NASCAR’S new age
With some of the series’ old guard departing at the end of 2017, the new NASCAR season is set to feature plenty of change and chatter
From winning the season-opening Daytona 500 to almost losing his seat at Stewart-haas Racing – by the time Kurt Busch had re-signed to ensure he’d defend his win this year, 2017 had been a rollercoaster by any measure. But that topic wasn’t covered much in his press conference at the 2018 pre-season media days, instead, he was defending his brother. Kyle Busch had taken issue with NASCAR planning for the future by promoting its next generation of young drivers at a time when star names including Danica Patrick, Dale Earnhardt Jr and Matt Kenseth had moved to the exit door, whether voluntarily or otherwise.
NASCAR is also continuing to see a steady decline in viewers amid various attempts to re-energise the series.
It has therefore taken to encouraging emerging names such as Penske’s Ryan Blaney and Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott into becoming the more outspoken faces of the Cup series. After all, NASCAR lives for its star names and controversies but, somehow, that’s been lost on Kyle.
“We’ve paid our dues, and our sponsors have and everything else, and all you’re doing is advertising all these younger guys for fans to figure out and pick up on, and choose as their favourite driver,” he exploded. “I think it’s stupid. But I don’t know, I’m not the marketing genius that’s behind this deal.
I just do what I can do, and my part of it is what my part is.”
Kurt is quick to jump in and defend his brother, but not without a sly dig at Elliott on the way.
“What I think [Kyle] is trying to say is that we are promoting these guys and they don’t have the race wins yet,” he says. “I mean there is ‘zero’ in the win column for a guy like Chase Elliott, there’s zero for Bubba Wallace,
Erik Jones – all those guys.
“You know [Kyle] Larson’s out there; he’s young; he’s winning. They need to push him. I see him as a future champion. I think what Kyle is saying is these guys have been given a free pass, so to speak, to become a superstar and we haven’t seen the success on track translate to what’s being shown to the world.”
When asked to give an example of a driver who was getting one of those “free passes”, he picks out Elliott again.
“That’s a touchy subject,” he says. “I think that is what my little brother Kyle was referring to. It’s cute – there are different ‘chosen ones’ or guys that take over iconic rides.
But right now, it’s Bill Elliott’s son who is going to be a big-time player in our sport and has yet to win. He’s doing a good job; it’s all starting to blend in and I’d say he’s just slightly overrated right now without the race wins that he should have in the win column.”
But whether the Busch brothers like it or not, NASCAR is much changed in 2018 and nowhere is it more apparent than at Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports squad, which has embraced youth more than any other team on the grid.
Kasey Kahne, at 37 years old, has left for minnow Leavine Racing, with 43-year-old Earnhardt Jr having already committed to retirement. Between them they have 43 seasons of racing experience on the NASCAR ladder, and that’s been replaced by 20-year-old Xfinity series champion William Byron and the slightly more experienced Alex Bowman, 24, who has just two full seasons of top-level competition behind him.
Elliott, one of NASCAR’S leading young talents at 24, is no longer the rookie of the team, and seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson – Elliott’s senior by 18 years – is evermore the figurehead. It’s a role he’s relishing.
“I choose to see the positives that come with it,” he says.
“Out of the gate, just knowing young guys and their raw desire to go fast, there’s a lot that we’ll be able to take away
from there. I think it’s going to be important for me to understand their language, how they describe things, then understanding how to put that into the way
I describe a car, the sensations I’m looking for.
“Their effort level is going to be really high. We might get some inconsistent feedback getting started until they can dial in at 100% and identify with that. But I’m excited for a fresh perspective. I find myself going in a cycle of looking what worked in different years, from a driver’s standpoint, there are only a few things we can do to really be prepared.
“There’s nothing to get you prepared for the bright spotlight that comes with being a Cup driver. Obviously, you end up making a lot more money than you previously have. [Plus] friendships, relationships, relationships with family, the grind of being on the road, there are just a lot of aspects to manage outside of driving the car.”
Hearing those comments, the prospect of Johnson leading a young and refreshed Hendrick line-up is a tantalising prospect.
It may not be quite as exciting as teenagers getting Formula 1 opportunities, but consider that the average age of the top 10 drivers in each Cup season has been on the decline since 2012 (36 years and 277 days) and last year reached an average age of 34 years and 71 days. So, not only is NASCAR getting younger, but it’s also performing at the highest level.
It would be too easy to put the praise on NASCAR, but instead, a similar scenario to the opportunities that led to a certain Jeff Gordon getting his break – a combination of right place, right time and an economic climate that meant team money and sponsor cash was harder to find – means younger talent is finding its way through the door.
Earnhardt Jr was one of NASCAR’S most popular drivers and used that platform to earn a fortune, but he admits that times have changed ever since the United States was hit hard by the global recession.
“It took a while but when we had our major reset when the recession hit and everything sort of changed and the value of everything changed,” he says. “The trickle-down effect, I think, is coming down through the drivers’ contracts and it’s making a big difference in the decisions these owners are making. You can’t pay a driver five to eight million dollars a year if you’ve only $10million worth of sponsorship. That isn’t going to work.
“Guys aren’t getting $20m, $30m, $40m a year on sponsorship. Owners aren’t getting that anymore. Drivers are having to understand that change is coming down the pike. And the young guys, they don’t know any better.
They want to race and they’re taking whatever they can get. That’s a good change for the owners.”
It’s also a good change for NASCAR when you look at the talent that’s getting its chance in 2018. Penske loanee Blaney gave Wood Brothers its first Cup win since 2011 with victory at Pocono last year and now returns to his parent team in an expanded line-up that will give him the platform he needs.
Equally exciting in the pick of the fresh talent is Elliott, who has managed to somehow finish second seven times in his burgeoning career but, despite edging ever closer, is still without a victory. His fight with Denny Hamlin at Phoenix – lap-afterlap nudging and battling for position – was a highlight of 2017.
Darrell Wallace Jr at Richard Petty Motorsports will be a trailblazer in 2018, as the first African-american driver since Wendell Scott in ’71, and Petty is a big fan of his new driver and the general youth trend in NASCAR. Wallace previously stood in at the team when Aric Almirola was sidelined with his injury last year, and he almost took a top-10 finish – he was 11th at Kentucky – in his short four-event spell.
It’s easy to forget the younger talent that’s established itself in NASCAR already but, for example, Kyle Larson is a five-time race winner at 25. Maybe it will take some of the other younger drivers winning a race for Kurt and Kyle Busch to take notice.
Last year, the Daytona 500 was almost the race of the rookies. Elliott took his second pole position in a row there, before Larson emerged as an unlikely potential winner – only to be denied by Kurt Busch. The Busch duo will again be doing their best to upstage the youth this time around, but you get the feeling there’s only so long they can hold off the challenge.
“Hendrick Motorsports has embraced youth more than any other team on the grid”