Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Hall Of Fame Inductee Pictures

Recently, some pictures of several of the Hall of Fame inductees were posted on the TDP Facebook page. In order not to exclude those readers who do not use Facebook, here are those pictures. We hope to add some more during the week. Click directly on the pictures to see them full-size. Right click to save.





If you have any comments on the pictures or stories about the personalities, click the comments button below to share them. Thanks as always.

10 comments:

PammH said...

they all look soooo young & cocky! luv it...:) veri word lastrow-funny.

Ziggy said...

Ahhhh, the good days of the good ole boys.

Now those were "stock" cars.

JohnP said...

Thanks JD... It really cool to see some of the early pictures. Especially that on of Junior Johnson at Daytona. Very nice.

GinaV24 said...

It is so great to see those photos. What a different world it was. Funny, it looks like they were having much more fun then.

a little less talk and a lot more action!

TexasRaceLady said...

I just love Junior's fancy loafers as a choice for pit road wear. Wonder if they had non-slip soles.

Richard's big 'ol cowboy boots look really well worn.

Ah, the good old days.

Richard in N.C. said...

JD, I always enjoy and am fascinated by the pictures you find and post. Wish you could find one of Junior practicing the now outlawed jack-swing. Thank you.

glenc1 said...

These are great.

I won't post a link cause we're not supposed to, but FYI, if you google 'Watkins Glen Memories,' there's a guy who has some really cool photos. Just scroll down to the NASCAR section (unless you're an old Grand Prix fan, there's some cool stuff there too.) There's an Earnhardt/Childress photo that's a fave of mine.

GinaV24 said...

Glen, I'm going to have to go find that link!

Anonymous said...

I always find it interesting to look closely at the sponsors on the cars back in the 50's, 60's, and even the 70's. Sponsors were often small businesses operating in a single city or within a small region. A team and driver could often find that level of support and be competitive. Teams were composed of a relative handful of people, and some teams had part-timers with day jobs. The unseen factor that often separated the haves and have-nots was whether or not a team had factory support.

Today it takes a Fortune 500 company to sponsor a team, and even one of those may not be enough (DuPont, for instance). It takes something on the order of 100employees per car to be competitive with specialists for everything. You also need a ton of money for wind tunnels and in-house high-tech machines. Factory support is an absolute necessity, and even that doesn't guarantee you will be competitive.

NASCAR chooses to pretend that it is still the 1950's and a small group of people can put together a team and be competitive. Those days are ancient history. That's why Richard Petty is now a figurehead and Tommy Baldwin and others can only start and park.

I would prefer to see a franchise system for owners, but I doubt that NASCAR will ever do it. Once a franchise system is in place, the sanctioning body has a responsibility to set up a system to share the wealth to keep all teams competitive. NASCAR has no desire to share the wealth with any have-nots. They will continue to maintain the illusion that it is the 1950's and a local car dealer could sponsor a competitive car.

glenc1 said...

btw...if anyone goes to that Glen link, one of the David Pearson photos has a media fellow in it to the left that you might recognize.