Five who should be first to enter into the Hall of Fame

For a sport steeped in tradition and blessed with legendary personalities, there is no shortage of candidates for NASCAR's inaugural Hall of Fame. But only five can go in in that first class of 2010. Our staff has chosen five whose effects on the sport helped transcend it into what it has become today.

(Editor's note: Five people who should be in NASCAR's inaugural Hall of Fame class is the final of a six-week installment examining different elements of the sport.)

• First week: Five fantastic finishes of 2008
• Second week: Five key moments of 2008
• Third week: Five breakout drivers of 2009
• Fourth week: Five who could struggle in 2009
• Fifth week: Five who will break into win column in 2009

Harold Brasington

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Slowest qualifier Johnny Mantz (right) won the first Southern 500 in 1950 by a margin of nine laps. This was NASCAR's first 500-mile race, and first on a paved superspeedway. NASCAR official Bill Tuthill interviews track owner Harold Brasington.

NASCAR has no shortage of pioneers. Lee Petty, who built the Petty Enterprises organization that for ages defined the sport. Richard Petty, who never met a hand he wouldn't shake or an autograph request he wouldn't oblige. The Wood Brothers, who turned trained pit crews into a necessity, and Ray Evernham, who turned them into a science. Wendell Scott, who broke the color barrier. Bill France Sr., who pulled together what had been a loose confederation of racing interests, and Bill France Jr., who took it nationwide.

David Caraviello

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For the most part, all of those trailblazers have been recognized in some way. From Pocono to Phoenix and all places in between, they're renowned for being smarter, more prescient, or more courageous than others in their field. They've received their due -- except for one. Except for the man known around Darlington simply as Mr. Harold.

Harold Brasington saw Indianapolis Motor Speedway, had a vision that he could build something like it in his hometown, and virtually ruined himself doing it. He went door-to-door seeking investors, many of whom laughed at him. He had tomatoes thrown at him as he graded the land. And after Darlington Raceway became a reality, this man who was more builder than manager had tax collectors come after him. He was eventually forced to turn what he had created over to others, to go back to his quiet life in his quiet town while race cars roared around an oval he had sculpted with his hands.

Nine years before Daytona, Brasington built the sport's first modern superspeedway, a paved, 1.3-mile edifice at a time when NASCAR events were held on little dirt tracks in places like Hillsboro, N.C., and Hamburg, N.Y. Had he not risked -- and ultimately, given -- everything to do it, the sport almost certainly would have been stuck in the short-track era for much longer than it was. Who knows when Daytona International Speedway would have been built. Who knows when the explosion of popularity would have occurred. Who knows where NASCAR would be today, without the still-unsung work of Mr. Harold.

• Brasington a NASCAR pioneer | Right time for Southern 500 rebirth

Bill France

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Bill France Sr. (right) and Bill France Jr. (left) look over plans for the new Daytona International Speedway with contractor Don Smith in 1957.

It's plain and simple: There is no NASCAR without Bill France.

When France called that meeting in December 1947 at the Streamline Hotel to discuss the formation of a new stock-car racing series, it's hard to believe that anyone present that day could foresee what NASCAR would become. It's a credit to France's vision -- and his ability to focus on the means of achieving the goals -- that NASCAR is the multi-billion business that exists in 2009.

Mark Aumann

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At that meeting, France instituted a set of rules and guaranteed purse money, creating a stable and professional racing series and immediately earning respect for stock-car racing as a whole.

Through a fortuitous set of circumstances -- such as having his car break down in Daytona Beach on a trip from Washington, D.C., to Miami in 1935 -- France went from owning a local gas station to racing on the beach to race promotion and finally, controlling the day-to-day activities of the sport. It is a testament to his management skills that France was able to keep the competitive balance in NASCAR from its beginning until he handed over control of the sport to his son in 1972.

In addition, France saw the need for permanent racing facilities, and was responsible for the construction of Daytona and Talladega, even though many people at the time thought the idea was bound to fail. And he was one of the first to understand the value of sponsorship, adding R.J. Reynolds as title sponsor in 1971, a partnership that lasted for more than three decades and helped a regional sport grow to national status.

• History of NASCAR began with France | How Daytona came to be

Junior Johnson

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The Last American Hero, Junior Johnson (right), wins the second Great American Race in 1960. Johnson won three Daytona qualifiers, but just the one 500.

He never won a championship as a driver despite 50 career victories and 47 poles, but he was part of six championships as a car owner and helped take the entire sport to a new level when he put Bill France Sr. in touch with the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in the early 1970s.

Joe Menzer

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One could argue that Johnson did as much or more to popularize the sport than anyone in the history of NASCAR -- first as a driver, then as a car owner and ace crew chief, and also as a colorful entrepreneur. Johnson is the one man most connected to the sport's deepest roots, a North Carolina native who for many years ran moonshine in tricked-out machines that were the forerunners of the first generation of NASCAR race cars.

As a driver, he won the second Daytona 500 in 1960 and remains tied for 10th all time in victories with Ned Jarrett. The number of poles he won ranks ninth all time.

As a car owner, his drivers won 139 races and six championships. Both totals rank third, behind only Petty Enterprises and Hendrick Motorsports. Along the way to those impressive totals, Johnson pushed the rules envelope at every turn, coining the phrase that "if you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin.'" His many innovations actually led to a great number of rules changes that he argued were designed to level the playing field and let others catch up to his operation.

His greatest contribution to the sport, however, came in 1971 when he hooked France up with the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., whose sponsorship dollars ended up taking the sport to an entirely new level while enticing other major corporations to also begin investing heavily in NASCAR.

• A day with Junior Johnson | Johnson: Room for steak and hot dogs

Lee Petty

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Lee Petty won the first Daytona 500 in 1959, the first of a career-high 11 victories that year en route to his second consecutive championship and third overall.

Petty. The mere mention of the name conjures visions of Victory Lane celebrations. And while today's fans may associate the name with a team owner or maybe even a TV personality, the name was brought to prominence by Lee Petty.

Duane Cross

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He was NASCAR's first three-time champion (1954, '58 and '59) and held that distinction until David Pearson tied the mark a decade later. (Richard Petty eventually surpassed both drivers; he won his fourth of seven Cup Series titles in 1972.)

From 1949-60, Petty had 53 victories, 227 top-five finishes and 327 top-10s in 418 starts with an average finish of 7.5 -- all tops in the series -- and he also won the inaugural Daytona 500 on Feb. 22, 1959. Petty finished in the top five in points 11 times during that 12-year stretch; he finished sixth in 1960.

As NASCAR prepares to induct its first class it should remember that a solid foundation is a must. To that end, Petty was an integral part of what the sport has become. And while Richard and Kyle -- and even Adam, when considering the Victory Junction Gang Camp -- may be more widely recognized, the family patriarch should be the first Petty to be enshrined into the Hall for which he helped build the foundation.

• First Daytona 500 changed sport forever | History of Petty Enterprises

Richard Petty

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Richard Petty poses with the Plymouth he drove to his second championship season in 1967. The car is "the first significant artifact" publicly presented to the Hall of Fame.

The inaugural class of NASCAR's Hall of Fame might be 40 percent administrators, and rightfully so. But considering fans' enjoyment of the sport primarily involves its athletes, the King Richard Petty is the best candidate. Petty obviously took a page from his father, Lee Petty's, book when it came to winning races, but the King wrote chapter and verse when it came to tirelessly interacting with fans throughout his career, fluidly enabling sponsor involvement and activation before the term was even recognized and competing at the front of the field for well more than two decades.

Dave Rodman

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The Hall's first class should celebrate builders of the sport, who embodied excellence in the process. Richard Petty's rural North Carolina roots gave him a great appreciation of the opportunity that stock-car racing had given him and his family, and at a very early stage he recognized the fans' vital place in this chain. Petty's elaborate autograph and his willingness to dispense it to virtually all who asked make him a legend in all of sports.

The Pettys recognized the critical aspect of having an efficient organization, and within it integrating manufacturer and sponsor involvement. The "Petty Blue" that graced the championship-winning Plymouths and Dodges that came out of the Petty Enterprises shop complex in Level Cross, N.C., became an icon in the sport, as did the colors of STP, which was a Petty trademark for decades, including multiple championships and Daytona 500 victories.

Finally, Petty's most qualifying mark, and his lock for induction was his excellence on the race track. Consistency at a very high level put Petty in position to become the first man to win seven championships in NASCAR's premier series, a standard that has been equaled only by one other Hall-worthy driver, Dale Earnhardt. And Petty's record 200 career Cup victories, a standard that will never come close to being equaled, is the last word on securing his place in the sport's Hall of Fame.

• King's road began in Columbia, S.C. | '67 Plymouth presented to Hall

• Also: Check out Stock Car History Online's informal media poll

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