NASCAR Hall Of Fame Q & A

Sprint Cup

NASCAR Hall Of Fame Q & A

The SPEED team offers us some possible choices for the next class of the NASCAR Hall Of Fame...

Megan Englehart | Posted April 09, 2012 Charlotte, NC

The NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C., honors legends of the sport, and much more. (Photo: Getty Images)

WHO SHOULD BE NEXT IN THE NASCAR HALL OF FAME?

SPEED CREW DEBATES THE FIVE NOMINEES MOST DESERVING OF INDUCTION INTO 2013 NASCAR HALL OF FAME CLASS

On Wednesday’s NASCAR Race Hub on SPEED, NASCAR will unveil the 25 nominees for the 2013 NASCAR Hall of Fame class. Below, in no particular order, the SPEED team offers its take on who the next five inductees voted into the fourth class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame should be:

Darrell Waltrip, NASCAR on FOX and SPEED analyst, 2012 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee:
1) Red Byron – “Red Byron was a legend and a pioneer who won NASCAR’s first sanctioned race in 1948 and its first championship. He followed that up the next year with a championship for owner Raymond Parks in what became the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. If you’re looking for legends and people who helped build the sport, he and Mr. Parks fit the bill.”
2) Raymond Parks – “Mr. Parks was one of the sport’s pioneers who gave so much to build it into what it is today. He was the first Cup Series championship car owner and deserves to be voted in.”
3) Leonard Wood – “I like the mix of folks we had in the last Hall of Fame class. There was a driver, owner, a champion from another series and a legendary crew chief. I’d like to see that as a template going forward, and Leonard Wood falls into the same category as 2012 inductee Dale Inman. Leonard doesn’t have eight championships, but he was an amazing crew chief and a do-it-all in his era.”
4) Jack Ingram – “Jack deserves to be in the Hall of Fame because of the wins and championships he had in the Late Model Sportsman Series, as well as the NASCAR Nationwide Series.”
5) Jerry Cook – “Richie Evans from the Modified ranks made it into last year’s class and I think Jerry Cook, a six-time Modified champion, is in the same category. Anytime you win championships in any of the three national touring series, you’re Hall of Fame material.”

Tom Jensen, SPEED.com Editor-in-Chief:
1) Curtis Turner – “Turner was one of the sport’s first real superstars and he gave NASCAR a tremendous amount of character.”
2) Raymond Parks – “Parks was NASCAR’s first champion car owner and the first professional owner.”
3) Smokey Yunick – “Smokey was one of the most brilliant engineering minds and most fascinating personalities in the history of the sport.”
4) Leonard Wood – “Glen Wood already has been inducted and Leonard is just as deserving as his brother because of the team they built and what they contributed to the sport.”
5) Rick Hendrick – “Hendrick will be a bit of a controversial pick because he’s not retired from the sport yet, but he is a 13-time owner champion in NASCAR’s top three series and has operated the dominant team during the last 20 years.”

Ray Dunlap, SPEED reporter
1) T, Wayne Robertson – “RJ Reynolds’ branding and marketing was every bit as important to the growth of NASCAR as the TV coverage. T. Wayne had the passion, drive and personality to make a regional sport into a national one.”
2) Benny Parsons – “BP’s on-track accomplishments make him an induction candidate in two or three years from now, but his off-track accomplishments make him a lock for this year. He was bigger than life and he made NASCAR television into appointment-watching.”
3) Curtis Turner - “Turner was the original ‘hot dog.’ He could manhandle any car at any track and his versatility made him a star. I would rank him among the top-10 drivers of all time.”
4) Fireball Roberts – “Glenn’s death was a harsh blow to stock car racing. He built a legacy that was unmatched for 20 years.”
5) Rick Hendrick – “While the 200th win in Sprint Cup racing has been hard to come by, Hendrick has built the premier organization in American motorsports. If you work on a NASCAR team, your goal is to win races and championships at Hendrick Motorsports.”

Steve Byrnes, NASCAR on FOX reporter and host of NASCAR Race Hub on SPEED:
1) Fireball Roberts – “Fireball was the first superstar of NASCAR with a larger-than-life personality and he was great with the media. But his career was cut short, and although he won 33 races, he inevitably would have won a lot more.”
2) Benny Parsons – “Benny’s career is very similar to that of Ned Jarrett, who already is in the Hall of Fame. Benny won the 1973 championship, but as a broadcaster, he made racing fun and accessible to people at home when the sport was starting to explode. His broadcasting contributions were every bit as important as his accomplishments as a driver.”
3) T. Wayne Robertson – “T. Wayne started out as a showcar driver with RJ Reynolds and has been credited with helping bring the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race the popularity it enjoyed when Winston sponsored the series. T. Wayne is one of those guys whom the average fan knows very little about, but ask anyone in the garage and they’ll tell you how vital his efforts were in marketing and growing the sport when it needed guidance.”
4) Cotton Owens – “Cotton was so instrumental in giving guys like Buddy Baker their starts. His accomplishments might not be known by the average race fan, but they certainly are Hall of Fame-worthy.”
5) Rick Hendrick – “He almost won his 200th race as a car owner at Martinsville, but the way he treats people, not just at Hendrick Motorsports, but in general, is remarkable. His contributions to the sport aren’t just as a man who has won 13 NASCAR championships; his role as a fine human being is extremely important.”

Mike Hembree, SPEED.com NASCAR Editor:
1) Leonard Wood – “Wood is perhaps the No. 1 garage area/pit road innovator of all time. He was at the leading edge of pit-stop evolution and was the key player in the Wood Brothers’ ultra-successful years with driver David Pearson.”
2) Cotton Owens – “Cotton was a pioneer driver and a success on several fronts -- as a Modified and Cup driver, as a mechanic and safety innovator and as a championship team owner.”
3) Raymond Parks – “Parks was the Cup Series' first owner champion and a standard-setter as the first owner to consistently bring quality vehicles to the tracks. He also played no small role in providing financial support to a fledgling NASCAR.”
4) Wendell Scott – “Although Scott's performance numbers are not impressive, he persevered against the sort of challenges (racial barriers and outright rejection of his attempts to race at some tracks) that the vast majority of other competitors did not face. His longevity in the sport and the single historic victory he scored are matters of major significance.”
5) Herb Thomas – “Thomas was a North Carolina dirt farmer who became one of NASCAR's early success stories. He won championships and major races (becoming Darlington Raceway's first top gun) despite having no background in the sport. He saw a race, was convinced he could succeed as a driver and went about the business of winning.”

Adam Alexander, host of SPEED Center:
1) Rick Hendrick - “With 13 Sprint Cup titles and 199 wins, Hendrick has been able to thrive and grow as the sport has gone through various changes. It's always tough to select someone who remains active in the sport, but his career and contributions scream ‘Hall of Fame.’”
2) Joe Weatherly – “The foundation for any Hall of Fame should be built on those who helped get it all going. Weatherly won two titles and was one of the first drivers to show that incredible diversity we have come to love from drivers today.”
3) Buck Baker – “Baker proved himself ‘Mr. Consistency’ with back-to-back titles and nine straight years in which he finished in the top 10 in points. The depth of competition is different today, but his numbers are amazing at that level.”
4) Red Byron – “Byron was the 1948 Modified champ and the first Sprint Cup champion. Where would we be without him?”
5) Cotton Owens – “Cotton was truly ahead of his time. He earned 100 Modified wins as a driver, and as an owner, won races with drivers like Buddy Baker, Fireball Roberts, Mario Andretti, Junior Johnson and David Pearson.”

Rick Allen, SPEED play-by-play announcer and member of the Hall of Fame Voting Panel:
1) Raymond Parks – “Raymond Parks was instrumental in the forming of NASCAR on many levels and was a pioneer of stock car racing.”
2) Fred Lorenzen – “Lorenzen was a fan favorite and a talented wheel man. In 1964, he entered 16 races and won eight, five of which were consecutive.”
3) Fireball Roberts – “Fireball was a local Daytona Beach superstar, winning seven races at the famed speedway, including the 1962 Daytona 500.”
4) H. Clay Earles – “If it wasn’t for the insight and passion of people like H. Clay Earles, we wouldn’t even be talking about this sport. Earles built and promoted one of the greatest venues this sport has ever seen with Martinsville Speedway.”
5) Benny Parsons – “Benny embraced his celebrity and defined the words ‘role model.’ Everyone who met the champion driver and broadcaster walked away calling him a friend.”

Larry McReynolds, NASCAR on FOX and SPEED analyst:
1) Jack Ingram – “Ingram was to the Nationwide Series what Richie Evans was to the Modifieds. The number of races Ingram won is remarkable considering he did so much of the work on his own with very little help or financial backing. There is a reason his car was sitting on Glory Road when the NASCAR Hall of Fame opened.”
2) Leonard Wood – “Leonard belongs in there with his brother, Glen, because they have been a cornerstone and an active force in NASCAR since 1950 They’ve won 98 races with an impressive list of drivers, not to mention they revolutionized pit stops as we know them. Leonard was just as much a part of the legacy of the Wood Brothers as Glen.”
3) Herb Thomas - “Thomas was our first two-time Sprint Cup Series champion. Drivers from his era didn’t have a lot of career starts compared to today’s drivers, but in 228 Cup Series starts, Thomas won 48 races and sat on 39 poles. I’ve heard some people say that in his era, no one could drive a car better than Thomas.”
4) Buck Baker – “Baker was the first driver to win consecutive Cup Series championships back in 1956 and ’57, and was known for being a very versatile driver who won numerous races in different series.”
5) Tim Flock – “Flock’s career was fairly short but he won roughly 21-percent of the races in which he competed. That’s pretty impressive.”