The inaugural induction ceremony for the NASCAR Hall of Fame was held on Sunday. I was excited that I got to attend and be there for the induction of the very first class. While the ceremony itself wasn’t nearly as emotional as I had hoped, I basically wanted everyone to break down in tears, it still delivered on some great moments.
My number one favorite moment was when Junior Johnson’s son, Robert, introduced him and used words like “heart” and “love.” It was so sincere and just really sweet. When he said, “I love you, Dad.” I was telling myself not to cry, don’t friggin cry!
I guess my bone of contention with the whole ceremony was that I didn’t understand why more NASCAR drivers weren’t in attendance. This seemed like a no-brainer event that shouldn’t have been missed.
Out on the red carpet, which was actually blue, I was positioned behind the crew from SPEED. It was the perfect spot to snap photos of the drivers that did attend this super historic event.
Jimmie and Chandra Johnson were there but they showed up before I got to the blue carpet. In all I witnessed the arrivals of Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Ned Jarrett, Rick Hendrick, Junior Johnson, Darrell Waltrip, Michael Waltrip, Richard Petty, Felix Sabates, Jack Roush, Carl Edwards, Teresa Earnhardt, Taylor Earnhardt, Kerry Earnhardt, Kyle Petty and Joe Gibbs.
My favorite result of that day are the photos that I took which you can see below. I spent some time looking around the Hall of Fame but I’m going to save all of that for another post, plus I’m planning on checking it out again this week.
My best Kasey Kahne photo to date. For the record, I wasn’t making any wild or large movements. It helped that I was standing behind the SPEED reporter who was asking him questions.
🙂
Carl Edwards
Darrell Waltrip, who took way MORE time than he was supposed to during the actual ceremony. He was just supposed to introduce the video not tell like 50 stories about Junior Johnson. They were good stories though.
🙂
Jeff Gordon’s wife, Ingrid Vandebosch.
Jeff Gordon
NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Junior Johnson
Those are the feet of Kate Edwards, Carl’s wife, on the right sporting some supercute Christian Louboutin’s and at left are Ingrid Vandebosch’s wedges.
Kate (right) and Ingrid chatting it up on the blue carpet.
NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Richard Petty
Tony Stewart
Michael Waltrip
This was the red carpet area just before you entered the ballroom where the ceremony was held. I got to walk this and it was kinda cool. Only people with the “silver star” tickets got to take this route. Veddy nice.
🙂
