Tuesday night’s media tour included a stop at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, which is still under construction. Winston Kelley, executive director of the hall, and historian Buz McKim talked about some of the artifacts that will be included when the hall is opened May 11 for grand opening ceremonies and May 23 for the first class of inductees. The hall will have a “Greatest Finishes Theater” that will include Ricky Craven’s #32 Tide Pontiac that won a thrilling duel with Kurt Busch in 2003 at Darlington Raceway. Kelley said it was the first artifact that was offered to the hall. “It was the last Pontiac to win in the sport, and it carries some history as the closest finish in the existence of the sport,” Craven said.
McKim said he went on a “scavenger hunt” for many other artifacts, including an information sheet Dale Earnhardt filled out in 1975. Drivers filled out information sheets at the beginning of each season, and McKim found the sheet Earnhardt filled out in February 1975 that included several interesting tidbits of information. For one, Earnhardt listed himself as a wrestler in high school and his favorite drivers as Richard Petty and Bobby Isaac. “There was a line there that said, ‘Ambition other than racing,’ and he wrote, ‘None!'” McKim said.
Another artifact that will be displayed in the hall comes from Richard Petty’s “accumulation” of things over his many years in NASCAR. It’s the 1967 Plymouth that Petty campaigned when he won 27 of 48 races that year, including 10 wins in a row – a record that still stands.
McKim said about 98 percent of artifacts the hall wanted to get, he was able to obtain. But there is one artifact that McKim truly wants, an item he calls the “holy grail.” “It’s something I’ve only heard about and never seen,” McKim said. It’s a gold membership card given to pioneering mechanic Red Vogt from Bill France Sr. in 1954. Vogt was proclaimed NASCAR member No. 1, and all fees and dues Vogt had paid to NASCAR before that time were returned to him. (Sprint Media Tour Notes)(1-21-2010)
