Yogi Berra summed it up pretty good............."it's de'-ja' vu........all over again". With the announcement of the NASCAR HoF's initial inductees, yet another opportunity to re-connect with is base fans was lost, Bill France, Jr. being the questionable member. David Pearson's response........" When I seen the two Frances was in, I knew I didn't have a chance" was the succinct voice of thousands. There is much that can be said.........the initial class should have been larger, a greater historical perspective should have been factored in, fan vote should have been more weighted............but, bottom line, another good-will opportunity was trashed.NASCAR has made a few half-hearted attempts at re-wooing the traditinal fan, but could not resist the opportunity to hog the stage with its new HoF, The Southern 500 is "back", and in 2010 the current and insane race-start times will look more sensible and familliar...........and shouldn't those olive-branches be enough to get the south-eastern core group back on board? NO.The core fans know and are proud of NASCAR's history. Core fans can readily recite facts, figures, statistics, 50-year-old stories.......... from memory. The core fans were PART of it, they lived it and loved it, and they KNOW it. In the sport-starved south of the 1940's, regular folks created a sport, and they are PROUD of it. NASCAR racing WAS their sport, they passionately built it. History and tradition are valued human traits, they are tangible assets. Unexplicably, NASCAR is the sole professional sport that can't grasp this concept.At some point, perhaps after the death of Dale Earnhardt, a monumental decision was made to fundamentally change NASCAR. What it WAS would not be sufficient for sustenance, let alone growth, so aruged the talking heads. Core fans were aging, and expendable, they were not the object of the marketeers. NASCAR history was important............as long as it didn't venture much past the 1990's. And, so, modern NASCAR was born..........new markets, new tracks, new fans, new cars, new rules.Just like "new" Coke, what sounded brilliant in the board-room, did not pan out in real life. The "new" fans were a flash in the pan, at best, and the core fan was alienated and lost. Of course with the late great economic bubble, before the bust, the think-tank could weakly defend their wisdom, which included the mottled painting of grand stand seats. However, with the economy and its own TV ratings in the tank, NASCAR finds itself in the unenviable position of free-falling between the two groups (xyz'ers and the traditionals) with no anchor to either.North Wilkesboro and Rockingham will never return, a Labor Day Southern 500 a VERY long shot, but theroretically possible, might. A more traditional/historical initial class to the new HoF would have soothed many ruffled feathers. For crying out loud, what ELSE could David Pearson, or Raymond Parks have accomplished and contributed? It would not have been the magic bullett, but would still have been a positive. With this predictable initial HoF class, NASCAR's brass demonstrated they still don't get it (or maybe job securtiy simply can't be underestimated)..