Chuck Burton / AP

NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France announces the first five-person class for the new NASCAR Hall of Fame on Wednesday.

NASCAR did not release the voting totals and said the order in which they were announced did not reflect the results. NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said Pearson, Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison were the next three highest vote getters but did not reveal in what order.

Still, there was a sense that the final slot was a close vote between France Jr. and Pearson, and that the pre-vote meeting definitely factored into the selections.

“The mood of the room clearly shifted a couple times,” said Landmark Newspapers reporter Dustin Long, the president of the National Motorsports Press Association. “It was very dramatic shifts, and it dealt with the France family.”

There was still some celebrating.

Teresa Earnhardt made a rare public appearance, and invited almost everyone in attendance to a reception to celebrate her husband, who was killed in an accident on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

“Everyone who knew him respected him,” she said. “I can’t imagine how difficult it was to choose five. It’s such an honor to narrow it down and include him.”

Earnhardt’s children did not attend the announcement but released a statement later that included reaction from Earnhardt’s mother, brother, sister, and two of his four children.

“He was the man, plain and simple,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Johnson, meanwhile, didn’t attend the announcement after serving on the voter panel. Winner of 50 races as a driver, and another 132 and six championships as a car owner, he said in a statement his inclusion left him speechless.

“I’ll tell you, this is a big, big deal to me,” he said. “It’s the greatest thing that’s happened to me in this sport.”