NASCAR's first Hall of Fame class; top ten NASCAR merchandisers; and big news from Eldora Speedway.
The first class of inductees for the NASCAR Hall of Fame was announced last week. Included in the class are NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., Bill France Jr., Richard Petty, Junior Johnson, and Dale Earnhardt Sr. No one can fault those picks. I would have liked a larger inaugural class though. I don’t think anyone would have quibbled if the fifth through eighth place vote getters would also have been selected. You can’t argue with the on track performance of David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, and Bobby Allison.
You certainly can argue with the on track performance of Dale Earnhardt Jr. though not with his off track success. The driver of the 88 car has won 1 of his last 130 starts. He is 0 for his last 52 starts. Despite an increasingly bad driving record, you see him in commercial after commercial, and none of those advertisers are bailing on Earnhardt. He is also the best selling merchandiser of the NASCAR drivers. Surprisingly enough, the 10th best selling NASCAR driver is the late Dale Earnhardt Sr. That name in NASCAR seems to be as good as Rockefeller used to be in oil.
Numbers 2-9 on the best selling merchandiser list are:
Tony Stewart
Jeff Gordon
Jimmy Johnson
The NASCAR brand
Kyle Busch
Carl Edwards,
Kasey Kahne
Mark Martin.
No surprises there.
Finally, dirt racing forums are abuzz with news from Ohio this week. Speculation is that Tony Stewart’s Eldora Speedway will make an announcement about a major late model race to be held at the track in 2010. The rumors are that the purse for the event will be $1,000,000, with the feature starters receiving a minimum of $10,000, and the winner receiving a hefty $200,000.
I don’t know if this will be in addition to the The Dream in June and the World 100 in September, or if it might replace The Dream for a year.
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