There has been a considerable amount of debate over the past week about who should be eligible for the NASCAR Hall of Fame and now Denny Hamlin has weighed in with his opinions as well.
The debate centers around drivers who have had tremendous success at levels lower than the Cup Series and if they should continue to be enshrined alongside the likes of Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.
This started because Dirty Mo Media producer and content director Travis Rockhold disagreed with Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the potential for a driver like Justin Allgaier to be enshrined someday. Earnhardt believes that drivers with exceptional impact on the sport, even if they didn’t have Cup Series success, should be eligible.
Speaking on his Actions Detrimental podcast on Monday, Hamlin disagreed.
“I believe that most of the people that have adamant arguments for the lower series guys, they have a connection to them somehow. They are their friends, they grew up watching them or something. So, they have an emotional connection to those people. ‘I want my guy in! He’s my guy! He deserves to be in!’ I think it just depends what you want the Hall of Fame to be,” Hamlin said. “Now, I see that folks are making the statements that ‘It’s the NASCAR Hall of Fame.’ Well, go ask anyone that is the very casual [fan] as in they know the NASCAR name — they’re not watching — do they know that there’s like six series of NASCAR? No, they know of Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, and Richard Petty. That’s Sunday. They don’t know about all the steps, right?
“So, people are using the ‘Well, it’s the NASCAR, they don’t say it’s the NASCAR Cup.’ They’re trying to make a point saying, ‘Here’s why everyone should get in because they didn’t say it’s the NASCAR Cup, it’s all of NASCAR.’ I hear ya but to me, and this is my opinion — it’s not right, it’s just my opinion — is that there’s steps to your accomplishments in the sport. Winning at the grassroots, winning a championship at the grassroots, it’s then winning at the regional level, winning a championship at the regional level, it’s then winning races at your O’Reilly and Trucks, winning a championship in those series, winning a race in Cup, then it’s winning a championship in Cup, then it’s the Hall of Fame.
“The Hall of Fame is the pinnacle, so my issue is why is your multiple accomplishments at the grassroots, how does that allow you to just jump right to the pinnacle? That’s just my opinion.”
However, there are no such shortage of examples in the Hall of Fame without Cup merits. New England legend Mike Stefanik is in due to his excellence in Busch North and the Modified Tour. Four-time Truck Series champion Ron Hornaday is in. Richie Evans, the Modified great, is also in alongside versatile short track ace Ray Hendrick.
Hamlin has a rebuttal for that too.
“Erik Jones, unfortunately, will probably never make it into the Hall of Fame. But if he ran O’Reilly or Trucks for 25 years like Matt Crafton, the guy would win 15 fucking championships. He’s better, and it’s not even close, so why does someone that just stays in a lower level get the right to just jump this whole stairstep of Cup?” Hamlin said. “Because the Hall of Fame is the pinnacle. I don’t care what you accomplished in your career; if you get into the Hall of Fame, it is the pinnacle of your career. … In the lower series, if you stay there for whatever reason, ‘OK, well that person didn’t get an opportunity.’ Well, maybe Erik Jones didn’t have an opportunity to stay in a top truck and win 25 championships.
“We can’t do the ifs and buts without going the other way. You can put the top 28 in Cup in the lower series, and they’re gonna win championships, and a ton of races. So, I just don’t think you can judge them the same way. I feel as though when people make arguments for guys in the lower series — more so today — the difference between Cup and Modifieds, like Ray Hendrick when he won all his Modified championships, the disparity wasn’t all that different. Cup was not far and away bigger than Modifieds like it is today.”
Hamlin also worries that the Hall of Fame is being diluted with too many inductees.
“To oversimplify this, I think it’s okay if everyone they’re talking about gets in, but it certainly should be a tiered system. … I just think it diminishes the greats, in my opinion,” Hamlin said. “For crying out loud, Bill Belichick didn’t get in the NFL Hall of Fame on the first try. That was wrong, but I’m in favor of maybe some years, zero get in, right? There’s just not that many people. I don’t know why there has to be a certain amount every time. We’re going to run out of people.
“I think in the next 15 years, I think someone with 10 Cup wins we’re going to start talking about Hall of Fame. I’m serious because you’re just going to run out of people, or you’re just going to lower the standards and say, ‘Alright, let’s now look at someone that’s won one O’Reilly championship and 15 races.’”
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