MotorSportsTalk will be counting down the top 20 stories of the 2014 NASCAR season over the month of December. We kicked things off Thursday with No. 20, the announcement that the Nationwide Series will be renamed and rebranded the Xfinity Series starting in 2015. Today, we look at No. 19, the five drivers who were chosen earlier this year to become the 2015 Induction Class for the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Any list of the top NASCAR stories in 2014 would not be complete with this past May’s naming of the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2015.
When the 50-plus eligible voters for the Hall convened to choose the Class of 2015, a list of 20 names of former drivers, crew chiefs and other notables had to be pored over, as well as the qualifications of each individual.
In the end, while we would have liked to see Benny Parsons make the Class of 2015 (he just barely came up short in the voting, but would appear to be a near-lock to be named for the Class of 2016), the voters nonetheless did themselves proud in who they did select.
When all the ballots were counted, the Class of 2015, the sixth induction class since the Hall opened, will officially enter the Hall on Jan. 30, 2015, the five names that received the most votes were Bill Elliott, Fred Lorenzen, Rex White, Joe Weatherly and Wendell Scott.
Each driver was a worthy choice for a variety of reasons. Let’s recap some of their accomplishments that made them worthy of joining the Hall:
* Bill Elliott: In a 37-year driving career, Bill Elliott — with the colorful nickname of “Awesome Bill from Dawsonville (Ga.) — compiled a list of accolades that put him near the top of a number of NASCAR’s all-time lists. His 44 wins rank 16th all-time and his 55 poles rank eighth. But his most prestigious accomplishment came in 1988 when he won the NASCAR premier series championship with six wins, 15 top fives and 22 top 10s in 29 races. In addition, he won a record 16 Most Popular Driver Awards, in part because of his excellence on the big stage; he won the Daytona 500 twice and the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway three times. Elliott posted seven victories at Michigan International Speedway, the third most in track history, including four in a row in 1985 and 1986. He also won the pole six times, trailing only David Pearson (10) for the most in track history. In his illustrious career, Elliott started a track-record 61 races at MIS.
* Fred Lorenzen: Fred Lorenzen was one of NASCAR’s first true superstars even though he was a “part-time” driver, never running more than 29 of the season’s 50-plus races. Lorenzen got his start in NASCAR as a mechanic with the famed Holman-Moody team in 1960, but was elevated to lead driver by the end of the year. Lorenzen won three races in only 15 starts the following season. Lorenzen’s best overall season came in 1963 as he finished with six wins, 21 top fives and 23 top 10s in 29 starts. Despite missing 26 races that season, he finished third in the standings. In 1965, he won two of NASCAR’s major events – the Daytona 500 and the World 600.
* Joe Weatherly: Joe Weatherly won two championships (1962-63) and 25 races in NASCAR’s premier series. But that’s only part of his story, which is long on versatility. A decade earlier in 1952-53, he won 101 races in the NASCAR Modified division, capturing that championship in 1953. He even tried his hand in NASCAR’s short-lived Convertible Division from 1956-59 winning 12 times. When he won his first NASCAR premier series championship, in 1962, he drove for legendary owner Bud Moore. When he repeated as champion a year later, he drove for nine different teams.
* Rex White: Consistency was the hallmark of Rex White’s NASCAR career. He finished among the top five in nearly a half of his 233 races and outside the top 10 only 30 percent of the time. White was a short-track specialist in an era in which those tracks dominated the schedule. Of his 28 career wins in NASCAR’s premier series, only two came on tracks longer than a mile in length. Driving his own equipment, White won six times during his 1960 championship season, posting 35 top 10s in 40 starts. He finished in the top 10 six of his nine years in the series including a runner-up finish in 1961. White is now 84 years old.
* Wendell Scott: One of NASCAR’s true trailblazers, Wendell Scott was the first African-American to race fulltime in NASCAR’s premier series, as well as the first to win a NASCAR premier series race. Scott posted a remarkable 147 top 10s and 495 starts during his 13-year premier series career. He won more than 100 races at local tracks before making his premier series debut, including 22 races at Southside Speedway in Richmond, Virginia, in 1959 en route to capturing both the Sportsman Division and NASCAR Virginia Sportsman championships. Part of Scott’s NASCAR legacy extends to present day with NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, the leading youth development initiative for multicultural and female drivers across the motorsport industry since 2004.
* Also to be inducted is the inaugural winner of the Hall of Fame’s “Landmark Award,” the late Anne Bledsoe France. Known affectionately as “Annie B., Mrs. France was the first woman to be nominated for induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. She helped husband and NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. create what today is one of the largest and most popular sports in the world. Anne played a huge role in the family business. “Big Bill” organized and promoted races; she took care of the financial end of the business. She first served as secretary and treasurer of NASCAR, and when Daytona International Speedway opened in 1959, served in the same roles for the International Speedway Corporation. She also managed the speedway’s ticket office. France remained active in family and business life until her passing in 1992.
Voting for the Class of 2015 was as follows: Bill Elliott (87 percent), Wendell Scott (58 percent), Joe Weatherly (53 percent), Rex White (43 percent) and Fred Lorenzen (30 percent).
The next top vote getters were Jerry Cook, Robert Yates and Benny Parsons.
All selections came on the first ballot. There were no ties or need for tie-breaking secondary votes.
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