How Young Is Too Young?

When NASCAR made 18 the entry age into their Top Divisions, I thought the entry age should have been at least 21, if not 25. I have nothing against the talented younger kids. Some can race against the more experienced drivers. Some could if they had a little more experience.

Joey Logano just could be the next Richard Petty or Mark Martin. Or will Joey join the list of young drivers thrown into the NASCAR Cup pressure cooker and then discarded because they did not perform fast enough. Now where are these former young drivers? If they are lucky, they are still racing somewhere. If not, they are flipping burgers.

Dale Earnhardt made his first NASCAR Cup start when he was 24 and did not run full time until he was 27. He still had time in his career to earn 7 NASCAR Cup championships. He started racing in the Cup series when you first had to prove yourself in one of NASCAR lesser divisions before getting a chance in the elite Cup division.

The last few years NASCAR has been following the other sports, mainly the “ball” sports, by bringing in younger and younger kids into their premier series. In football, basketball or baseball, many of these young kids cannot handle the pressure and turn to drugs or alcohol before burning out. But there is always a deep pool of talent to draw from for replacements. I think NASCAR is following the same path and that is not good for the sport in the long run.

Many of the new NASCAR owners are also “ball” sports owners too. Is that why there is a shift from talented and experienced drivers to just younger, and hopefully talented drivers? There is almost a race between team owners to find that young kid that will be the next star. And they get younger and younger. Owners are now signing drivers to development contracts before they even graduate from high school.

Does a driver that is 18 really have more talent than a driver that is 30? Not necessarily. What they lack in experience, they make up in aggression. They will drive into a hole that a more experienced driver will wait until the next lap to make the pass. The younger drivers will destroy more cars, but get their sponsors more exposure. Owners used to value a driver that would finish a race with a car that was in one piece.

The Gibbs organization has a lot of resources and deep pockets. Joey Logano has a better chance of making a success in racing with Joe Gibbs Racing than with a smaller, less financed team. I am not saying Joey Logano is not talented or will not make it in the NASCAR Cup series. But why put him into that position? Why not let him mature and gain more experience in the truck or Nationwide series before moving him into Cup? He might just end up as another Richard Petty or Mark Martin and race for decades, instead of being a possible flash in the pan driver.

Daytona 500 – Local Boy Wins!

OK, lets get this out first. I am a fan of Matt Kenseth. I watched Matt “The Brat” Kenseth race at the local tracks around Wisconsin before he moved south. His win last Sunday in “The Great America Race” or the Daytona 500 or whatever they call it from year to year, was just plain great. He finally was in the right place at the right time.

Very few race fans from Wisconsin were not overjoyed that Matt won one of the biggest races on the NASCAR Cup schedule. Hell, from what I have been reading, very few drivers or crew in the NASCAR Cup garage were not happy to see Matt win. Well maybe Elliott Sadler was not too happy to see Matt win, but that is racing luck.

Maybe because Matt is from the Midwest and not from the south, he does not get the press or respect others do. Or maybe because Matt is not in your face type of driver others are, that he does not get the press or respect others do. Whatever the reason, maybe with a Championship and a Daytona 500 win, he will start to get more press and respect.

It might take some time to change. I say this because the big story from this year’s Daytona 500 was not so much Matt Kenseth winning the race as Dale Earnhardt Jr. screwing up again. Even in our local Wisconsin State Journal newspaper, that story almost received as much space as Matt’s win. And Matt is a local boy!

If I were Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s handler, friend, boss or whoever he is close to, I would sit him down and have a talk. I would talk and he would have to listen. Somebody needs to explain to him that he is not the center of the NASCAR universe. His fans and he might think that. And sometimes I think NASCAR thinks that, but he is not. He screwed up royally in this year’s Daytona 500. The “Big One” was not Brian Vickers fault. It was Dale Earnhardt Jr’s fault.

Junior has been racing long enough to know that you do not turn somebody around in front of the field at Daytona. Somebody could have been hurt. He screwed up and he should be man enough to say so. He lost a lot of respect from drivers, crew and fans last Sunday. If he would have said after the race that he screwed up and apologized to the other drivers and crew, he would have gained respect instead of losing it.

NASCAR is also at fault here too. They should have sat Junior in the pits for at least 5 laps. They did that in the Nationwide race the day before for actions that were not as blatant as Junior’s. Maybe they were afraid of a Junior Nation riot. Whatever they were thinking, they screwed up too.

NASCAR, it is called “tough love”. Just because Junior is NASCAR’s favorite son, does not mean he cannot be punished for his actions. If he is not punished for his actions, how will he ever learn? He will keep on making mistakes until he learns the right way.

NASCAR just needs to play fair. If they punish one driver for his actions on the race track, then they have to punish another driver for the same actions, even if his name is Dale Earnhardt Jr.