NASCAR Hall of Fame Nominees Announced

The NASCAR Hall of Fame announced the 20 nominees for the 2017 Hall of Fame class on Wednesday.

Photo courtesy NASCAR Hall of Fame

Below are the nominees, with new additions in italics.

Mark Martin
Photo courtesy NASCAR

Buddy Baker
Red Byron
Richard Childress
Ray Evernham
Ray Fox
Rick Hendrick
Harry Hyde
Alan Kulwicki
Mark Martin
Hershel McGriff
Raymond Parks
Benny Parsons
Larry Phillips
Mike Stefanik
Robert Yates
Ron Hornaday Jr.
Jack Roush
Ricky Rudd
Ken Squier
Waddell Wilson

NASCAR Hall of Fame voting day will be Wednesday, May 25, 2016.  The 55-person voting panel will convene at the Hall of Fame and cast their votes for the 2017 class.  A 56th ballot will be cast based on a fan vote.

The nominees for the Landmark Award were also announced on Wednesday.
H. Clay Earles
Janet Guthrie
Raymond Parks
Ralph Seagraves
Ken Squier

While the fan vote hasn't begun, below are the five nominees I will be voting for.  Obviously, Mark Martin is among my votes, as is Raymond Parks, who I will continue to campaign for until he gets into the Hall of Fame.
Mark Martin
Raymond Parks
Red Byron
Buddy Baker
Ray Fox

What do you think of the nominees? Who will you vote for this year? Let me know in the comments!

Voting for 2016 Hall of Fame Now Open

The fan vote for the NASCAR Hall of Fame is now open.  Fans are allowed to choose five nominees from the list of 20.  The top five with the most votes will be submitted as the Fan Ballot on Voting Day.

Voting Day this year will take place on Wednesday, May 20 at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  Later that day, the Class of 2016 will be announced live from the Hall of Fame on NBC Sports Network.

Below is my ballot, which should totally be your ballot.

Mark Martin

Mark Martin
This one is a serious no-brainer.  I could not push the vote button faster.  I even made sure I selected him first, even though he's way down on the list.  Seriously, with 96 NASCAR wins across the top three touring series, Martin deserves to be in the Hall of Fame regardless of his lack of championship or Daytona 500 victory. 

Raymond Parks
I have been a huge supporter of getting Parks in the Hall of Fame.  NASCAR may have been built by Bill France, but it was funded by Parks.  If not for Parks' moonshine money, NASCAR may have been bankrupt in those early years.  In my opinion, there is no one more deserving of the Hall of Fame on this list.

Red Byron
Speaking of Raymond Parks, his driver Red Byron should be in the Hall of Fame as well.  Byron won the sanctioning body's first race on the Daytona Beach road course in 1948, and went on to become the sport's first Strictly Stock champion.  Plus, this guy drove with a special brace after being wounded in World War II.  Talk about tough.

Raymond Parks

Benny Parsons
Benny Parsons was a champion in everything he did.  He won 21 races and ran up front most of the time, finishing in the Top 10 an astonishing 54% of the time.  After he retired from driving, he became a commentator for NBC and TNT.  As a major voice of the sport, Parsons remained a commentator until his death in 2007 at the age of 65.

Bobby Isaac
Bobby Isaac won 37 races in his career and the 1970 championship, but it may be his prowess in qualifying that sets him apart.  His 49 poles put him 10th on the all-time list, including 19 in 1969 alone.  19 poles in a single season is still a record, an impressive mark considering that only 38 drivers have 19 or more poles in their entire careers.  In September 1971, he also set 28 world-class records on the Bonneville Salt Flats in his Dodge.  I don't know what that means, but it sounds impressive.



To vote, head here before May 20 to submit your ballot.

Vote for Raymond Parks

Imagine a Hall of Fame without Babe Ruth or Vince Lombardi; without Wayne Gretzky or Michael Jordan.  Imagine a Hall of Fame without the people who helped build a sport and change the landscape of those sports forever.

This is the problem that faces the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  The NASCAR Hall of Fame has a long list of great people who helped shape the sport, including Bill France Sr., Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty.  But one person the Hall of Fame is missing is Raymond Parks.

NASCAR was built by men who ran moonshine in the south during the prohibition era.  One of the men who made money off this was Raymond Parks. 

Parks made a name for himself throughout Atlanta throughout numerous business ventures, but he had an immense impact on the sport of NASCAR.

Parks was part of the group that founded NASCAR with Bill France Sr. at the Streamline Hotel in 1947.  He also became the first championship car owner when Red Byron won the Grand National Championship (now the Sprint Cup Series) in NASCAR's inaugural season in 1948.

Parks retired in the mid-1950s, saying, "I loved racing and I loved winning, but it was costing too much money.  I had to start making a living."

But Parks left a big legacy once he left the sport.  His drivers included Bob Flock, Roy Hall and Curtis Turner.  He also teamed with legendary mechanic Red Vogt during his first NASCAR season.

What Parks did after his retirement may have been even more important for the sport.  Colleagues noticed frequent transactions between Parks and France that helped NASCAR through a few rough financial spots early on in NASCAR's history.  Simply put: without Raymond Parks, NASCAR might not still be around.

Many NASCAR fans don't know who Parks is or why he was so important to the history of the sport.  Until his death on June 20, 2010, he was the only person who had witnessed all of NASCAR's history.

You can vote for Parks by heading to the NASCAR Hall of Fame's website before voting closes on May 20, 2014.

At a reception for the inaugural Hall of Fame class in 2010, Mike Helton said Parks was "the heart and soul or spirit that got NASCAR started."  Let's help make Parks become the heart and soul of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.