NASCAR Hall Of Fame: We’ve been needing it

I watched the entire 5 hour coverage of the Hall Of Fame today, and I was impressed with the inductees of the first class.  While we were missing three of them from passing on, I can tell you that as a fan I have been wanting NASCAR to have this beautiful place to honor our greatest drivers, owners, commentators,  crew chiefs and crew members. 

There was no doubt in my mind that we’ve been needing this place to complete the sports history.  Every single sport had a Hall of Fame that paid respects to its greatest athletes.  Today we added Dale Earnhardt, Bill France Sr, France Jr., Junior Johnson and the King Richard Petty as its first class of inductees to the Hall of Fame.   I had discussions with several of my friends, one of which I think of as a historian because she can remember things about our past heroes of the sport and we both agreed that leaving out the Silver Fox David Pearson was wrong, but just having the Hall added was a major accomplishment.

You have to be grateful for what these 5 people did for our sport.  From Bill France Sr., founding our sport and creating the most dynamic racing facility ever in Daytona, his son Bill France Jr., building the sport into a world renowned grounds for fans, drivers, and crews,  then Richard Petty who many consider to be the driver that made this into a fans sport by signing those first few autographs at his earlier stage of the career that is considered to be the most successful ever.  Junior Johnson did it all, from winning races as a driver, to a car owner, and as a jack man for his team.  He was considered the Last American Hero.  Then Dale Earnhardt, who helped push this sport into the 90s and the new millenium by showing people that the men behind the wheel could be just regular everyday Americans. 

There is a story behind every man that was inducted today.  In the light of it all,  we have a place now to shrine of its greatest people.  NASCAR has definetly needed a Hall of Fame, Baseball has Cooperstown, NY.  The NFL has Canton, Ohio and the NHL has  Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

Now NASCAR has Charlotte, North Carolina.  That place that houses most of the teams, and now houses its Hall of Fame.  And now each year we’ll be able to see 5 new inductees added to the HoF.