I am giving my own input on the Pioneer ballot.
Jake Elder is a very good nominee, but don't know about being in the 2021 class. Jake was not much for book smarts, but was a great crew chief in his era. I said not much for book smarts because Jake only had a 3rd grade education.
He was a fabricator with Petty Enterprises starting with the late 1950s before becoming a crew chief with Herman-Moody. Darrell Waltrip even said Jake was as smart as or smarter than anyone he ever worked with when it came to a race car.
He won 2 championships with David Pearson and a part of a 3rd championship with Dale Earnhardt Sr. Jake in his era was not an engineer, or a specialist. He was a master at making a car handle with him being one the best with a chassis. He worked some of the best drivers ever in NASCAR at different times in their career such as Darrell Waltrip, giving Mario Andretti's only NASCAR win, David Pearson, Fred Lorenzen, Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace, Terry Labonte, Davey Allison and Benny Parsons. He played a part in learning Darrell Waltrip and Dale Sr the ropes of cup racing.
Red Farmer is a great nominee and I won't be shocked if he gets inducted the 2021 class. What makes him great is a combination of things. He won a NASCAR Modified Championship in 1956 and won 3 straight Championship in what is now the Xfinity series. He also won a bunch of track championships. Depending who you talk to, he won anywhere from 700 races to 900 races. This man still races to his day in his 80s and explains his win totals. The Pioneer Ballot actually helps drivers are legends in lower levels of NASCAR like him.
Ralph Moody is another great Nominee, but I wish the co-founder of Holman-Moody was with him on the ballot. Holman-Moody had it all with the 96 cup wins. They had great drivers, great engine builders, and great crew chiefs. They played a very important part in cup racing for Ford. I don't know if he would get inducted this year because NASCAR has a grudge against certain people and I gathered they didn't like Holman-Moody leaving NASCAR in 1972.
Banjo Matthews is a great Nominee, but I don't about him getting inducted this year. He was considered the best car builder in from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s. His cars won a lot of races. Banjo was driver turned car builder. He was a team owner for a time also. Banjo was well respected in the cup garage for his car building skills. He built great cars in that era, but it was up to the teams for setting up the cars, engines and other stuff along with the driver. Anyone who wins over over 250 cup races as a cup as a car builder speaks volumes. He did it by the amount of clients he had and he didn't care about the car make at all.
Herschel Mcgriff is a very good Nominee, but I'll be surprised if he gets inducted for the 2021 class. He was one early great West coast stock car drivers. What hurt him to me was he didn't from 27 years old to 37 years old because he wanted to spend time with his family that lived on the west coast. Herschel was a promising cup driver when he was 26 years old with 4 cup wins in 1954, but didn't want to race full time in the cup series in 1955. The ride he gave up was a championship winning ride in 1955. The other problem was Cup racing in 1955 increased their schedule from 37 cup races to 45 cup races.