FORT WORTH, Texas (April 20, 2011) – NASCAR announced the list of 25 nominees Tuesday for the 2012 NASCAR Hall of Fame induction class and Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage was delighted to be part of the process.
Gossage is on the 21-person nominating committee that consists of representatives from NASCAR, the NASCAR Hall of Fame and track owners/promoters from both major facilities and historic short tracks. The group voted for 20 nominees to return from last year’s group and added five first timers in Bobby Isaac, Leonard Wood, Cotton Owens, Les Richter and H. Clay Earles.
Gossage will now focus on the next phase of the Hall of Fame process as he also is a member of the 54-person voting panel that will determine that third induction class that will be enshrined in January 2012.
“It is an honor to be one of a small number of people on both the nominating committee and the voting panel for the NASCAR Hall of Fame,” Gossage said. “There are people on these panels that I have always looked up to like Bud Moore, Junior Johnson, Harry Gant, Mike Joy and Jim France. The charge before these groups is to properly represent the sport in recognizing the people that have built NASCAR into one of the largest professional sports in the world. It is a privilege to have been in this sport for more than 30 years and I take the obligation very seriously.”
Joining Isaac, Wood, Owens, Richter and Earles on the nomination ballot are Buck Baker, Red Byron, Richard Childress, Jerry Cook, Richie Evans, Tim Flock, Rick Hendrick, Jack Ingram, Dale Inman, Fred Lorenzen, Raymond Parks, Benny Parsons, Fireball Roberts, T. Wayne Robertson, Herb Thomas, Curtis Turner, Darrell Waltrip, Joe Weatherly, Glen Wood and Cale Yarborough.
The Class of 2012 will be announced June 14 live on SPEED from the NASCAR Hall of Fame, located in Charlotte, N.C.
For more information, contact the TMS Media Relations Department at (817) 215-8520 or pr@texasmotorspeedway.com.
