Things are getting worse. In other news, Monaco is not happening. The Dutch Grand Prix and Spanish Grand Prix are postponed. Azerbaijan was postponed moments ago. People have to start wrapping their heads around the Indianapolis 500 being postponed. There were more video games this weekend. A lot of drivers want to drive Stadium Super Trucks. It is now officially spring in the Northern Hemisphere... so that is something. There was one event that went on as scheduled and that was the Sonora Rally in Mexico. Dakar Rally winner Ricky Brabec won that event. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
Changed But Not Necessarily Fixed
Earlier this year NASCAR announced a change to its hall of fame selection process.
After 11 years of putting in five people a year, starting with the class of 2021, the process has changed and only three people will be inducted each year.
The decrease in the numbers of inductees stems from a change in the nomination process. There will be two ballots, the first will be the Modern Era Ballot and include ten nominees whose careers started within the previous 60 years. The second ballot will be the Pioneer Ballot and include five nominees whose careers started more than 60 years ago.
While it is good to see NASCAR has made a change after stocking the hall of fame full of members in the first decade it is still a system that is full of holes.
One issue is the decrease in the number of nominees and the criteria for election.
The 15 nominees leftover from the class of 2020 are Sam Ard, Neil Bonnett, Red Farmer, Ray Fox, Harry Gant, John Holman, Harry Hyde, Hershel McGriff, Ralph Moody, Marvin Panch, Jim Paschal, Larry Phillips, Ricky Rudd, Mike Stefanik and Red Vogt. Of those 15 drivers, the drivers that would follow the Modern Era route are Ard, Bonnett, Hyde, Gant, Phillips, Rudd and Stefanik. The other eight drivers will have to follow the Pioneer route but over a third of those people will not have a shot at the hall of fame in 2021 because the Pioneer Ballot will only include five nominees.
Add to the Pioneer Ballot congestion Erwin "Cannonball" Baker, Marshall Teague, Carl Kiekhaefer and Smokey Yunick and with each year another group of drivers will be added to the list of those just competing to be one of five nominees fighting for one spot.
While the Pioneer Ballot has its issues the Modern Era Ballot will have its own headaches. Setting the criteria for induction at being one of the top two vote-getters could keep people that should be members out longer. On this past ballot Mike Stefanik, Ray Fox and Hershel McGriff were the first three nominees outside the top five. Fox and McGriff will move to the Pioneer Ballot for 2021.
For the class of 2021, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Matt Kenseth will be eligible. Kenseth has a Cup championship and 39 victories. Earnhardt, Jr. is Earnhardt, Jr. Carl Edwards, who has two more Cup victories than Earnhardt, Jr. in 186 fewer starts, finished in the top five of the championship five times to Earnhardt, Jr.'s four and won 38 Grand National Series races to Earnhardt, Jr.'s 24 and also won six Truck races, has been eligible for the last two hall of fame classes and was on neither ballot. I have a feeling that will change for 2021.
It lines up that Stefanik could get a higher percentage of the votes as he did for 2020 but end up fourth and not get into the hall of fame. This is different from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, where anyone who is on 75% of the ballot is elected. Seventy-five percent is also the criteria for election into the Hockey Hall of Fame. For the Pro Football Hall of Fame, each candidate must receive 80% approval from the selection committee to be elected.
Instead of making it the top two from the Modern Era ballot, setting a percentage would be more fair and it would set a higher standard for induction. The lowest percentage vote-getters for class of 2020 was Bobby Labonte at 67%. Tony Stewart got 88%. Joe Gibbs and Waddell Wilson got 72% and Buddy Baker got 70%.
The class of 2019 saw Jeff Gordon get 96%, Jack Roush got 70%, Roger Penske got 68%, Davey Allison was at 63% and Alain Kulwicki got in at 46%. In the last ten years, only ten inductees were on at least 75% of the ballots. In the same time period, there have been eleven inductees that were on less than 50% of the ballots with the lowest being Fred Lorenzen at 30% in 2015.
NASCAR has filled its hall of fame with all the big names and frankly it is running out of worthy drivers for inclusion. Matt Kenseth, Edwards and Earnhardt, Jr. are the top three inactive drivers in NASCAR Cup victories who are not in the hall of fame. All three could be inducted in the next two years.
There are not many other impressive names looking at future eligible. Kasey Kahne will also be eligible in the class of 2021 but Kahne should definitely not make it in 2021 and it has to be argued he will likely never get in. He won 18 Cup races but he finished in the top five of the championship once and he had only one other top ten finish in the championship. While Kahne won five of six Truck starts the rest of his career isn't good enough.
NASCAR's hall of fame is all encompassing, taking into consideration the regional series along with the three national touring divisions, but it does make for difficult conversations when comparing drivers across multiple levels. Kahne did succeed at NASCAR's highest level and notably had three victories in the Coca-Cola 600 and a Brickyard 400 victory but he will probably never get as close to the hall of fame as Mike Stefanik, who won nine championships between the modified series and the North series, and Hershel McGriff, who won four Cup races, one West series championship and is more celebrated for longevity, racing into his 90s, than on-track success.
It is called the National Baseball Hall of Fame but it is not littered with career minor leaguers. A player who led single-A in career home runs isn't getting in over a guy who batted .245 with 340 home runs, over 1,200 RBI and made an all-star team twice in the majors. NASCAR is different and drivers with regional success should get some recognition but that recognition should not be on the main ballot head-to-head with drivers who ran in the top series against the best of the best in front of millions of people on television each week.
Unfortunately, NASCAR has made its bed. In 2021, Kenseth should make it and Earnhardt, Jr. will be the other Modern Era inductee unless something out of the blue happens. Perhaps Stefanik and Edwards will be the class of 2022, unless Edwards stuns Earnhardt, Jr. and makes it in 2021 with Earnhardt, Jr. waiting a year. Jimmie Johnson will highlight the class of 2023 with a partner to be named later.
After that NASCAR will be looking at class after class with drivers that won many fewer races, never came close to a Cup championship and were rarely in the top five of the Cup championship over the course of their careers. There will be a couple of guys with Truck Series and Grand National Series success that deserve recognition, the likes of Mike Skinner and Jack Spargue. Greg Biffle has a Truck Series and Grand National Series title and Biffle won a healthy number of races in all three national touring series with 19 Cup victories, 20 Grand National victories and 17 Truck victories. Biffle's hall of fame case is a difficult conversation for many to have but we can save that for the next pandemic.
Less than thrilling classes will be the new normal for NASCAR. There are going to be some weak classes. Things will pick up when the likes of Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Martin Truex, Jr., Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin retire. After all, six of those seven drivers are Cup champions and that is basically all you need to do to make the hall of fame.
However, with how quickly NASCAR has inducted drivers it will soon feel like a Cup victory will be enough to be considered among the greatest of all-time.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Ricky Brabec but did you know...
Denny Hamlin won NASCAR's video game race at Homestead.
The #38 Flying Drive Shafts Dallara IR-18 of Christian James Abbate and Michael Bergh won the Dinner with Racers hosted 12 Hours of Sebring video game race.
Bruno Spengler won IMSA's 90-minute Sebring video game race.
Guanyu Zhou won Formula One's Bahrain Virtual Grand Prix.
NOT Coming Up This Weekend
No Superbikes from Jerez.
NASCAR will not be in Texas.
Supercross will not be in Seattle.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar will be playing video games from a fan selected track, either Watkins Glen, Sebring, Montreal, Motegi, Fontana or Michigan.
NASCAR will be playing video games somewhere. It might not be on television but they will be playing.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
