NASCAR Century Poll renamed to honor memory of Steve Byrnes
For this month, The Century Poll has been renamed "The ByrnesStrong Poll" in honor of longtime FOX Sports broadcaster Steve Byrnes, who died Tuesday after spirited fight against cancer.
Each month during the racing season, The Century Poll will ask members of the NASCAR community a question and compile the results in an effort to get an overview of what racing insiders are thinking about a competition topic, issue or compelling question.
The voting panel for The Century Poll is made up of 100 voters -- 50 from the NASCAR media corps and 50 from the NASCAR garage, consisting of team owners, drivers, crew chiefs, crew members, sponsor/public relations/manufacturing representatives and track officials.
April's question was: In one month, the NASCAR Hall of Fame will announce its next class. Of the 20 nominees, if you had just one vote, whom would you induct?
Current NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick and 1992 Cup champion Alan Kulwicki tied for the top spot with 15 of 100 votes each. Both received a higher percentage of support among the 50 "Garage" voters. Of those that voted for Hendrick, the most popular reasons were his current total of 11 Cup championships and being an innovator/pioneer in the multi-car team. Kulwicki was lauded primarily for "doing more with less" and being the last owner/driver to win a Cup championship.
Two driver/broadcasters -- Benny Parsons and Buddy Baker -- came in third and fourth in the poll, garnering 13 and 10 votes, respectively. Parsons led all nominees with nine of 50 "Media" votes. Nineteen of the 20 nominees received votes overall.
