NASCAR Hall of Fame nominees announced
Autoracing Betting Lines
07/02/2009 - Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - NASCAR on Thursday revealed the 25 nominees for the inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame induction class. Nominees included pioneers, former champions and driver-turned-team owners of the sport.
A 21-member committee - consisting of NASCAR officials and industry leaders, as well as owners/operators of current and historic racetracks - determined the nominees.
The five inductees for the hall's first class will be selected by a voting panel made up of NASCAR members, manufacturer representatives, former competitors, the media and fans. The voting will be completed by September 15, with the results announced in October.
Eligibility requirements included NASCAR accomplishments and contributions. Former drivers must have competed 10 years in NASCAR and be retired from the sport for a minimum of three years in order to be eligible. Non drivers qualify after working at least 10 years in the industry. NASCAR will grant consideration for potential candidates with shorter careers if there are special circumstances.
The inductees will be honored next May when the hall is scheduled to open in Charlotte, NC.
The 25 nominees for the first NASCAR Hall of Fame induction class:
(In alphabetical order)
Bobby Allison - 1983 Cup champion and 84 race wins.
Buck Baker - first driver to win consecutive Cup titles (1956-57).
Red Byron - first Cup champion in 1949.
Richard Childress - team owner who won six titles with driver Dale Earnhardt.
Dale Earnhardt - Seven-time Cup champion (1980, '86, '87, '90, '91, '93, '94).
Richie Evans - Modified stock car racing legend who won nine titles.
Tim Flock - Two-time Cup champion (1952, '55) and 39 race wins.
William H.G. France - NASCAR founder and racetrack mogul.
Bill France Jr. - NASCAR's president (1972-2000), NASCAR chairman (2000-2003).
Rick Hendrick - Eight-time Cup championship team owner.
Ned Jarrett - Two-time Cup champion (1961, '65) and 50 race wins.
Junior Johnson - Six-time Cup championships team owner and 50 wins as driver.
Bud Moore - team owner for 37 years with two Cup championships and 63 wins.
Raymond Parks - team owner who won NASCAR's first title with driver Red Byron.
Benny Parsons - 1973 Cup champion and first driver to qualify a stock car at more than 200 m.p.h.
David Pearson - Three-time Cup champion (1966, '68, '69) and 105 race wins.
Lee Petty - Three-time Cup champion (1954, '58, '59) and winner of first Daytona 500 (1959).
Richard Petty - Seven-time Cup champion (1964, '67, '71, '72, '74, '75, '79) and winner of a record-200 races.
Fireball Roberts - Considered as one of the best drivers to never win a NASCAR title, 33 race wins.
Herb Thomas - Two-time Cup champion (1951, '53) and 48 race wins.
Curtis Turner - Only driver to win 25 major NASCAR races in one season (1956), including 22 in the convertible division
Darrell Waltrip - Three-time Cup champion (1981, '82, '85) and 84 race wins.
Joe Weatherly - Two-time Cup champion (1962-63) and 25 race wins.
Glen Wood - legendary team owner who has been in NASCAR since 1953.
Cale Yarborough - First driver to win three consecutive Cup championships (1976-78).
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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million
In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
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