Cotton Owens Passes

[DR JAY]

I was saddened this morning to find out that Everett "Cotton" Owens has succumbed to the results of a recent stroke.Another legend has passed and the racing world is poorer from the loss. He was s true gentleman of the sport and hopefully NA$CAR will realize that the true legends are leaving us and maybe start inducting more of the true legends into the Hall Of Fame before they're all gone.I believe that folks like Rex White, Fred Lorenzen, Wendell Scott, etc should be honored while they're still with us and that guys like Waltrip and Rusty Wallace (Rusty Wallace? Seriously...?) can wait their turn. Through one of his good friends, Mr Owens provided me with a wealth of photos and reference for Grand National Mopar stock cars and I beieive that information as well as his answers to my seemingly endless and obscure questions have hepled me to build the most accurate 1960's Dodge stock cars that I can.

Well, at least Cotton is back together with his late wife Dot, who passed away herself a mere few weeks ago. Godspeed, Cotton.

[Bad Brad #2]

Actually Cotton Owens was just announced as one of the next inducties into the Nascar Hall of Fame, at least heard the news before his passing and induction next May. Also, Wendell Scott has been gone for several years now....

[martinfan5]

Least he new he made it in the HOF, and all race cars this weekend will have a cotton Owens memorial decal on them

[bbowser]

I totally agree that the Waltrips and Wallaces can wait. There are a ton of old timers that shaped the sport that deserve entry before any 80's heroes. Rusty before Fireball, really?

[slantasaurus]

While I agree that the pioneers of Nascar deserve to be inducted into the HoF Richard Petty brought up a great point while being inducted into the first class. He believed that many drivers that came before him should have been inducted before him but, if they had been inducted the media would have had nobody to interview and would have paid little attention to the event and the HoF would not have recieved much attention. No, it's not perfect but that is the main reason people like Richard Petty went in before Lee Petty and Darrell Waltrip, Rusty Wallace, and Bobby Allison are in and Herb Thomas, Fireball Roberts, and the Flock brothers are not.

Edited June 9, 2012 by slantasaurus