DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — While the main conversation at Daytona International Speedway this week has revolved around NASCAR’s new Next Gen race car, and rightfully so, another next generational movement is taking place behind the wheel of that car.
With all due respect to the machines the sanctioning body has touted as a vehicle that will drive the sport forward, it’s the wave of young drivers piloting those machines who will be the quite literal face of stock car racing’s future. More accurately, faces, plural. Because there sure are a lot of them, and man, they sure are young.
Like the new car, the new drivers look cool. They look slick. They look fast. And very much like the new car, the new drivers are also much cheaper to put onto the racetrack than the older models. Can they perform as expected? They did one year ago, and that’s why we’re seeing so many more of them this year.
“It’s the circle of life, right?” observed Joey Logano, a man who has made a nice life driving in circles and who obviously has kids that watch a lot of Disney Plus. It was he who was anointed “Sliced Bread” at the age of 15, because ageless NASCAR legend Mark Martin had seen him race and declared that’s what the kid would be greater than.
“When I got to the Cup Series in 2008, I was 18 and even when I got into my 20’s people talked about how young I was for the sport, some said too young. Now I’m an old guy, and I’m 31! When I came along, 31 was the young guy.”
These days, being 31 in NASCAR’s top series seems like the kind of credentials that would earn someone a part in the new “Jurassic Park” movie, as one of the dinosaurs. While no one believes the future Hall of Famer likes of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski and the other used-to-be-the-kids set are done winning races, even they all acknowledge they are closer to the end of their driving careers than the beginning.
Source : espn
