Since its inception, NASCAR and the good ol’ boys have been inextricably linked. During the next two seasons, although both boys were driving on the circuit will be significantly less ol’. Come 2006, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Terry Labonte and Bill Elliott-who between them have won more than 150 races and four Championships–will be retired. Two times Daytona 500 champ Sterling Marlin 1999 series champ Dale Jarrett, Ricky Rudd, Jimmy Spencer, Kyle Petty and Ken Schrader will not be far behind, leaving the sport in the hands of a group of talented drivers that will give a new face is clear. Dale Earnhardt Jr. might shill for Wrangler, but was able to find more than a few drivers who actually wear them counted.
Changing of the guard is nothing new in NASCAR, where turnover is often the case in large pieces. Between 1964 and 1966 three former champs-Ned Jarrett, Lee Petty and Rex White-retired and two more, Joe Weatherly and Fireball Roberts, died. Junior Johnson, arguably’s best NASCAR driver who somehow never won a Championship, retired two years later. Two decades later, the same thing happened when a trio of ex-champs close their helmets in 1988: Bobby Allison, Benny Parsons and Cale Yarborough. Donnie Allison also ran for the last time that year, and three-time champion David Pearson calls it quits in ‘ 86.
But when people leave their great circuit, replaced, for the most part, the younger version of themselves. That hasn’t happened with a new generation. Wallace, the 1989 series champ, is friends with Brooks and Dunn; Matt Kenseth, 2003 champ, is often given a CD of his favorite bands, Metallica, by the devotee. Marlin is the history of the civil war fan (fan once asked him to autograph the bullet) the idea of fun is messing around with friends on a tractor on the farm; young driver Brendan Gaughan, on the other hand, is friends with Allen Iverson when two play basketball at Georgetown.
For all the attention that gets young guns, kids haven’t really taken over the sport, though. The average age of the field early in the Daytona 500 35.5 in 1984; in ‘ 94 that was 37. In 2004 it hair below the 36. The difference is in how children have been carried out. In ‘ 84, only four drivers under 35-including Elliott, Rudd and Dale Earnhardt-finished in the top 10 in Daytona. In ‘ 94 there is only one, Jeff Gordon. Last year, however, eight of the top 10 finishers in the 500 is 32 or younger. And 10 in the pursuit for drivers Championship, only one older than 35. It’s not as if the parents cannot drive; Wallace-who says Earnhardt’s deaths in 2000 got him thinking about retirement-short track driver is still the most dangerous in the vicinity. Labonte WINS Southern 500 the last held in 2003, the labor day weekend. And 48-year-old Jarrett, who has no plans to stop driving the near future, 5s over six years ago.
“I don’t think there is anything that a man who 20 or 25 can do in a race car that I can’t,” said Jarrett.