Hall of Fame picks

By DAVID GREEN

Fifty people much better qualified than I will make the official decision later today, but for what it's worth, here are my five selections for the inaugural class of inductees into the NASCAR Hall of Fame:

"Big Bill" France, Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, Junior Johnson and Curtis Turner.

It would be pretty hard to go wrong in picking any five from the list of 25 finalists, and equally difficult to choose a lineup that would please everybody. But those are my picks.

It was no easy matter, but I made my choices in a pretty quick sequence based on long-held opinions about the sport and its history.

France, I think, is the one absolute choice. If not for his vision and leadership, stock car racing as we now know it would likely never have developed. Nothing of such magnitude is the product of any single individual, but France was the one irreplaceable piece in the puzzle.

Earnhardt will not be a unanimous pick, for various reasons. But it was he who stood out among all others during NASCAR's rise to full-blown national (and even international) acceptance. It was he who, better than any other, bridged the gap from the previous established generation of drivers to the generation now led by Jeff Gordon. He was the point man, the lightning rod.

Petty, in a similar role, brought NASCAR from its regional popularity to the cusp of bigger and better things. Often compared to Arnold Palmer as one who best personified his sport, Petty not only won more races and more championships (until Earnhardt tied him) than anybody else, he won hearts and souls.

Johnson, nicknamed by Tom Wolfe as "the last American hero" in that famous Esquire magazine article, was legendary enough as a driver, but then he went and became one of the most successful team owners in the sport. It was he who fielded the cars for those three consecutive Grand National championship seasons in 1976-77-78, the mark that was broken only last year.

Turner is perhaps the longest shot in my list of five. He was a contemporary of Johnson's and, like Johnson, he never won a championship title in what is now the Cup Series as a driver. He never accumulated numbers in great numbers. But he stood out as a unique character in a very colorful era, with movie-star good looks and antics such as drawing a "lifetime" ban (it was rescinded in 1965) from NASCAR after he tried to organize drivers into a branch of the Teamsters Union in 1960, in exchange for "bailout" financing from Jimmy Hoffa when the endeavor to build Charlotte Motor Speedway proved to be more than he and partner Bruton Smith could handle.

As for Earnhardt and Petty, yes -- their legends would be diminished considerably without their supporting casts. Earnhardt wouldn't have been Earnhardt without Waltrip, Elliott, Gordon and other on-track rivals. Petty not only one-upped his father, the first three-time GN champ, but he achieved his greatness in competition with the likes of Roberts, Pearson, Yarborough and other greats.

As for Johnson and Turner, they might cancel each other out on many ballots because of their similarities as "outlaw" characters. Johnson was the prototypical moonshine runner of stock car racing's origins and Turner was the party-hearty "Pops" who would have seriously tested NASCAR's present-day substance abuse policy with a race-day breathalyzer check.

Plus, my no-brainer pick, Big Bill France, called Turner the greatest driver he ever saw.

I omit three of my personal favorites who, in my own heart, are at the top of all lists -- David Pearson, Bobby Allison and Bud Moore. One or more of them may very well end up on the list to be revealed later today.

I won't mind being wrong on any or all counts.