"Bill France bagging Winston as a major sponsor was instrumental in bringing NASCAR to the masses."
Actually listening to DW talk after the ceremony he mentioned that RJ Reynolds was going to be a sponsor for Junior Johnson but he convinced them to think bigger and Jr brought RJ Reynolds to France. Now I am sure France being the wheeler dealer that he was made sure the deal propelled NASCAR but Jr deserves the credit. That was an interesting piece of info that I had never heard before in 30 years of watching NASCAR.
Winston had about a $500 Million advertising budget to use because of the ban on advertising. Jr . Johnson contacted RJ Reynolds to ask for about $800 thousand to sponsor him. When Jr. found out how much RJR had at it's disposal, he suggested that they need to sponsor the entire sport and set things up between RJR and Big Bill France. However, Jr. was still hoping for some of Winston's money also, but of course that never happened because RJR thought that it wouldn't look right for them to sponsor a car while sponsoring the series (even though they did just that years later).
As far as labelling champions with the current series sponsor. The announcers et al, have said many times that it is easier to just use the sponsor at the time to simplify things. Most fans seem to know that the Winston/Nextel/Sprint Cup Champion is from the same series. Not defending it, just stating a given reason.
HOF? I don't think that there should be categories. Pick the top worthy individuals regardless of whether they are a driver, owner, builder etc. The top candidates will eventually all get in.
Nascar IS only planning to induct 5 per year. This isn't out of line with other sports. If Nascar were to induct, say 10-15/year, I think after about 10 years or so they would be possibly inducting people with less than stellar stats/records (good maybe, but any HOF should only include the best of the best).
My final two cents. I'm OK with the first 5 inductees. Yes, people can make arguments for others (Pearson, Byron, Lee Petty, and more) but it's an endless debate that would probably never have a unanimous resolution.
I think they should have did something to show thanks to Winston as they were huge part of the growth of NASCAR. I'm sorry but it drives me nuts to hear them call a guy that won a championship a sprint cup champion. If he won the cup and the sponsor was Winston he is a Winston Cup Champion not a Sprint cup champion.
Another thing that drives me nuts, is when the announcers refer to winners and champions as former winners or former champions.
Once a winner, ALWAYS a winner, and once a champion ALWAYS a champion!!
They should be refered to as WINNERS or CHAMPIONS, that is what they are and will always be!!