Would the addition of Jack Roush, Ricky Rudd, Ron Hornaday, Waddell Wilson, or Ken Squier inspire you to come to Charlotte and visit the NASCAR Hall of Fame? Well, they are the latest additions to the NASCAR HOF field of nominees and the Charlotte powers-that-be certainly hope so.
Analysis: There’s an interesting dynamic at play here. The question with any hall of fame is where do you draw the line between the truly great worthy of enshrinement and the merely very good that don’t quite qualify. Let in too many people, or too many people with a certain sort of qualifications and it becomes a hollow honor. It’s an issue that the NASCAR HOF is starting top face. This year’s additions to the nomination list includes only one driver with a lot of top-series wins (Rick Rudd, 23 wins, finished second overall in 1982). The broader voting committee has been electing three (or more) top division drivers to the hall every year and the crop of candidates with a lot of premier-division wins on this year’s ballot his only four (Rudd, Buddy Baker, Mark Martin, and Benny Parsons). Expect to hear a lot of noise about that either this year or next.
