NASCAR's Future: The Every Decade Theory

About every 10 years, there seems to be a changing of the guard in NASCAR. With established veterans still in their prime, a new crop of drivers begin to make a name for themselves and are thrust into the spotlight. Following this trend of a new generation about once a decade, one needs to look no further to where the line in the sand was originally drawn at the 1979 Rebel 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Over the last 150 laps, Darrell Waltrip, the brash young Kentucky upstart — who at the time had all of 16 wins under his belt — was challenging the supremacy of Richard Petty. The two staged an epic battle on the narrow, 1.366-mile demon, exchanging the lead four times on the final lap alone. Waltrip edged out Petty by half a car length for the win, and would battle him down to the last laps of the final race in Ontario, Calif., for the Winston Cup that season. While Petty would emerge the champion, it marked the last of his seven titles, as the next year a sophomore driver from Kannapolis, N.C., named Dale Earnhardt would take home his first of a record-tying seven championships in NASCAR’s premier division.

The changing of the guard had begun.

Fast forward about a decade later. The legends of the sport were not running as they had been accustomed to — or were running limited schedules. There were some lean years at Petty Enterprises, Cale Yarborough was headed towards retirement, David Pearson wasn’t far behind and Bobby Allison had his career, and nearly his life, cut short in a horrific accident on the opening lap at Pocono in 1988. In the late ’80s and early ’90s however, there was another generation of drivers stepping up to assume the role played by those before them. Rusty Wallace, Alan Kulwicki and Mark Martin, all alumni of the American Speed Association, were winning races and championships. Ernie Irvan burst on the scene virtually out of nowhere, while Bobby Allison’s son Davey was looking to carry on the tradition of the Alabama Gang.

Jump ahead yet another 10 years and we find their ranks had sadly dwindled. Kulwicki and Allison both died in 1993 in freak aircraft accidents. Irvan cheated death during a practice session at the Michigan International Speedway only to suffer a second closed head injury during another practice at Michigan in ’99, which spelled the end of his driving career. There was no shortage of talent waiting in the wings, though, as drivers like Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth and Steve Park were set to carry NASCAR into a new millennium, as popularity of the sport reached levels heretofore unimaginable.

That brings us to 2008, and a quick look around the sport shows no shortage of potential stars and talent on hand. While the fad of finding the newest, youngest, fastest thing on four wheels has waned a bit in recent years, this season has introduced to us a few names that we’ll no doubt be hearing quite a bit this year, and even more in the not-too-distant future.

Kyle Busch  Everywhere you turn lately, you can’t seem to escape Kyle Busch. He is currently leading the point standings in the Sprint Cup Series, sits third in the Nationwide Series point race and, although a distant 13th in the Craftsman Truck Series, is not out of it should he opt to contend for championships in all three major divisions. Later this year, Busch is even scheduled to test a Formula One car for Toyota in Japan.

Often brash and never at a loss for words, Busch has suddenly become one of the most formidable drivers of this generation at the ripe old age of 23. While he has already won four Cup races in 2008, there are another two or three that he probably should have won but for whatever reason, be it mechanical or mental, did not. His proclivity for finding victory lane is not confined to the Cup Series, either. Busch has a combined six wins in 22 starts in the other two touring circuits.

Joey Logano  One of the most eagerly anticipated races this season was not a Sprint Cup event, but rather a Nationwide Series race at Dover due to the debut of Joey Logano. Logano has long been the hottest property in motorsports, despite turning 18 years old a week before his Dover start.

The Connecticut native finished sixth on the Monster Mile in that first start and backed it up with a pole-winning effort at Nashville Superspeedway. Some have speculated that Logano will be next in line to replace Tony Stewart should he decide to abdicate the seat of the No. 20 Home Depot Camry at Joe Gibbs Racing to pursue other opportunities in a car with a red bowtie. Others may scoff at Logano’s age and inexperience, but in 2005 when Mark Martin had first explored retiring, he stated flatly that if NASCAR would allow it, Logano, at 15 years of age, would be his first choice to take his seat in the No. 6 Roush Ford.

Brad Keselowski  Driving the No. 88 JR Motorsports entry in the Nationwide Series, Brad Keselowski finally got the monkey off his back and won his first career NASCAR race last weekend at Nashville Superspeedway. OK, that monkey hadn’t been on there that long — he hasn’t even made 50 career starts yet — but it served notice that Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s race team is for real and has a knack for spotting talent.

Keselowski’s name was instantly brought up when Earnhardt raised the specter of his small outfit possibly moving up to Sprint Cup, due to the prohibitive costs associated with having to switch over to a planned Nationwide Series CoT. While there is little doubt that he would be able to handle himself just fine, look for Earnhardt to give his driver a little more seasoning in the lower divisions with some coaching from someone who has been there before.

Scott Speed  With a name that sounds right out of central casting, Scott Speed recently won his first NASCAR event just two weeks ago at Dover in the Craftsman Truck Series. Taking a decidedly different path to NASCAR, Speed was the lone American competing in Formula One, nearly 15 years after Michael Andretti last attempted the same feat. Speed would suffer the same fate as Andretti, however, and returned to the United States early this year to pilot a Red Bull Toyota Tundra for Bill Davis Racing in the Truck Series.

While Speed has shown just that, he is also becoming acclimated to the closed-bodied stocks, along with what they can and cannot do. Last Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway, Speed made a daring three-wide dive into Turn 3 in the closing laps, but succeeded only in wrecking himself and spoiling another solid top-10 run. The next day at Pocono in the ARCA event, Speed drove aggressively through the field on the final restart, and by his own admission, “didn’t make too many friends out there.”

Is he still learning the ropes? Of course, but he’s fast, and like Junior Johnson once said, “I’d rather have a driver I had to slow down, because it’s so hard to speed one up.”

So while we’ve likely seen the last of Rusty Wallace, Ricky Rudd, Dale Jarrett and Bill Elliott on the track, and as Mark Martin, Kyle Petty and Terry Labonte run limited-engagement schedules, there now stands a new line of drivers poised to make their move to the forefront of American auto racing. We’ll always remember the legends of the sport — drivers of the past that stir memories of great races and great accomplishments. But there is always a new crop ready to make its mark on the sport, and these four drivers will help to ensure that the future of NASCAR is every bit as interesting until the next generation comes along. Probably in about a decade.

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