Hall of Fame Selection Not an Easy Choice This Year

Another year, another NASCAR Hall of Fame class announced. This year’s inductees, who will be officially enshrined in January, include drivers Ricky Rudd and Carl Edwards from the Modern Era ballot and car owner Ralph Moody on the Pioneer ballot.

This year’s vote was a little tougher than a year ago on the Modern Era side. Last year’s ballot included both a seven-time champion driver and crew chief with numbers that were pretty hard to overlook. Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus were first-ballot choices and deservedly so.

This year, voters had a little more to sort through. No driver on the list has a Cup Series title, and aside from Jack Sprague, who made his career in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, the drivers with titles won them in series that weren’t the primary series of their careers.

Crew chiefs Tim Brewer and Harry Hyde have Cup Series titles as crew chiefs, and Randy Dorton has them as an engine builder, but voters tend to be sparing with mechanics compared to drivers, and we’ve seen a couple of head wrenches enshrined in the last two years.

This year is just the second year in which no Cup champion has been chosen. Neither Rudd nor Edwards won a title in NASCAR’s top series in their careers, though Edwards did lose one on a tiebreaker.

It makes for an interesting look at Hall of Fame voting. For the most part, Cup Series feats seem to be the most popular criteria. There are drivers in the Hall who were not primarily, if ever, Cup drivers, but for the most part they have had to achieve much more in their chosen series than the Cup drivers to get the call.

I feel like there’s a distinction between drivers who made one particular series outside of Cup a career than those who ran those series successfully and moved up, or dipped into them while running Cup full-time. Not that their wins or titles should be ignored, but they shouldn’t be measured the same — the driver’s career series should be weighted more.

For example, Edwards’ Xfinity Series title came after he had three full seasons in Cup, two of those in the top 10 in points. It’s hard to equate that to a driver like Jack Ingram, who made his career in that series or even a young driver who won the lower series title before becoming a bona fide Cup star. Edwards’ big picture is part of his success, but he defined himself as a Cup driver, and his Cup exploits should carry more weight.

Here’s a look at Rudd and Edwards strictly by…