CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- An outpouring of strong emotions accompanied Sunday's induction of five legends of stock-car racing into the newly opened NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Suspense wasn't one of those emotions. The inaugural class had been well-known and well-publicized -- and deservedly so. Included were NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., lauded for his vision of turning unregulated beach racing into America's premiere motorsports series; NASCAR's second president and CEO, Bill France Jr., remembered as tough taskmaster who poured his soul into NASCAR; seven-time Cup champions Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt; and 50-time race winner Junior Johnson, who also claimed six Cup titles as a car owner and was celebrated as the symbol of the sport's roots.

“

No one, and I mean no one, deserves to be in the Hall of Fame more than Bill France Sr.

”

-- JOHN CASSIDY

The ceremonies were alternately solemn and light-hearted but consistently genuine. In inducting his legendary father, Kyle Petty used the opportunity for some good-natured ribbing.

"When I was growing up, our house was right next door to the race shop," Kyle Petty said of his father. "He would go to work in the morning, at 7 or 8. He would come home for lunch when I was young, have lunch, and then he would lay down in the middle of the living room floor, sleep till 3 or 4 in the afternoon, get up and go back to work.

"I never found that strange until you look at his career, and you think, 'The man won 200 races, seven Daytona 500s and seven championships working half days.' That may be the greatest statistic of all time to me."

The King, clad in his trademark cowboy hat and dark sunglasses, deflected attention to his accomplishments in his speech, preferring to praise his parents, his family, the Frances, his team, media and fans.

"I never did anything by myself," said Petty, NASCAR's all-time winningest driver with 200 victories, who closed with "I guess I'm going to be like Gomer Pyle. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

Vice chairman of NASCAR, Jim France, inducted his father, Bill France Sr., and said the promoter-turned-NASCAR founder would have been thrilled to see the racing series had far exceeded his visions of creating a national sport.

"If Dad were here today ... he would be proud mostly for NASCAR," Jim France said. "The NASCAR Hall of Fame in many ways is the ultimate tribute to my father, the hopes and dreams that he had for our sport."

NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France and International Speedway Corp. CEO Lesa France Kennedy did the honors for their father, Bill France Jr., after a stirring introduction from longtime friend Rick Hendrick. France Jr. who took the reigns from his father and guided NASCAR through a 30-year period of extreme growth

"He loved this sport. He was passionate about it. He built it literally from the ground up," France Kennedy said. "When I say 'the ground up,' I'm talking about a backhoe at Daytona International Speedway.'

In a ceremony where the families of all five inductees played pivotal roles, 16-year-old Robert Johnson inducted his father, Junior Johnson, the one-time moonshine runner.

"Although my father may be going into the NASCAR Hall of Fame [Sunday], he's always been a Hall of Fame dad in my heart," he said. "Please join me in welcoming our next inductee, my father, Junior Johnson. I love you, Dad."

Induction Ceremony

France Sr.: Induction | Tribute
King Petty: Induction | Tribute
France Jr.: Induction | Tribute
Johnson: Induction | Tribute
Earnhardt: Induction | Tribute

Richard Childress, Earnhardt's team owner and best friend, appeared with Earnhardt's wife, Teresa Earnhardt, sons Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kerry Earnhardt and daughters Kelley Earnhardt and Taylor Earnhardt to induct the driver known as the Intimidator. It was a rare picture of unity for a family that's been largely depicted as fractured since Earnhardt's 2001 death in the Daytona 500.

"Dale Earnhardt was definitely a hero to his family -- no one can say more about that than his children," Teresa Earnhardt said. "Through them, his friends and fans, through this Hall of Fame, through you, Dale Earnhardt, the legend, lives on."

No one was immune from the aggressive style of Earnhardt, the "champion's champion" who epitomized the blue collar spirit at the heart of NASCAR. Not even his son.

"We were in Japan racing," Earnhardt Jr. recalled. "I was racing for the first time against the Cup competitors and my father. It was late in the race. I got some new tires -- only had a few laps to make those tires work for me. I got up underneath him in Turns 3 and 4, and I just needed 2 inches to clear him.

"I didn't have him cleared. I slid across his nose, up to the wall. He carried me all the way down the front straightaway with my back tires in the air all the way into [Turn] 1. That was the day I met the Intimidator."

Earnhardt's induction was the most anticipated -- proven when a No. 3-clad fan in the back of the room cheered and raised three fingers in salute. Unlike the other inductees, whose choices for introduction and acceptance speeches were well-known, Earnhardt's representatives had been more fluid and the crowd was not certain who would speak.

Teresa Earnhardt, uncomfortable with public speaking, has been somewhat reclusive in the nine years since her husband's death. Her relationship with stepson Dale Earnhardt Jr. is strained, at best, and it's rare to see all four children in public together.

But the family attended Thursday night's gala together, and the occasion of Earnhardt's induction had marked somewhat of a coming-out party for his youngest daughter, Taylor. Once frequently spotted alongside her father at the race track, she'd been largely out of the public eye since her father's death.

The 21-year-old represented the family at several events this weekend, and was poised on stage during the ceremony.

"Everyone always tells us that we all look a little bit like Dad," she said. "I think we all act like him, too. We're determined, driven, stubborn as a fence post.

"But Dad gave all four of us something. He gave all his fans something. I think that's what makes him a true champion in everybody's eyes."

The Earnhardts closed a ceremony that was short on individual celebration. Since only two members of this inaugural class are still living, inductions and acceptances fell to family members and close friends.

"This Hall's a tribute to everybody -- it leaves nobody out," Hendrick said after the inductions. "And I'm just real thankful that they've done it as professionally as they have. And I believe it's going to stir a lot of emotion from all of the pioneers and the people [Sunday] to try to make it even better and help to grow it.

"So this was a celebration to me of a lot of things -- NASCAR, the history, these people, the fans."

Perhaps Petty, credited as the sport's first superstar, captured best the magnitude of the proceedings.

"It kind of hit me [Sunday] that it's really, really a big deal," Petty said after the ceremony, "because NASCAR's finally got their Hall of Fame, and I think it moved all of us up a notch. ... I think now we're as big-league as anybody."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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• Menzer: Ceremony surpasses all expectations | Photos

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