NASCAR Hall Of Fame ~ Your Vote Is A Joke
4/08/2014
PattyKay Lilley
I bid
you welcome gentle readers to what has decidedly become an annual task, rant or
soap box oration... offering an explanation of the voting procedures for
induction into the NASCAR Hall of fame. A warm welcome goes out as well to our
assigned reader of all things NASCAR on this lovely day. I do hope your task is
a pleasant one, and I promise not to swear.
Only a
couple weeks ago, your scribe offered a column on the amazing disappearance of
names from the list of nominees to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. To date, no one,
from NASCAR or anywhere else, has made any attempt to
explain where those two names went and how or why is it possible to just drop
someone from the list once duly nominated by the HOF's own nominating
committee. For now though, we'll file that under "unfinished
business" and get on with the explanation of how this entity elects folks
to a place of honor.
The
first step in any year is to nominate five additions to the list of nominees,
which before this year, Class of 2015, would have given us a list of 25. That
number henceforth will be 20, but there will be a second vote on election day for the purpose of selecting some lucky
individual to receive the Inaugural Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions
to NASCAR, new this year. I "believe" only one is to be
awarded annually, but upon further review, I cannot find that written in stone
anywhere, so perhaps we have something to watch.
The
nominations have already been done for this year, by a 22-member Nominating
Committee made up of the following folks:
NOMINATING
COMMITTEE
NASCAR
Hall of Fame:
Executive Director Winston Kelley; Historian Buz McKim.
NASCAR
Officials:
Chairman/CEO Brian France; Vice Chairman Jim France; President Mike Helton;
Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton; Executive Vice President of
Racing Operations Steve O'Donnell; Executive Vice President/Chief Marketing
Officer Steve Phelps; Competition Administrator Jerry Cook; former Vice
President Ken Clapp. (Note: Due to Jerry Cook’s inclusion on the ballot for the
2014 class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, he was recused from voting for the 2015
nominee class.)
Track
Owners/Operators:
International Speedway Corporation CEO Lesa Kennedy;
Martinsville Speedway President Clay Campbell; Texas Motor Speedway President
Eddie Gossage; Atlanta Motor Speedway President Ed
Clark; former Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Tony George; Dover
Motorsports CEO Denis McGlynn; Pocono Raceway board
of director member Looie McNally; Bowman Gray Stadium
operator Dale Pinilis; Riverhead Raceway operators
Jim and Barbara Cromarty (1 vote); Rockford Speedway owner Jody Deery; Kingsport Speedway Operator Robert Pressley.
At-Large: Mike Joy, lead announcer
for NASCAR on FOX.
Following
are the 20 nominees for induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, listed
alphabetically:
Buddy
Baker, won 19 times in NASCAR’s premier
(now Sprint Cup) series, including the Daytona 500 and Southern 500
Red
Byron, first
NASCAR premier series champion, in 1949
Richard
Childress,
11-time car owner champion in NASCAR’s three national series
Jerry
Cook, six-time
NASCAR Modified champion
Bill
Elliott, 1988
premier series champion, two-time Daytona 500 winner and 16-time Most Popular
Driver
Ray
Fox, legendary
engine builder and owner of cars driven by Buck Baker, Junior Johnson and
others
Rick
Hendrick,
14-time car owner champion in NASCAR’s three national series
Bobby
Isaac, 1970
NASCAR premier series champion
Terry
Labonte,
Two-time NASCAR premier series champion
Fred
Lorenzen, 26
wins and winner of the Daytona 500 and World 600
Raymond
Parks, NASCAR’s
first champion car owner
Benny
Parsons, 1973
NASCAR premier series champion
Larry
Phillips, only
five-time NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national champion
Wendell
Scott, NASCAR
trailblazer - was the first African-American NASCAR premier series race winner,
and first to be nominated for induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
O.
Bruton Smith,
builder of Charlotte Motor Speedway and architect of Speedway Motorsports Inc.
Mike Stefanik,
winner of record-tying nine NASCAR championships
Curtis
Turner, early
personality, called the "Babe Ruth of stock car racing"
Joe
Weatherly,
two-time NASCAR premier series champion
Rex
White, 1960
NASCAR premier series champion
Robert
Yates, won NASCAR premier series
championship as both an engine builder and owner
The five nominees for the
inaugural Landmark Award for
Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR are as follows…
H.
Clay Earles,
founder of Martinsville Speedway
Anne
Bledsoe France,
helped build the sport with husband Bill France Sr. Affectionately known as
"Annie B.," she is the first woman to be nominated for induction into
the
NASCAR
Hall of Fame.
Raymond
Parks, NASCAR’s
first champion car owner
Ralph
Seagraves, formed
groundbreaking Winston-NASCAR partnership as executive with R.J. Reynolds
Tobacco Company
Ken
Squier,
legendary radio and television broadcaster; inaugural winner / namesake of
Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence
And now
gentle readers, we run into a problem found all too often with the Hall of Fame
website. It is woefully in need of an update. Election day
this year is May 21, yet once again, names of the members of the Voting
Committee that will elect the Class of 2015 are nowhere to be found. In fact,
the only mention of that committee for the Class of 2014 is a link to a PDF file.
Would someone please alert the folks at the Hall of Fame that their website is
almost 2 years out of date?
As I've been
forced to do in the past, I've used the names from the 2014 Voting Committee, though
there are some differences. The Voting Panel consists of the 22 from the
Nominating Committee plus what in past years has been an additional 33 votes
plus one ballot for the Fan Vote. This year, one slight change adds the
reigning Champion, which this year is Jimmie Johnson, to the Voting Committee,
making a total of 35 plus the 22 Nominators for a total of 57 votes. (I
think... mind you, I'm forced to base this on last year's list)
Voting
Panel (35) Total Votes (57)
National
Motorsports Press Association (1)
1.
Kenny Bruce, NMPA President
Eastern
Motorsports Press Association (1)
1.
Ron Hedger, EMPA President
American
Auto Racing Writers & Broadcasters (1)
1.
Dusty Brandel, AARWB President
Print
& Online Media (6)
1.
Bob Pockrass
2.
Dustin Long
3.
Nate Ryan
4.
Jim Pedley
5. Jenna
Fryer
6. Al
Pearce
Broadcasters
(7)
1.
Mike Joy, FOX
2.
Kyle Petty, TNT
3.
Dr. Jerry Punch, ESPN
4.
Barney Hall, MRN
5.
Doug Rice, PRN
6.
Rick Allen, SPEED
7.
Dave Moody, SIRIUS/XM
Manufacturers
(3)
1.
Jim Campbell, Chevrolet
2.
Edsel Ford, Ford
3.
Lee White, Toyota
Former
Drivers (4)
1.
Ricky Rudd
2.
Harry Gant
3.
Ned Jarrett
4.
Richard Petty
Former
Owners (3)
1.
Bud Moore
2.
Junior Johnson
3.
Robert Yates
Former
Crew Chiefs (3)
1.
Buddy Parrott
2.
Waddell Wilson
3.
Eddie Wood
NASCAR
Community Leaders (4)
1.
Mike Harris
2.
Tom Higgins
3.
Humpy Wheeler
4.
Ken Squier
Last
Year's Champion (1)
1.
Jimmie Johnson
Fan
Vote (1)
Remember gentle readers,
any errors in that particular list are not mine. It's simply the only list
available. I can already spot at a glance one error, as Mike Joy is counted on
both lists, though I know for a fact there is only one of him. There has been,
in general, very little movement on any list excepting for deaths, which are difficult
to ignore.
Now then... I know your little secret. You didn't spend any
more time reading or studying those lists of names than I did copy/pasting them
here... and that's perfectly alright. Up front, my only purpose is to show you
how it works. Last year's lucky winners are inducted in January. A short time
later, their replacements on the list of nominees are announced, and henceforth
candidates for the Landmark Award will also be announced.
Some might be wondering a
bit at a couple of the new names added as nominees this year. There were some
changes made to the rules, which themselves, just like the Hall of Fame, are
only five years old. Rather than recount all that here, the Hall of Fame was
kind enough to send out a press bulletin, which you can find by simply clicking here.
That will explain why names such as Bill Elliott and Terry Labonte appear on
the ballot though the rules used to state clearly that a driver must be retired
for at least three years to be considered for nomination.
One thing we have not
addressed as yet is the fan vote. No matter the lovely words from Brett Jewkes, NASCAR chief communications officer, about how much
NASCAR counts on its fans, loves its fans and makes them an integral part of
the induction process... one word best describes the "Fan Vote", and
that word is "Joke!" Just a couple of days ago NASCAR announced that
the Fan Vote was open, and already I'm seeing some of my contemporaries proudly
divulging the contents of their not-so-secret ballot as though they think it
makes some sort of difference. What flavor was the Kool-Aid?
For ease in voting...
once or thousands of times, it makes no difference... just click here to be magically transported to the proper page on
nascar.com, where you can vote to your heart's content. Feel free to bookmark
the page. You can line your family up in shifts, so that your
voting never stops, or conversely, you are free to vote only once, or not at
all. In the end, it will all come out the same. Each year, that site receives
millions upon millions of votes from eager fans wanting to support the
candidates of their choice. Each year, the votes are tallied by a quite
respectable, I'm sure, accounting firm and sealed in a mayonnaise jar on Brian
France's front porch until time for the votes to be counted and the results announced.
Now gentle readers, try
to imagine in your mind the world's largest funnel, tapering down to a drain approximately
the size of the point of a #16 needle. That will give you a pretty fair
estimate of what happens to all those millions and perhaps billions of ballots
cast between the time voting opened and noon on May 20, when it closes for the
Class of 2015. All of them are taken together and compressed into ONE ballot on
that Voting Committee. ONE! Got that?
So tell me, do you still
feel "privileged" to be allowed to cast that ballot? Do you still
think that it somehow counts? If so, drink up your Kool-Aid because you're
beyond help. You could be made to believe that swatting one mosquito in the
Everglades qualifies as pest control. Your scribe shall at some time during the
voting betake herself to the proper page and submit one ballot of five
candidates, and as in the past five years, it will be done with tears... tears
for those that will never be admitted to those hallowed halls because of
bitterness and spite. I've no real idea which nominees I will check, but the
first one will be Raymond Parks.
Raymond could have, and
should have, been probably the first one inducted into that Hall of Fame. No
one named France needed to be inducted. It's their game, for heaven's sake. The
Family France should probably have its own wing or even its own FLOOR in the
HOF, but with only a paltry five per year going in, it's never going to even
out. Pioneers, Founding Fathers, however you care to phrase it, will be left
out merely because no one will be left that remembers them. Most of you reading
this don't have a clue who Mr. Parks was, and probably
never heard of him except in this context. Perhaps I should correct that
oversight one day soon.
My second check on the
ballot should be for Henry "Smokey" Yunick, but alas, they offer no
space for write-in candidates and the omission of Smokey Yunick from Hall of
Fame contention is no oversight; it is purposeful spite, nothing less. Yes,
that is one lady's opinion, but it is backed by years of knowledge of the goings
on in stock car racing and the sanctioning body known today as NASCAR.
Since the inception, it
has been my contention that a large body of the "old timers", or pioneers
of the sport, should have been... and still could be... "Grandfathered
in" as a body, and inductions proceeding from there. At 75 years of
age, it doesn't take any fancy math to know that I will never be around to see
most of them inducted, if indeed, they ever are. NASCAR, with always an eye
toward the financial, and devil take righteousness, just changed the rules to
allow even more "familiar" names onto the ballot. Folks my age
understand that move all too well. Over a decade ago, we were summarily
dismissed as unnecessary, as NASCAR followed Madison Avenue's advice in playing
to a very young demographic. One look at the empty stands across the country
that were once sold out, will attest to how well that worked.
Ah, but there is one
thing on their side, and that is nature. Eventually, because we are old, we
will simply die and be gone. Raymond Parks died in 2010 at the age of 96, with
his name on the list of Nominees in waiting, but never saw his induction into a
Hall of Fame for a sport he helped create and totally financed. At this date,
he is still waiting. Your scribe has come to loathe writing about this subject,
as it has cost me at least one dear friend, but several have asked, and so I
oblige, yet another time.
Since the opening of the
Hall of Fame, much has been made of the displays shown there, and if that's
what one is into, they seem to have done a fair to middling job of displaying
things. One display that I've heard described several times as
"awesome" is a space dedicated to Raymond Parks. A friend recently
brought back a picture of part of the display, showing Raymond's hat, tie and
guitar, tastefully displayed behind glass. I have no permission to run the
picture here, so you'll have to visualize it, I'm afraid. There is even a
statue of Raymond, replete with the ever-present hat. In this picture from the
HOF itself, you see Raymond paying a visit to the newly opened Hall and
admiring his likeness.
As lovely as all that is,
something is very wrong with the whole concept, and the case of Raymond Parks
presents a perfect example of what I've opined from the beginning. Look at
various Halls of Fame for any number of sports you care to name, and you'll
find that the people honored therein are enshrined in the annals of said HOF as
inducted members. You don't just find Mickey Mantle's shoes and bat. Mickey is
an inducted member of the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown. It's not just
Red Grange's helmet and cleats you'll find at the NFL Hall of Fame at Canton.
Red... the man... is an inducted member.
Everywhere else, when we
speak of a Hall of Fame, it's about the people; it's not the records, but the
men that set those records that are honored there. NASCAR has now existed for
65 years! How many races have been sanctioned in that length of time? How many
men have run those races, owned those cars, built the cars, built the engines,
owned and/or promoted the tracks? We're talking a vast number of people here my
gentle readers, and though they may have some pretty displays, I submit once
again the question I've been asking since they opened the doors on that empty
Hall... Where are the people???
"Hall of Fame!" Raymond Parks' hat was not famous unless he was
wearing it and his fame made it so. "Things" are not famous. People
are famous. They have simulators, video games and other 21st-century toys for
the race fans to play with, but with only 25 out of the many thousands of
participants in NASCAR sanctioned races over 65 years actually enshrined there,
what I see is not a Hall of Fame but an amusement park with walls... the newest
version of a Penny Arcade. (Ask your grandparents) Smokey
Yunick? All I can say here is, Brian, Lesa, it
was before you were born. They were two great men of equal stubbornness and
hardheadedness. They got over it you know. No need to carry it on now that both
are gone. May they rest in peace together.
That's more than enough
for today gentle readers. Now you know how the voting works and why the Hall of
Fame doesn't. It has operated at a loss in every quarter since the doors swung
open. It just doesn't seem to occur to anyone there that maybe more folks would
come if there were actually less Hall and more Fame.
Please, don't be shy.
Leave your thoughts and comments below. Let NASCAR know how you feel about the
Hall of Fame, even if your thoughts are different from mine. Discussion can
lead to understanding, which is why I love it so much when we can stir the pudding
and get a good conversation going.
Be well gentle readers,
and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
8:00 - 10:00 THURSDAY,
APRIL 10 ON RACINNATION.NET
Benny and Darrell will host guests Humpy Wheeler and Tiger Tom Pistone!
Be sure to set the time aside for this one of a kind story-telling
extravaganza!
See you there!
~
PattyKay