NASCAR's Hall of Fame Induction!
I have been around stock car racing before NASCAR. The Northern Va. Stock Club and the West Lanham Speedway in Md. in the 40's. There are hundreds of drivers, owners and sponsors and for the "Hall of Fame" to only pick 5 each year, there will be no one alive to accept their awards. 60 years of racing and just 5 each year! Do the math!Of course my first 5 pick would be; "Big Bill" France, Red Bryon, Norris Friel (Chief Inspector and former racer & an old friend of mine), "Smokey" Yunick and the man from "Winston" the R.J. Reynolds raceman that put alot of money in NASCAR, Ralph Seagraves. Others would be Curtis Turner, "Fireball" Roberts, and promoters "Humpy" Wheeler and Bruton Smith. I could name a 100 more that should be included.I also would like to see NASCAR let all the cars qualify and run that show up at 1-mile or more track. If they can run 43 cars on a 1/2-mile like Bristol & Martinsville, why not more on a longer track! The guys have sponsors and sooner or later they will not have 43 cars in a race. But wait, that will cost more money. No, not that much. The big guys now have more money then they will ever need. Thin down the payouts from top to bottom for the extra entries. It would only be two to four more cars.What do you think?JAck Redd(JA) JAck Approved!
This old man feels the same way!Another would be Joe Epton, Chief Scorer.He kept score before GPS, or any other electronic devises were even dreamed.
And one of the ways ol' Joe got that job was straightening out the scoring mess that almost cost my friend Larry Frank his only superspeedway victory, the '62 Southern 500.Now I like Humpy, and even got him to pay me to put my models in the Speedway Club (would that be considered "appearance money"? LOL) but he took over a pretty successful racetrack when he came in. If you want to put a REAL promotor in there, how about Richard Howard? He was the guy who promoted, finagled and showmanshipped Charlotte out of the bankrupcy court into the track that Humpy inhereted. Come to think of it, I wonder if he had some flash backs of when he took over from Richard when the let him go?
JA Jerry, See what I mean by only FIVE? How about the men that built the first NASCAR sanctioned tracks Martinsville, Darlington? Yes, Joe Eptom, Richard Howard, Curtis Turner and many, many more. See what I mean by everyone getting an "Award" will be dead!JAck Redd
JACK, THANKS FOR INVITING ME TO BE ON YOUR FRIEND'S LIST. I ACCEPT WITH PLEASURE. AFTER READING SOME OF YOUR POST'S I FIND THAT WE HAVE A LOT IN COMMON. I TOO BELIEVE YOU ARE ON THE NAIL WITH THE PEOPLE THAT SHOULD BE PLACED INTO THE HALL OF FAME....I ALSO BELIEVE THAT IF THEY ARE STILL ACTIVE THAT THEY SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO BE IN THE HALL OF FAME....THEY SHOULD HAVE HAD TO HAVE COMPLETED THEIR TOUR OF DUTY AND GOTTEN AN HONORABLE DISCHARGE FROM RACING BEFORE BEING PLACED INTO SUCH SACRED GROUND. I ALSO THINK PEOPLE LIKE THE LATE RAYMOND PARKS AND TIM FLOCK AND SPEEDY THOMPSON AND THE LIST GOES ON AND ON WITH THE BUILDERS OF THE GREATEST SPORT ON EARTH SHOULD BE THE FIRST TO START FILLING UP THE HALL OF FAME WITH THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS. THANKS FOR HELPING TO KEEP OUR MEMORIES ALIVE...RANDY
My thanks for the recognition, Jack! You are certainly correct as pertains to the "Hall of Fame" issues. They certainly cannot continue to just start a new one just because the 'existing one' is "not making enough money"!!! Many things that Dad and most all of the 'Early Racers' from all over the South, regardsless of whence they evolved feel as do you and I know that most of the preceps that Dad had when he Incorporated NSCRA {the National Stock Racing Association} in Georgia in 1929 have long since been lost. As you no doubt know, being around as long as you have, all that happened at the meetings in Nov/Dec/ 1947 is Dad just had to change the name of NSCRA to NASCAR due to Incorporation Laws that exosted at that time. Of course it is not known by hardly anyone that I was there at all of those meetings with Dad, "RED" Vogt, as a 14 year old Kid! But old enough to know what was transpiring! Because Dad hired "Bill" France as the First Promotor of the newly reorganized group my mother divorced him! Ruth Vogt was a person with a Masters Degree in Business and one French from Columbia Univ. and NO DUMBEE!! LOL She forsaw what was to come and it did when France eventually bought out everyone elses Stock and then claimed he was the Founder of NASCAR -- BS!! Look at the words of NASCAR - they are the same as held in the original NSCRA and only took Dad about 3 min to get that done. I sat right next him when he did it. NASCAR today is controled by only one thing -- MONEY -- held almost totally bythe France Family by total ownership of ISC - {they own all the stock in that Corp.} which owns NASCAR the stock of which is also wholly owned by the France Family! Most people do not know these facts -- they are just Fans who try to enjoy what is touted as "Racing" today. We know that is not true and has not been for a number of years. Dad was much a heart broken man when he passed away having seen what his dream became! Anyone is free to ask me and I will gladly tell them. Too bad they did not listen to people like "Smokey Yunick a life long Fast Friend of Dad's who had the exact same views. BUT - listen -- it is the ame old human tragedy -- GREED!! The GREAT HUMAN weakness! Thanks for your note -- and YES sure they can run more cars than they do! BUT - not they will not due to Owner/Sponser demands -- "Money talks - BS walks" Glad to be your Friend here or elsewhere, Jack
BTW p Jack!! It is entirely possible that may ahve known Dad and/or that you an I may have seen or met at one of the races up and down the East Coast during the time period you mention. we sure were running races in that area as a fact!! I remember being with my Mom and my older Brother in a storm just outside Roenoke {sp?} in a 'CHERRY" 1940 Ford Opera Coupe when she hit a rock from a road slide breaking the rht front spindel and we rolled about 3 times - trashed the car -- Dad was super pi**ed! We were bangged up - Mom had the only seat belt {WWII Aviation Type -- you remember them!} She busted her nose on the steering wheel and my Brother broke his arm -- this "Little Red" toughy came out without a scratch!! I have mostly LUCKY that way! Although pranged a shotup F-86 in Korea - broke my neck in two places and my back in three !! My luck was not with me that day!! LOL -- LOL!! Hope all is well for you and yours!!!
I certainly agree with you on the inductees for the Hall of Fame. They'll never get all the old greats in there because there's simply too many who paid the price and sacrificed to lay the foundation for what the sport has evolved into. I also agree that the lateT. Wayne Robertson of RJ Reynolds is a great candidate. My goodness, that man gave so much to racing and he lived it and breathed it. You just can't even begin to measure all that he did.M.Frank