2011 NASCAR Hall of Fame Nominees

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This is commentary on three of the nominees for the 2011 NASCAR Hall of Fame class.  The full list can be found after the commentary. 

Fred Lorenzen

 

Fred Lorenzen's nomination to the 2011 Hall of Fame class was met with immediate questions.  Why would he be nominated ahead of other, more successful drivers with championships or more wins? 

The simple answer is, counting championships and wins is something for a record book.  What NASCAR built is a Hall of Fame.  Fred Lorenzen is apparently more famous than other drivers with more trophies.  Contributions to the sport don't have to come in the form of victories, and his contributions were enough to bump him into the nominee field ahead of a few NASCAR champions. 

I doubt, however, that Lorenzen will make it into the Hall in the next few years, considering the strength of the nominee field already, not counting those who will become eligible within the next half decade. 

Illinois isn't exactly a great source of NASCAR talent, but I'm okay if "The Elmhurst Express" doesn't make it into the Hall, knowing that Rockford native Chad Knaus is rapidly ensuring that a space is reserved for him when he becomes eligible.  So I know we'll at least have one in the Hall someday.  Whether we get two really is up to Lorenzen, because I don't think Roscoe's Danica Patrick is going to make it. 

Darrell Waltrip

 

When Darrell Waltrip is inducted into the Hall of Fame, whether it be the Class of 2011 or a future year, I do hope acknowledgement is made of his "second career," that of a broadcaster. 

The earliest NASCAR race I can remember watching was the 2001 Daytona 500, Waltrip's first in his long career for Fox.  Of course the overriding memory of the race will always be the death of Dale Earnhardt, but before attention turned back to the scene of the last lap accident, I remember Darrell cheering little brother Michael to his first Cup victory in NASCAR's biggest event, chased to the end by his new teammate. 

Since then his career has included a movie role in the animated film Cars, an Emmy nomination and all along the way rewriting the language of NASCAR:  as annoying as it was in the beginning, these days NASCAR races just aren't the same unless they're started with, "Boogity, boogity, boogity, let's go racing boys!" 

While arguments can be made for either Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Jimmie Johnson to be the "face of NASCAR," it's voice is undisputably "ol' D.W." 

Dale Inman

 

NASCAR (along with most motorsports) is a driver-centric sport.  The rest of the crew toil in near anonymity to build a car and maintain it during an event, while the drivers get nearly all of the attention when the car wins.  There are a few exceptions, and I'm always happy to see the guys outside the car get some credit. 

Inducting Dale Inman would go a long way towards recognizing the contributions that the crews make in the wins and championships that the drivers get all the credit for. 

Dale Inman won seven championships as Richard Petty's crew chief.  It is Dale's eighth that really raises eyebrows.  Richard Petty never won a championship without Dale Inman, but Dale Inman won a championship without Richard Petty.  Think about that.  I'm not saying that it was all the car, but I can say that it wasn't all Richard Petty, either. 

The Full List

 

Drivers

Bobby Allison:  1983 Winston Cup Champion with 84 wins

Buck Baker:  1956-1957 Grand National Champion (1st consecutive winner)

Red Byron:  1948 Modified Champion (NASCAR's 1st championship awarded) & 1949 Strictly Stock Champion (1st champion in series that would eventually become the Sprint Cup)

Jerry Cook:  6-time NASCAR Modified Champion

Richie Evans:  9-time NASCAR Modified Champion

Tim Flock:  2-time Grand National Champion

Jack Ingram:  2-time Busch Late Model Sportsman Series Champion

Ned Jarrett:  2-time Winston Cup Series Champion

Fred Lorenzen:  26 Grand National wins including the 1965 Daytona 500

Benny Parsons:  1973 Winston Cup Champion

David Pearson:  3-time Winston Cup Champion with 105 wins

Lee Petty:  1st 3-time Grand National Champion and winner of the first Daytona 500 in 1959

Fireball Roberts:  33 Grand National wins including the 1962 Daytona 500

Herb Thomas:  1st 2-time Grand National champion (1951 and 1953)

Curtis Turner:  Helped build Charlotte Motor Speedway, 17 wins, including being the only driver to win a race that was red-flagged because his car was the only one still running, banned for life in 1961 for attempting to form a labor union for NASCAR drivers (the ban was lifted in 1965)

Darrell Waltrip:  3-time Winston Cup Champion with 84 wins

Joe Weatherly:  2-time Grand National champion

Cale Yarborough:  1976-1978 Winston Cup Champion (1st to win 3 consecutive) 

Other Personalities

Richard Childress:  11-time Owner's Champion in NASCAR’s three national series, including six as owner of Dale Earnhardt's Winston Cup car

Rick Hendrick:  12-time Owner's Champion in NASCAR’s three national series

Dale Inman:  8-time Grand National/Winston Cup Championship crew chief

Bud Moore:  2-time Grand National Championships as a car owner

Raymond Parks:  Car owner for Red Byron's 1948 and 1949 Championships (see Red Byron above)

T. Wayne Robertson:  helped raise NASCAR popularity as R.J. Reynolds Senior VP

Glen Wood:  4 wins, co-founder of Wood Brothers Racing

Chevy Dominance and Gordon's Goof

Tech Inspection

 

NASCAR, over the last 10+ years, has been elusively chasing manufacturer parity, the idea that no matter whether you ran Chevy, Dodge, Toyota, Pontiac or Ford, it would come down to the team and the driver to win races.  The new car is supposed to be as equal as is possible.  But how, if at all, does NASCAR respond when all the top teams seem to be Chevrolet teams anyway? 

I don't think it's a matter of a Chevy advantage, I think it's just a combination of a little coincidence, cooperation and the prevalence of big multicar teams that has brought about this Chevrolet dominance.

The success of Hendrick, the resurgence of Childress, and strong running by a couple Gibbs cars and a couple DEI cars (a total of 11 cars - over one fourth of the field), combined with a Roush team not as strong as in years past and the struggles of Yates, Petty, and Evernham have combined to make the races look like an All Chevy Show. 

Whether it lasts or not, I don't think it should be up to NASCAR to "fix" the situation.  Take Ford for example.  Wood Brothers hasn't been really competitive in years. Yates almost didn't exist this year.  But if Roush isn't winning races, well, there must be something wrong with the Fords, and they need help, right? 

As much as I like Michael Waltrip or Carl Edwards, I'd really hate to see them get to Victory Lane because NASCAR twiddled with the cars to get the Toyotas or the Fords running closer to the Hendrick Chevys. 

As long as NASCAR can assure that all the cars and engines are equal between manufacturers, they should just let the chips fall where they may, because "fixing" parity issues sometimes just results in a free ride to victory lane for someone who didn't earn their way there. 

Tech Inspection II

 

One of the commentators of the Indy race at Michigan this weekend commented on the safety aspect of all that tech wizardry and telemetry in the current IRL car.  Danica Patrick was losing a pound of pressure a lap in her right rear tire, and she was able to bring it into the pits safely before the tire went down.  Had she been in a stock car, she might not have known she had a tire problem until she was sliding backwards into the turn 1 wall. 

If NASCAR is concerned about introducing too much technology into the car setups, which would change the dynamic of NASCAR dramatically, they could always monitor the tires themselves and issue black flags when a tire goes critical, before it pops and causes a wreck.  Just a thought. 

Qualifying

 

Congratulations to Michael Waltrip Racing, for the Pocono race was the first race this season where Michael Waltrip, Dale Jarrett and David Reutimann all drove together.  The cars all drove together at Infineon, but P.J. Jones drove the 00 car and Terry Labonte was in the 55. 

Yellow Flag

 

I seem to be the only person of this opinion, but I think NASCAR got it right when they penalized Robby Gordon.  All they had to do was explain it all.  Robby Gordon was sent back to 13th for failing to slow down under caution, i.e. by passing Marcos Ambrose.  Why NASCAR didn't penalize Ambrose for the spin of Gordon is beyond me.  And when NASCAR tells you to do go to a certain spot in line, and you respond by starting where you damn well feel like, and blatantly spin out a race leader, I'm surprised that the one race in Pocono is all that Robby Gordon will miss. 

Checkered Flag

 

It doesn't matter how good your case is in court if you go about presenting it the wrong way.  Whether or not he thought the facts on Saturday were in his favor, the way Robby Gordon presented his case didn't seem to win favor with the NASCAR judge, now did it?  NASCAR has admitted mistakes in the past and re-awarded race wins after the fact.  Lee Petty at Daytona and Wendell Scott come to mind. 

However, in those situations the drivers handled themselves much differently.  So instead of a NASCAR official tapping Kevin Harvick on the shoulder and saying, "I'm sorry, but...," NASCAR suspended Gordon for the Pocono race, saying "The way he performed and his actions on the track, in our mind, certainly disrupted the conduct of that event.  We're not going to permit that, we're not going to allow that.  It's way over the line when it comes to conduct to on the track." (from NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp) 

On top of that, he kind of ended up looking like an idiot, putting on a show of doing a burnout like he won the race right next to Kevin Harvick.  I've heard nothing but good things about Robby outside of his car, interacting with the fans or signing autographs, and it's just another example of how personalities change when they strap themselves into a race car.  It's too bad we can't get Autograph Session Robby in a race now and then. 

The Postrace Show

 

Don't forget the Governor's Cup reuinions at The Milwaukee Mile (August 24-26) is coming up soon!  For more information, read the press release.

MWR's Future, The Stewart Storm, and My Own Personal Sponsor Troubles

Qualifying

 

Coming into the 2007 season with about 50 teams competing for 43 spots, I had thought it just a matter of time before the slower teams lost sponsors, ran out of money and stayed home, eventually making it easier for the survivors to make the show. 

Michael Waltrip Racing is, from all I can read from here, a well-funded team with great manufacturer support.  He and Dale Jarrett are great spokespersons who can, even missing the show, get their sponsor more TV time than some of the teams that are in the top 35, and so MWR's managed to hold on to all of its major sponsors.  Their reward is now that the first of their competitors has fallen. 

While the 15 team is now locked into the top 35, that still leaves the former 13 and 14 cars out of the events.  Two less cars competing for 43 spots is a plus for any team not in the top 35 in owner points.  Roush will also have to come to Daytona in 2008 minus one car, while other major teams have already maxed themselves out at 4 cars.  If NAPA, UPS and Domino's can remain patient, 2008 looks to be a better year for MWR and all the other teams not in the top 35 right now. 

Pace Lap

 

Ed Hinton's Sunday prerace column had the title, "A Stewart storm could be brewing." He not only won the race, but did so in a way I've never seen before. He made it look easy at a track that has been heartbreaking for so many talented drivers over the decades. But remember sometimes as one storm passes the next is just on the horizon. And you have to look no further back than second place in Sunday's race to see that Hurricane Juan just might be forming in the distance. 

And now a word from our sponsors...

 

Much to the chagrin of those advertisers who spend millions upon millions of dollars in NASCAR, to put their logo on the car and then millions more to build an advertising campaign around the driver and team, I often don't buy the products of the drivers I follow. 

The best example of this is with Dale Earnhardt, Jr.  As much as I've criticized him in the past, I do actually like the guy.  But I don't drink alcohol, so there's no Budweiser in my cooler.  Nor do I buy a lot of merchandise of his.  I have a few die cast cars, but nothing with the Budweiser logos.  Why?  Because the Bud cars that Action can never seem to produce enough of go for prices outside what I'm willing to spend on a die cast car, and the $18 Winner's Circle cars in Wal-Mart are fakes with the JR Motorsports logo in place of the Bud logos.  They did, however, make the yellow Nilla Wafers car and the Taco Bell car, and I've added those to my collection.  I've also got a lot of Dale Jr. cards in my collection with the Budweiser logos washed out red or replaced with another logo. 

So, despite the fact that millions of fans are understandably sad that their collections of red number 8 merchandise will be out-of-date very shortly, I'm kinda excited.  I don't use a Sony computer or TV, but I do have a PlayStation 2, so I use one of Sony's products (a little too frequently sometimes, if you ask my wife).  Mountain Dew's name was thrown around as a potential sponsor, and I drink that (I brought a cold diet Dew with me to work this morning).  Next year I could be able to find affordable die cast Mountain Dew or Sony cars at the local Wal-Mart, the cards won't have their logos edited out of them, and I'll be able to get Dale Jr. stuff for my 2 year old son without wondering how soon it'll be until he asks what Budweiser is, or how I'll have to respond.  So I'm looking forward to a new sponsor for Dale's car. 

Black Flag

 

Tony Stewart dedicated his win at the Brickyard to his fans who have to put up with some...stuff...from fans of other drivers.  Between this incident and comparing NASCAR to pro wrestling, I can't imagine NASCAR's executives being too happy with Tony.  But for the most patriotic of major American sports to stifle the freedom of speech of its drivers is, to borrow Tony's term, bullshit.  There's a valid reason Tony compared NASCAR to pro wrestling, and maybe there's something going on in the stands that would make people feel less than welcome at a NASCAR race (I've heard a few stories, but anecdotal evidence tends to be unreliable).  In either case, maybe NASCAR should be less concerned with the words and more concerned about why they were said. 

The Postrace Show

 

This year's Governor's Cup events at the historic Milwaukee Mile (August 24-26) includes a reunion of the "Aero Cars:" Superbirds, Torinos and Daytonas.  There will also be a reunion of ARCA and USAC drivers, including former USAC and ARCA champion Ramo Stott as grand marshal.  For more information, read the press release. 

I know many readers will see a farily common multi-part article format here, but the credit for the inspiration really goes to Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times.  I used to have little comments and ideas that never really were important enough to rate writing a whole article on, and one day reading Neil's column I just got the idea to put them all together under subititles with a common theme.  Thanks, Neil.

For those of you who have comments that you'd like to make to the world of NASCAR fans, send them to me at admin@carsandracingstuff.com and you might see them in a future column.