NASCAR opens Hall with star-studded ceremony (cont'd)

Petty believes the timing is perfect for NASCAR to start its Hall of Fame.

"You've got to figure to have a Hall of Fame, you've got to have some history," he said. "NASCAR is just 60 years old, so it took them a while to accomplish history. If they had one 25 years ago, they wouldn't have had a lot of stuff to put in it."

Several active NASCAR drivers participated in the opening ceremony, while others toured it later Tuesday on their own.

“

The fact that we can showcase our history in such a great setting is going to pay us huge dividends down the road.

”

-- RICK HENDRICK

"I like the history of it, because I don't know a ton of history about the sport," said Kasey Kahne, who was born in 1980 and came through sprint-car ranks into NASCAR. "You can gather that information pretty quick in there. It's pretty neat from the old cars, to the old suits, the write-ups, the videos. It's neat for the fans, too, because they get to see things that they only see on TV.

"I just think it's awesome. They did a great job."

NASCAR had several of its champions on stage during the ceremony, but noticeably absent were four-time champions Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson and two-time champion Tony Stewart.

Also missing was Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose father is in the first class. His stepmother, Teresa, was on stage during the opening ceremony.

Stewart was testing Tuesday in Virginia, his spokesman said, while representatives for Earnhardt, Gordon and Johnson said the drivers had previous commitments and planned to attend inauguration week activities.

Hendrick, the car owner for Gordon, Johnson and Earnhardt, said his organization was surprised by the fanfare of Tuesday's opening.

"To be honest, we thought this was going to be a loose kind of thing," Hendrick said. "If we had known it was going to be this big, I would have asked them all to be here."

Petty felt the present-day stars should have been in attendance.

"The museum is for the has-beens, the people that made things happen," Petty said. "You gotta figure, without these guys, there wouldn't be a Jimmie Johnson or a Jeff Gordon. Some of the guys came out [Tuesday], and they recognize that they are in between and they were interested in coming out to see what was going on.

"I feel good that they came, but when we look at Jimmie and Jeff -- yeah, they should be here. Eventually they will be in the Hall of Fame and they should be here for the inaugural deal to see what it's all about and to see why they are the heroes today and see that Junior Johnson, Fireball Roberts and Lee Petty made all this happen for them."