On Tuesday, May 19, the three newest members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame will be announced.
Prior to that, the voting committee will spend many long hours debating which of the 15 nominees belong in the Class of 2027 before deciding on two of the 10 from the Modern Era ballot and one of the five from the Pioneer ballot.
Before we get into which three are the most deserving this time, I have to once again call out the nominating committee for leaving out Smokey Yunick, Sam Ard and Bill Rexford. I get that Yunick will never be nominated as long as the France family still has power, but it still needs to be mentioned every year.
I understand Rexford is controversial in that he only has one career NASCAR Cup Series win and the only reason he has a championship in the series is because other drivers got stripped of their points for competing in other racing series. Still, the nominating committee should put Rexford on the ballot and let the voting panel and others have serious conversations on if he should be in or not. After all, he is the only eligible Cup champion not already in.
As for Ard, I have no idea what the nominating committee has against him. He was even nominated before but has annually been left off the ballot ever since. No more NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series drivers should get into the Hall of Fame until he gets in — not one.
This year, the nominating committee outdid itself by leaving Bob Welborn off the Pioneer ballot one year after finishing second in the voting. Welborn was a three-time NASCAR Convertible Series champion, and at the time, the drivers were told that wins and championships in that series would be treated the same as Cup. So essentially, a three-time Cup champion has been left off the ballot. Can you imagine the outrage if Lee Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip or Tony Stewart got snubbed by the Hall of Fame nominating committee?
Rene Charland, who won four consecutive NASCAR Sportsman Division championships (what eventually became NOAPS), is another driver I’d like to see get nominated next time.
Still, a case could be made for each of the 15 individuals nominated this time around. Let’s take a look at who they are.
Modern Era: Greg Biffle, Neil Bonnett, Tim Brewer, Jeff Burton, Randy Dorton, Ray Elder (new), Ernie Elliott (new), Kevin Harvick (new), Randy LaJoie and Jack Sprague
Pioneer: Ray Fox (new), Harry Hyde (was on Modern Era last year), Banjo Matthews, Herb Nab and Larry Phillips
And the three who belong in the Class of 2027 are …
Kevin Harvick
This one isn’t even up for debate. There is a 0% chance Harvick isn’t voted in. He’s the only Cup-championship-winning driver on the Modern Era ballot, and his 60 career Cup wins are more than all the other drivers on the ballot put together. You could wipe out all of Harvick’s Cup stats and he’d still have a great case for the Hall, given his two championships and 47 wins in NOAPS. If the voting panel spends more than 20 seconds debating Harvick, it’s only because it wants to talk about the good old days.
Greg Biffle
Every year, it feels like there is one shoo-in on the Modern Era ballot while the other requires a little more debate. Bonnett and Burton have similar Cup resumes to Biffle, but his NOAPS and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championships should give him the advantage.
Brewer, Dorton and Elliott may have better cases in that they won Cup championships, but come on. People tend to vote with their hearts, and for a lot of people in the industry, you can’t bring up Biffle’s name without their eyes watering over what happened to him and his family in December.
We see it all the time in other sports where someone gets in a hall of fame shortly after dying. Robert Yates likely got in the NASCAR Hall a few years before he would’ve because he didn’t have much time on earth left. It just feels right to vote Biffle in this class as a means of replacing those sad feelings with some happy ones as the NASCAR community reflects on how awesome of a wheelman he was.
Now is the time to put Biffle in the Hall, and it won’t even be that close of a vote because the voters likely feel the same.
Herb Nab
This is the part of the ballot where it gets really hard, because all five of the Pioneer nominees have great cases to be made. If Welborn were one of the five, he’d be the obvious best choice. But in his snubbing emerged a candidate who had been overlooked for years: Nab.
The Hall of Fame currently has a backlog of great crew chiefs waiting to get in. It’s why I wish there would be one spot each year designated to someone who worked on cars, whether it be a crew chief, engine builder, mechanic, etc., because drivers always win the popular vote. Anyway, Nab is currently front and foremost of that backlog, and his entry into the Hall will help unclog the system so that Brewer, Dorton, Hyde, Jeff Hammond, Paul Wolfe and other great non-drivers can eventually get in.
And if you’re wondering why Nab over Hyde, just look at the stats: Nab has one more championship, and he’s the third winningest crew chief in NASCAR history with 92 Cup wins. I feel like the voters are more likely to go with Hyde because of his Hendrick Motorsports connection and the fact that Robert Duvall’s character in Days of Thunder was based on him, but the stats don’t lie. Just vote Hyde in next time.
I could also see the voters going with Matthews, which would not be a bad pick either. He deserves to get in eventually, as do Hyde, Phillips and Fox. None of these selections would be bad. I just give a slight edge to Nab.
The Hall of Fame announcement will stream on the NASCAR channel at 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday, May 19.
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.
Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton should go in. Biffle may deserve it at some time, but let’s not make it a knee-jerk vote because of the plane crash.