Gotta speak my peace. You can't call it a Hall of Fame without David Pearson. It's just a museum. Tired of all the talking heads for the last week and especially this weekend gabbing about the "inagural class". It wont be remembered for who was in it but for who was omitted. Such a good idea the HOF, but they dropped the ball on this one. It's sort of like starting the race under caution. The laps count but it ain't what you came to see.

 

I'm a Richard Petty fan, and naturally I feel that The King deserves to go in with the inaugural class, but David Pearson (and the Wood Brothers that the spent so much of his career driving for) should've gotten the call, too. Pearson and Petty finished first and second to one another something like 60+ times. This is one of motorsports greatest rivalries, if not THE greatest. NASCAR definitely dropped the ball with this blatant oversight.

 

How can it be a HOF without them two?

 

Man, I agree. They made each other better and the sport was better for it. Makes you wonder who is casting the ballots.

 

Don't worry Pearson will be in there. There are so many guys that deserve to be in there,it's kinda like where do you start.

Well Junior Johnson got in, Pearson had his most success racing for JR. They are going to induct 4 drivers every year I think they said.

What about Bobby Allison, he needs to get in there too.

 

You miss the point. There will eventually be many drivers but never again an inaugural class. Wasn't Pearson named the #1 driver of the first 50 years about 10 years back during the 50th anniversary of NASCAR? For the original class, seems like during the last 10 years the only thing that changed is that 2 of them are now dead. Not sure how that moves you up the list. Apart from King Richard, seems like a chevy show.

 

Lee Petty, Cotton Owens, Buck Backer, David Pearson, Bango Matthews are all just a few of the first drivers that I can still recall. They were from the days of Stock Cars.
Win on Sunday, Buy on Monday.

 

I want to see Alan Kulwicki in there.

 

I can't even imagine where Allan and Davey whould have been today in their careers, we lost two very talented guys that year.

Neil Bonnet too

 

Ya it was sad. They both would have gone on to win many more championships I'm sure of it. They had to have Bill France sr. in the inagural class, without him the sport wouldn't be where it is. I think Dale Earnhardt gained 3 times the fans after he died, which is still crazy how it happened. If David Pearson does not get into the next class they need a new system of picking the inductees, still baffling how you can pick Richard Petty and not David Pearson. When I was younger my favorite drivers were Alan Kulwicki and Mark Martin, still love to watch Mark Martin.

 

I have Mark Martins Car Quest left front fender hanging up on my garage wall. The whole Daytona Speedway/ Bill France story is pretty crazy. Bill France jr said he was bankrupt the day the track opened, and he made enough that race to pay everyone back.

I was there in turn two up in the Lund grandstand for the 98 Daytona 500 with my friend Brian that's been watching since 79 he's a huge Earnhardt fan.

It was a pretty cool feeling to be in the crowd when he won that race,the place whent nuts.

I was also there in 97 (I think) when he barrel rolled down the back stretch, Ernie Irvans hood landed about 100' from us.

Dale got into the ambulance,then came out of the ambulance climbed into the car and drove it to pit road for 4 fresh ones....

The sport needs a driver like that again.