The rumble from a pair of motors interrupted the opening ceremony at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Nobody seemed to mind, though, when Richard Petty pulled his 1974 Dodge Charger onto the ceremonial plaza, with Junior Johnson trailing in a 1940 Ford. The two members of NASCAR's inaugural Hall of Fame class climbed from the cars they are most associated with to a rousing ovation. "This is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me," Johnson said of being part of the first induction class. Started in 1948, the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing finally opened its Hall of Fame on Tuesday with a star-studded ceremony. North Carolina governor Beverly Perdue joined Charlotte-area dignitaries and representatives of NASCAR's past and present on a stage outside the Hall for the hour-long opening ceremony. After Johnson and Petty's arrival -- Petty in a replica of his No. 43 STP Dodge, and Johnson in a No. 3 Ford that read "Carolina Moonshine" -- several past champions scanned their entrance cards to officially open the doors. "If you're going to be a top-five sports league in this country, you need to have a world-class Hall of Fame," said NASCAR chairman Brian France. "It's going to be a place where our fans can come and celebrate and look back at the history of the sport. We haven't really had that in a formal way all these years, and this is going to change that overnight." http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/news/story?id=5180539
