Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

This years hall of fame class is a great group of guys but Stevie smith not being a part of this class is kind of a head scratcher.

Agree, but the same argument could have been made by Lance Dewease last year. Stevie will get the nod, hopefully in next year's class.

Stevie has a better resume than either MCCarl or Lance, agreed it will happen, probably next year.

Not sure better than Dewease. Both should be in. 

Agree to disagree. 

70+ WoO wins, multiple National open titles, came much closer to winning Knoxville than either Lance or MCCarl. Maybe his best accomplishment, 2nd in the mopar million after having never ran a wingless car before. 

His part time status in the 2000s and 2010s hurt his career win totals, but his National resume is far better.

84 World of Outlaw features wins. Only driver to ever win all the big 3 in PA. The National Open, the Tuscarora 50, the Dirt Classic. PA Speedweek champion, 2x Don Martin Silver Cup winner at lernerville, selinsgrove national open winner, 2x Ohio Speedweek champion, Lincoln track champion, Susky track champion, Volusia Dirt Car champion, 222 career 410 wins, 19 ASCOC wins, 1990 WoO Rookie of the year, Gold Cup winner...do I need to keep going?b

Some of you need to accept the fact that not all retired Posse drivers were on the same level as Kinser, Wolfgang, Swindell (modern era) and all the other first year and second year eligible inductees who made it in. I too would give the nod to Stevie over McCarl and Dewease, but the timing was different for all three. I believe this coming year will mark Stevie's third year in to retirement, so he should be admitted in the next class based on his age. If not, then there will be a reason to wonder....out loud      jmo of course

Lance has also won the National Open (3 times), Regards 50 (6 times), and the Dirt Classic (Last year).

I'm baffled at times myself on how the process works.  Don't get me wrong there are very deserving people that should and will get into the HoF but I feel there are some nominees that should get in before others.

But ya know what?  Stevie and a host of others will make it in, does it really matter when they get in?

Tough to judge guys that spent a lot of their career on the road vs. guys that spent most of their career at home. I don't think Stevie's resume is better than Dewease' or McCarl's but probably just as good. He's definitely HoF worthy but not 1st ballot I guess.

A

I've always thought Hall of Fame picks in sport are similar to draft picks in sport. The #1 picks and the #2 and # 3 and so on are distinctly different in their achievements. The difference of course is that with the Hall of Fame picks, the career questions have been answered. And of course there are those that can make a controversy out of anything.  The way the process is set up and how the voters are spread out across the country when it comes to the NSCHoF, I doubt it could possibly work any better than it does.

I just noticed my phone changed Tuscarora to Regards... Hell of an autocorrect.

In my opinion 9th on the all time WoO win list trumps winning every local / regional feature over a 30 year span.  Does anyone other than central PA really know of the existance of the Dirt Classic or the Tusky 50?

Well the Dirt Classic is rather fresh to the racing scene in terms of importance, but it;s always been the largest paying non-sanctioned  event in the state of PA. They also hold multiple qualifiers throughout the country outside of PA and each year get invaders form all over coming in for the race, Saying bno one outside of PA knows about it is just incorrecct. Also, the Tuscarora 50 has always bveen a pretty pretigous race. At times it;s been sanctioned by the All Stars and always has a high car counts and in recent years has become a fairly high paying race to go with the prestige. Outside of the National Open, it;s the 2nd biggest race in the state 

With all due respect you keep stating "state", the Hall of Fame is a national honor.

IMO Stevie should be in.  But thats just my opinion.  Stevie ran pretty strong for quite a few years. 

I have a question, or two actually.  1. Is Earl Gaerte in the HoF?  2.  What is Tim Green up to these days?  He and Wolfgang were my favorite drivers when I was a kid.

Jay, I was gonna comment on your above post regarding Stevie's accomplishments. Including the Dirt Classic in a statement saying the "Big 3" in PA may be jumping the gun a bit just because the event is no new and fresh.  If you would've said Natty Open, Tusky 50 and Silver Cup, then I'd agree. I'm not "calling you out" just giving my opinion that the Dirt Classic does not have the prestige quite yet (and yes I know it's the highest paying non sanction race in PA).  I'd also place the Silver Cup as the second most pretiguous race in PA given it's history, purse, etc. (not sure if biggest and most pretisguous would be the same here). 

But eh that's not the point of all of this is it?  The point is Stevie's resume, nationally (which includes his success in PA) is stellar and he will be in the HoF.  Why he isn't now, I don't know.  But he will be and my guess is probably next year.  No one will care what year he got in, just that he's in.  And he will be. 

It’s irrelevant because Stevie has won the Silver Cup too. Haha

Well also with all due respect, it;s the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame. Not the World of Outlaws Hall of Fame. and the State of Pennsylvania makes up quite a large part of the history and current Sprint Car racing scene. This driver just so happens to have 84 career World of Outlaw victories. While many of his large accomplishmenbts happened in the state of of PA. Many of those accomplishments happened against the WoO and on the road. I'd say arguably Stevie may have spent more time on the road and outside of Pa than he did in the state of Pa. His lineage and beginnings just so happened to be PA and he closed his career back in PA. But I think his accomplishments run pretty far across the country

And I agree. In terms of the Dirt Classic, it's def. a new thing. However, they are currently billing and marketing it as part of the "Triple Crown" in Central Pa and he is the only one to have won all those events multiple times. Whether its as big of a race as billed is irrelevent though as Stevie is as deserving as anybody to have spent major time in the state of PA and in comparison to most the Posse drivers, Stevie might have had the most success of anybody ever after leaving the state and traveling