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.