteran, award-winning motorsports journalist. (File Photo)

In the months between now and the May induction of the second class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, hall officials will be working with the inductees (or, in the case of the late Lee Petty, members of his family) to assemble items for display in the Hall of Honor next year.

The difficult part of this mission won’t be finding things. It will be picking items – and eliminating others – from the long and productive racing histories of David Pearson, Bobby Allison, Bud Moore, Ned Jarrett and Petty.

Some items are obvious. Pearson’s display should include a No. 21 Wood Brothers Mercury, the car he drove to superspeedway stardom. Moore’s display logically would include reminders of his decorated service in World War II.

And Allison? How about a Matador?

Yes, a Matador.

It is true that there are many other vehicles that would be splendid representatives for one of NASCAR’s all-time true-grit racers. One of the famous Junior Johnson-built “Coke” machines that carried Allison to 10 wins in 1972. One of the Bill Gardner Buicks that Allison drove to his lone Cup championship in 1983. The No. 12 Holman-Moody Mercury he made a potent victory threat in 1971. Or Bud Moore’s No. 15 Ford Allison took to victory lane in the Daytona 500 in 1978.

But why not the Matador?

Any driver who could win four Cup races in one of the ugliest vehicles ever designed should be rewarded for such endeavors. And Allison did just that in 1974 and 1975, teaming with car owner Roger Penske – and later fielding his own cars – to put some juice behind American Motors’ mid-size car in NASCAR’s top series.

AMC – now mercifully gone – is remembered for building some of the oddest (to be kind) cars of any American automobile manufacturer. The Matador – wackily named and designed – certainly was not the worst of them. Leading candidates for that title would be the Gremlin and the Pacer, a pair of cars that almost no one will admit owning.

Bobby Allison was chosen for the second NASCAR Hall of Fame class. (Photo: Getty Images)

Yet Allison, Penske and the late Mark Donohue made the Matador something special for a brief, shining moment.

“The Matador was such an oddball thing, but it was incredible,” said Allison. “To win four NASCAR Cup races in something like that… I always was a renegade. That car might not be bad.”

There are at least two of the Allison Matadors still around, and the car’s bright red, blue and white color scheme would be quite attractive next to Allison’s other career highlights in the Hall of Honor next year.

It’s a good plan.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Hembree

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