NASCAR Rules And Regulations - Too Young?

At a time when parents are pushing their kids into racing at younger ages, the debate over safety has taken center stage. Now many top sanctioning bodies have stepped in and placed minimum age requirements on their drivers.

Some say it's a good idea, while others think the rules will prevent the next young racing prodigy from entering the picture. The rules have forced some of the sport's young talent to re-evaluate their path into racing.

A rule passed by NASCAR in December requires that all drivers in any of its touring divisions must be at least 18 years old. Other sanctioning bodies, including ARCA, quickly followed with minimum age requirements.

How young is too young? Despite the fact that a lot of the current drivers started racing at a young age, should the sanctioning bodies be able to exclude a 16 or 17 year-old driver who was able to race a year ago?

The Reasoning
The NASCAR rule went into effect for the 2002 season, and it states that all drivers and team members in the NASCAR Busch Series and the Craftsman Truck Series, plus all other NASCAR touring divisions, must be 18 or older in order to compete. The Winston Cup Series already had age limits in place prior to the December announcement.

With an emphasis on safety like never before, NASCAR believes the rule is in the best interest of all involved.

"The main logic of the rule was safety," says NASCAR Senior Vice President Brian France. "It made more sense to have racers with a little more experience and maturity. They now have a little more difficult criterion to deal with. It was (president) Mike Helton's call and a call we think is a good one. It is hard to tell somebody who's young that they have to be patient, but there are other ways to hone their skills at something that's less challenging. You turn 18 before you know it, so in the overall scheme of things it's only the difference of a year or two. It's the right thing for us to do."

Jim Hunter, vice president of corporate communications with NASCAR, believes the rule is good because of the pressures that come with racing in a national series.

"Putting that kind of pressure on a 16- or 17-year-old is asking a lot," Hunter says. "To me, I think it's better for all of us in the sport if the young drivers get all the experience they can on the short tracks. By the time they get to be 18, they will have accomplished that and be more prepared than they would have been at 16.

"I look at it like somebody going from playing high school football to college football-which I did-and it's a unbelievable change. You go from being the hotshot in high school to nobody when you walk onto a college football field because the level of talent is better than you've ever seen. To me, the older you are the better prepared you are going to be."

Taking Sides
Of course, some of the drivers and parents of those affected aren't fond of the new age limit because they are now somewhat limited to the kind of racing they can do until they turn 18.

"I hate it," says Winston Cup driver Mark Martin, who has a young son following in his racing footsteps. "I have a problem with it, and I don't like the rule. Then again, I'm not an attorney for NASCAR. From where they sit and then from where I sit, the problem appears much different. This age thing probably looks serious to NASCAR, but I hate this new rule. I have been so excited about seeing some of these young guys who are coming along. I know from my standpoint, it took some of the wind out of my sail and some of the other kids who are young.