For the past week, a major debate has been raging in the NASCAR world around Hall of Fame voting. After seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson fell four votes short of the first unanimous selection to the HoF, many, like Denny Hamlin, openly questioned the process of voting and the integrity of the voters themselves. Interestingly, Dale Earnhardt Jr., the son of another seven-time champion, does not see anything wrong with how the selections were made.
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On the Dale Jr. Download, Junior brought up his father, Dale Earnhardt, not being a unanimous selection to drive home the point, claiming that there will always be people who see drivers differently.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is fine with his father not being unanimously inducted
The two-time Daytona 500 winner opened, “Jimmie was not unanimous, a lot of people bothered by that. It’s crazy, you know, that he wasn’t unanimous. What did he get like, 93 per cent. I was sitting there and I was like, ‘damn man, imagine getting 93 per cent of the vote’.” Co-host Mike Davis stated that it made no sense that people like Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, and Jimmie Johnson, who have seven championships and sit at the top of their sport, are not on the ballots of voters.
Junior said that he was perfectly fine with that, bringing up his father’s case, saying, “When you walk out of this building, Mike, we got to realize that there’s some people that think David Pearson was the greatest NASCAR driver ever, there’s some people that think Cale Yarborough was the greatest ever.”
“Cale Yarborough won three in a row before Jimmie won his five in a row, that three in a row was pretty damn amazing. And so you know, Richard Petty is going to get some votes you got to think about Bill France, Senior, Junior. There’s just so many names for that first class that I absolutely can understand dad not making it on a couple ballots.”
Junior did admit that though he was surprised after learning about Johnson’s voting numbers, after giving a lot of thought to how people view statistics and impact differently, he is perfectly fine with how the process went down.
Dale Jr. addressed the other part of Johnson and Chad Knaus’ selection
Another part of the voting that was being talked about was the fact that with the Hendrick pair being inducted in the same class, the Crew Chief might be overshadowed by Johnson in the run-up to the ceremony.
Dismissing any such feelings, Dale Jr. said, “A lot of people were saying beforehand that they maybe shouldn’t go in together because then Chad’s gonna get overshadowed by Jimmie and this and that, and everybody’s worried about that. I’m like, they’ve been together their whole careers, they really don’t worry about being overshadowed by one or the other.”
Dale Jr. is right – all these conversations take nothing away from the fact that with Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus, and Donnie Allison, the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2024 is one of the most stacked ever.
