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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
SPEED Quote Sheet For NASCAR Hall Of Fame
More than 60 years of waiting comes to a crescendo Sunday when the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame (Live! 12 pm ET on SPEED)...
Erik Arneson  |  Posted May 17, 2010   Charlotte, NC
The NASCAR Hall of Fame opened in May 2010. (Image: NASCAR Hall of Fame)
NASCAR ON SPEED™ MAINSTAYS SHARE MEMORIES, LESSONS LEARNED FROM INAUGURAL CLASS OF INDUCTEES TO NASCAR HALL OF FAME

More than 60 years of waiting comes to a crescendo Sunday when Bill France Sr., Bill France Jr., Junior Johnson, Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt are inducted into the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame (live coverage beginning at 12 p.m. ET on SPEED). SPEED has chronicled their lives and careers in a series of one-hour biographies on each legend that will re-air in a Hall of Fame biography marathon Saturday 6 -11 a.m. ET, and Sunday 7 a.m.-12 p.m. ET.

Below, those who knew the inductees best share their memories of and valuable lessons learned from these legends:

Richard Petty’s impact on the history of NASCAR can be seen through many of the exhibits in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. (Photo: Tom Jensen/SPEED.com)
On Richard Petty: “When competitors saw The King coming in their rearview mirror, the thing they feared the most was the same thing they now fear about Jimmie Johnson – they know they didn’t beat themselves. They knew when the 43 passed them, they were going to have to go up there and pass the 43 back. The 43 wasn’t going to break. The 43 wasn’t going to wreck. Richard Petty wasn’t going to put himself in a stupid position. So, if he was running competitively enough to win the race, I think what they feared the most was, ‘If he gets around me, I’m never going to get back around him.’ I think that’s what a lot of the competitors today fear about Jimmie. Richard Petty didn’t beat himself.

“I’m most proud of him for just being a father. We’ve always separated the family thing from the driver thing. What we do on the track is what we do but it’s not who we are. I don’t think any of our family has ever thought that’s who we are. Obviously, the (Victory Junction Gang) Camp and things we’ve done away from the race track are more important than things we’ve done on the race track. I’m proudest of him when I look at my sisters and my mother … I’m more proud of him for being a husband and a father than for ever being a race car driver.” -- Kyle Petty, SPEED analyst/former driver and Petty’s son

The iconic black No. 3 Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt is among the relics for fans to view at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. (Photo: Tom Jensen/SPEED.com)
On Dale Earnhardt: “I worked with Dale more than a year-and-a-half and never could really give him what he was looking for in a race car. But he told me sitting in that truck, ‘Larry, you and I never had a fair chance together. I needed this surgery a long time ago and feel like a new man now. The two years you and I worked together, I never could get quite comfortable.

“He had used that phrase a lot and it drove me absolutely crazy. I’d ask him what the car was doing and he’d say, ‘I don’t know. It’s just not comfortable.’ What does ‘not comfortable’ mean? But he was speaking the truth – he wasn’t comfortable. After he finally had that surgery, we saw a new Dale. I talked to him just after he had run the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2001 and there was a new Dale Earnhardt. He had bounce in his step, he had confidence in his voice and there’s no question he definitely had another championship in him.

“There are two drivers that touched my life and I touched theirs and I think about every single day. It may only be for a couple of seconds, but I think about them every single day, and that’s Davey Allison and Dale Earnhardt.” -- Larry McReynolds, SPEED analyst and former crew chief for Earnhardt

Junior Johnson, shown here behind the wheel before the 1963 Daytona 500 in Daytona Beach, Fla., won 50 races as a driver and six NASCAR Cup championships as a car owner. (Photo: ISC Archives/Getty Images)
On Junior Johnson: “There are certain people who carry a lot of clout in the garage - Bill France, Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip and Junior Johnson come to mind. When I got the opportunity to drive for Junior, I asked him what he expected of me. He said, ‘The first thing I expect you to do is to stay on the lead lap and bring the car home in one piece.’ As time went on, I realized what he was talking about. You’ve got to be a factor at the end of the race. Never show your hand too early and take care of your equipment. But Junior was speaking from experience.

“Junior was one of the most aggressive drivers the sport ever has seen and probably blew up and had more DNFs while leading races than anyone in the history of the sport. But he learned from those mistakes and was able to pass those lessons on to drivers like me. You can’t contend for the win if you’re not around at the end. No one battles for the win from the back of a tow truck.” -- Jimmy Spencer, SPEED analyst and former driver for Junior Johnson

In 1947, William Henry Getty France also known as "Big Bill" became the driving force behind the establishment of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, NASCAR. (Photo: France Family)
On Bill France Sr.: “I’m up in the broadcast booth and I’m making sure our equipment is set up to do our broadcast, and I look out across the roof, and there sitting on an upturned cinder block was a very tall gentleman looking out at the grandstands,” Joy, 60, recalled. “I was curious, so I walked out and it was Bill France, Sr., and he had been retired for quite some time, but he still came to a lot of the races, especially Daytona and Talladega. He still had an active advisory role.

“I asked, ‘Bill, what are you looking at?’ He said, ‘I’m just looking at the crowd filing in.’ He then pointed to the expanse of land in turns three and four and the backstretch and he said, ‘Mike, someday we’ll have seats all around these speedways. People will come from miles away to fill them. But the crowds will be packed and every race will be on television. It will get great ratings. This sport will grow to a level we can hardly imagine right now.’ He said, ‘I doubt I’ll be here to see it, but I can feel it. It’s going to happen.’ He said it with such certainty. Now, that was a time we were getting 75,000 people into Talladega and I thought that was all we’d ever get. Of course he was right. He had that vision.” -- Mike Joy, SPEED play-by-play announcer and legendary MRN announcer

“He had the imagination. He had the ability to see far over the horizon as to what the potential was (and) what the potential could be. He also had the business sense to make his visions realities. He was probably the Horatio Alger of the late 20th century. He came penniless into Daytona and built a sports empire that – at the time – was second to none.” -- Ken Squier, SPEED host and legendary play-by-play broadcaster

“I think it was the power of his personality. He had the ability to get people to do things his way. He was smart enough to make sure everybody he dealt with got what they needed out of the deal - or got something out of the deal. My perception of him was that he was a very astute deal maker. Right time, right place probably had a lot to do with it too.” -- Dave Despain, host of Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain on SPEED

Bill France Jr. is shown in his office shortly after taking over NASCAR’s presidency. (Photo: France Family)
On Bill France Jr.: “I think what Senior and Junior had in common is that they were always looking 10 years down the road. Racers are very much focused on the world of what’s happening this weekend. Racers aren’t always that forward thinking, as they are dealing with the immediate reality of getting the most out of it they can. I think what Senior had and probably passed on to Junior, was the importance of having a long-term target and a plan for getting there. I don’t think they ever lost that. If you chart the growth of that sport, compared with most other sports, its pretty phenomenal, think about where they came from and where they ended up, and I think that was a product of them having a vision of the future and a relentless determination to get to that goal.” -- Dave Despain, host of Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain on SPEED

“He drove a hard bargain. He knew his circuit was the one sustainable, viable game in town, and he knew he had something let’s say that Indy Car Racing didn’t have, and that was the manufacturers and the close identity between the fans and the cars that were raced.” -- Mike Joy, SPEED play-by-play announcer and legendary MRN announcer


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