At around 9:30 this morning the living legends of NASCAR began filing in to the Charlotte Convention Center.  Bud Moore, Cotton Owens, and Junior Johnson mingled with Mike Helton.  Clay Campbell and Ned Jarrett drank coffee over breakfast snacks.  Humpy Wheeler, Tony George and Edsel Ford II caught up with Brian France.  At 10am, it was time to call this austere and honorable group together. 

The 25 nominees were reviewed one by one.  Their racing credentials and short biographies were presented to the panel.  Then it got interesting - the floor was open to discussion and debate.  Mike Joy led off by posing they question to the panel, "What is our philosophy?"  Should we reach back an honor the founders?  Should we honor the current day stars?  This set off great discussion among the panel.  It's not evident that a consensus was reached. 

One of the great debates of the day was whether Bill France, Jr. should be included in the first class.  Those who raised the question meant no disrespect, their argument was that each France deserved their own class.  At least two NASCAR officials advocated that Bill, Jr. not be in the first class.  One official said, "Bill, Jr. would tell us to put a driver in ahead of him - that's who the fans come to see."  Another panelist said, "well this is an argument Billy is going to lose."   At least one panelist said he was voting for Bill, Jr. instead of Bill, Sr.

There was lots of discussion about having Pearson and Petty in the same class too.  One panelist said, "We are creating the Mt. Rushmore of NASCAR."  Others jumped in and advocated Ritchie Evans the winningest driver in NASCAR's Modified Division. 

The panel discussed the number of inductees too.  One panelist said, it should remain five because inducting 10 would be easy.  Getting inducted to the NASCAR Hall of Fame should be hard - it should be for the greatest of the greatest.

The group broke for lunch where the discussions continued.  Afterwards, the meeting resumed and a representative from the accounting firm of Ernst & Young distributed the ballots.  Some of the panelists were done quickly while others continued to agonize over their selections.   Finally all the votes were submitted and tallied. 

At 4PM, Brian France took the podium and was handed five successive envelopes.  He was not notified in advance of the results.  Envelope #1 - Bill France, Sr.,  envelope #2 - Richard Petty, envelope #3, Bill France, Jr., envelope #4, Dale Earnhardt, and envelope #5 Junior Johnson. 

So, history was made here today on October 14, 2009.  Let the debate begin for 2010 - Pearson, Yarborough, Allison, Lee Petty, Ned Jarrett, who else?  One of the early new names bandied about for next year's nominees was Dale Inman. 

The induction ceremony will be Sunday, May 23, 2010 at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  See you there.