Was definitely tonight though no one but Humpy seemed to know the date. Ol' Harry even said it was the 20th I think. Ha.

Thank you too for validating my count. They said 13 on air, and several tweeted 13. Yet I counted time and again and only got 12.

I'm wondering if Pearson was there but had to duck out. They called his name at the beginning, but the camera couldn't find him. He may have been the scripted 13th to be on stage, and no one bothered to edit the count on the fly.

To be honest, based on the oft-told stories of Cale wanting appearance money for all sorts of things I'm not all that surprised he was missing.

The other living one who wasn't mentioned and I didn't see on stage was Glen Wood.

Had hoped a few others who drove for Petty Enterprises might be there to recognize Chief's induction - Pete Hamilton specifically. Was then sad to hear Chief say Pete HAD planned to be there but was suffering through illness right now and had to miss the event. Hopefully its nothing too significant.

Apparently the Pearsons - David, Larry and Ricky - were there last night at least part of the time. I found this pic on-line here:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/01/29/4649898/nascar-hall-of-fame-induction.html

Maybe they attended the NHOF dinner but then headed for home rather than stay for the induction ceremony. Perhaps Tim Leeming will know a bit more when he tells us about his experience of having been there last night.

David was there for the dinner, but I did not see him after that.

Cale was not there at any time. But, as I have heard repeatedly, and is mentioned here, Cale doesn't come out of his house for less than $30,000.00. Too bad. He was good and he owes something to racing and NASCAR but I guess he figures they owe him.

Glen Wood didn't make it because of bad weather, IIRC.

I understand where Cale is coming from. He has multiple championships but didn't get paid much for many years. NASCAR has no pension plan or medical care. On the other hand, Peyton Manning is paid millions a year by his team and advertisers. Yet he still requires more than a quarter million dollars for a two hour appearance. That was 2007, I'm sure it's more now.

I think that Cale should make some exceptions, and the Hall of Fame is one, but that makes it difficult to enforce an appearance policy. NASCAR has always had the attitude that drivers were just independent contractors that could be easily replaced, and fought hard against unions. It's not surprising that some continue to be resentful even if they do recognize that they owe all of their fame to the sport.

In general, I think a lot of people have an inflated opinion of how valuable an hour of their time is. It's certainly true of politicians and lawyers.