CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Stock car racing giants ranging from Bill France Sr. and Junior Johnson to Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt are among the 25 nominees for NASCAR's first Hall of Fame class.

The announcement Thursday night comes 10 months before the Hall of Fame's scheduled opening in downtown Charlotte. An inaugural class of five will be chosen from the group that includes the bootleggers who helped create the sport to the drivers, owners and officials who made it popular.

NASCAR patriarch France and his son, Bill France Jr., were among the candidates selected by a 21-member panel. The drivers include Petty, Earnhardt, Johnson, David Pearson, Darrell Waltrip, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarbrough and Glenn "Fireball" Roberts.

Car owners are represented, too, including Bud Moore, Raymond Parks, Rick Hendrick, Richard Childress and Glen Wood.

A panel of people in the sport and a fan vote will decide the first class, which will be announced in October. Induction will take place in conjunction with the Hall's opening in May.

"That first class, just like the first baseball class that has the likes of Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb, is going to be extremely special," Hall of Fame director Winston Kelley said.

The list of nominees is a cross section of the sport's history. Yet the star quality in the group begins with Petty and the late Earnhardt, who share the NASCAR record with seven championship titles.

Earnhardt, who died in a last-lap crash at the 2001 Daytona 500, won 76 races and his black No. 3 car remains one of the signature symbols of NASCAR.

Petty is a Hall of Fame lock. His staggering 200 career victories, 123 poles, 10 consecutive wins and seven Daytona 500 victories are all records.