Youth Movement

What was once a sport that rewarded age and experience, NASCAR Winston Cup racing has become a young man’s game. Youth has always played a part in Winston Cup racing, but in recent years it has been the driving force in who lands cherished driving jobs.

To some extent, the youngsters of today can thank Jeff Gordon for the attention they receive. After all, Gordon was barely old enough to order a beer when he began posting his incredible numbers. Then guys like Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth came along and have proven to be winners beyond their years.

Youth is being served in a big way in 2001 with the twenty-something set led by Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Casey Atwood and Jason Leffler. Waiting in the wings are such drivers as Ryan Newman, Jimmie Johnson and Ricky Hendrick. That has led some of NASCAR Winston Cup racing’s top drivers to consider the possibility of early retirement.

“This sport will retire drivers sooner in the future than it ever has because of the ability of young drivers to come into the sport and get it right, right off the bat,” Jeff Burton says. “And, the financial rewards now are larger so people can retire.

“Guys like Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth will put enough pressure on the older drivers to where they have had enough.”

Under The Scope

Perhaps the rookie driver under the most scrutiny this season is Kevin Harvick. He was scheduled to run the entire NASCAR Busch Series schedule and enter seven Winston Cup races this season before moving to full-time Winston Cup competition in 2002.

That all changed when Dale Earnhardt died at Daytona. Team owner Richard Childress moved Harvick into Earnhardt’s car, which was changed from the familiar black Goodwrench No. 3 to a white Goodwrench No. 29.

Harvick may be driving Earnhardt’s car, but he knows there is no way he can replace the seven-time Winston Cup champion.

“Dale Earnhardt was the best race car driver there will ever be in NASCAR and nobody will ever replace him,” Harvick said after making his move. “I would hope you don’t expect me to replace him because nobody ever will.”

To be young and good in racing you have to be able to adapt quickly. Just one week after Earnhardt’s death, Harvick competed in both the Alltel 200 Busch Series race and the Dura Lube 400 Winston Cup race at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham. In just his second race, Harvick scored his first top-10 finish in Winston Cup when he was eighth at Las Vegas. He then won at Atlanta in just his third Winston Cup start.

Harvick will attempt to run the entire Busch Series and Winston Cup schedules this season in what many consider a Herculean effort.

“I think he can handle it,” Childress says. “He is a tough young guy. He is one of these guys who can handle pressure. Pressure doesn’t bother him, and if there is anyone out there who can do it, he can do it. He has his head on right. He is a good, smart young man.”

Harvick, 25, is from Bakersfield, California. He began his racing career in go-karts when he was 5 years old. He advanced into Late Models in California where he was the 1993 NASCAR Late Model Champion at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield. He was named Rookie of the Year in the Featherlite Southwest Series in 1995 and was the Winston West champion in 1998.

Harvick drove a year in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, then Childress hired him to drive in the Busch Series last year. He set two Busch Series rookie records with most points overall (4,113) and most money won ($995,274). He also tied two Busch Series rookie records held by Steve Park with most wins (three) and highest final finishing position (third) on his way to Rookie of the Year honors.

“I like driving race cars,” Harvick says. “I think I can do it pretty good and, obviously, Richard Childress thought I could do it pretty good.”

Race Ready

Another West Coast driver who is a Winston Cup rookie this season is Kurt Busch, who drives the No. 97 Ford Taurus for Jack Roush.

Busch, 22, moved into Winston Cup racing after just one year in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. But what a year that was. Busch won the Rookie-of-the-Year title and finished second in Truck Series points to teammate Greg Biffle.

“Kurt is extraordinarily motivated. He is quick to adapt. He listens. He is a sponge. He takes information quickly and assimilates it very wisely for his purpose,” Roush says. “The sky is the limit on him. He can break though and win a race any day.”

Some veteran drivers don’t believe they were ready at such an early age to leap to the ranks of Winston Cup, or doubt they would have had the same kind of competitive equipment.

“I wasn’t as good when I was 23 years old as Kurt Busch is now at 21 years old,” Burton says. “My career took the path that it needed to take. That’s how I believe. When I was doing it, the young drivers weren’t getting good jobs. I don’t mean any disrespect to the car owners, but Jeff Gordon drove for Rick Hendrick in his first year. But if you remember, when Jeff Gordon went to Hendrick, everyone thought that was dumb.

“Hendrick Motorsports wasn’t running well. Ken Schrader couldn’t win. Everybody thought he was crazy. Other than that, Bobby Labonte drove for Bill Davis and Bill was a new Winston Cup car owner. I drove for the Stavola Brothers. It wasn’t the same caliber of teams now that car owners are willing to take a chance on young drivers.

“Jeff Gordon changed that for a lot of people. Tony Stewart changed that for a lot of people. I think drivers are more ready now than they were 10 years ago. If I would have skipped everything and gone to Winston Cup, I would have sucked.”

When Burton moved to Winston Cup, young drivers didn’t get the best rides. They started at the bottom and worked their way up.

“In the past, young drivers got all the junk to drive,” Burton says. “Now, the young drivers are getting really good cars to drive right off the bat and they are driving the hell out of them. I think it is evolution. I think it is car owners willing to take a chance and it is talent that is ready. Those guys have all raced a lot. Racing is popular now where it wasn’t as popular 30 years ago. Now, it’s popular. Plus, kids are starting sooner.”

One of those kids is Casey Atwood, who started the 2001 Winston Cup season at just 20 years old. And, as Burton says, he has the best equipment and best racing minds behind him.

Talent Search

Stewart is one of those drivers who helped popularize the youth movement and is a Winston Cup title contender in just his third season. What does he see as the reason for all of the young drivers entering Winston Cup racing?

“People keep having babies each year and out of all the babies that are born, there are going to be some that will be very good race car drivers,” Stewart says. “It’s going to happen every year. The thing you see now is car owners are looking all over the country—not just at ASA or USAC or the Truck Series and Busch Series. They are looking everywhere. They are looking for guys who have talent. The guys who are rookies this year and the guys who are coming up and going to be rookies in the coming years are guys who have talent.”

Two of the young drivers either in Winston Cup or ready to join the series next year are Stewart proteges. Ryan Newman is a 23-year-old engineering student at Purdue University and Jason Leffler, 25, is another former open- wheel driver who finished 17th in last year’s Indianapolis 500.

“His education sets him apart,” Stewart says of Newman. “His engineering degree makes him a very smart, intelligent race car driver from a setup standpoint. Look at what he did for Danny Drinan, who is a smart guy and built some pretty good midgets in the past. Ryan Newman went out there every week and took Danny’s car and beat him with it. He didn’t just beat him, he beat him bad.

“Ryan has the talent to drive the car. He has the talent to know what he needs the car to do and how to get the car to do that. That makes him a pretty well- rounded driver. His opportunity with Roger Penske is the same opportunity I got, too, with Joe Gibbs. I think the guys who are getting the opportunities deserve them right now.”

As for Leffler, Stewart was hesitant to see the former open-wheel driver leave Joe Gibbs’ Busch Series team to make the jump to Winston Cup with team owners Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates.

“I wasn’t sure he was quite ready to step into the same kind of equipment,” Stewart says. “The thing that scares me about that situation is Jason has a lot of talent. I just hope they give him good equipment this year and keep him up front. They have Andy Graves over there, so I’m sure they are going to give him good race cars.

“Jason at times is his own worst enemy. Somebody needs to help Jason, give him some guidance and point him in the right direction. He tends to want to do it more on his own and this is a hard deal to do on your own. At times, it’s not a shame to ask for help here.”

Training Ground

Penske Racing calls Newman’s intensive schedule in 2001 the ABCs. It includes four ARCA races, 11 Busch Series races and seven NASCAR Winston Cup races. “I think it’s a pretty smart schedule, but it is intensive,” Newman says. “Roger Penske, Don Miller, Matt Borland, my crew chief, and the rest of the team figured that our schedule this year is going to be so much more beneficial for the 2002 season in order to race on the tracks that we will be racing on in Winston Cup racing.”

Penske and Newman met at Daytona in 2000. The famed Indy car, CART and NASCAR team owner was so impressed with Newman’s talent and attitude that he immediately put a deal together to have him as part of his stock car operation in Mooresville, North Carolina.

“Ryan had won races—he was a winner,” Penske says. “He is technically as savvy as any young man on the race track because of his engineering background. He is committed. His mom and dad are solidly behind him and he is the type of man who will fit well with our race team. I think he is a focused young man. He loves it. He is in the shop every day. He lives and breathes racing and that is what you need today to be a winner.

“We were introduced to him last year, and we decided to give him a test. Buddy Baker came on to work with him, and it’s been a home run ever since. There are a lot of good, young drivers. We need balance and with Rusty Wallace, Jeremy Mayfield and now Ryan, we have the perfect combination.”

Newman believes his open-wheel background helped him learn how to race close while being smooth. Without fenders on an open wheel car, it is crucial to be steady to stay out of trouble.

“Basically, with my history, I know I couldn’t do the things I do or have the successes I have had in the ARCA series if it wasn’t for driving a Silver Crown car at Phoenix and Indianapolis Raceway Park and Richmond and Colorado,” Newman says. “It is really a great learning device for all kinds of racing. I had my goal and I wanted to do the best I could to achieve that goal. My goal has always been stock cars.

“I believe you can succeed with anything as long as you work hard. I believe the path was laid down a long time ago when Ken Schrader and Tim Richmond came along into the stock car world from USAC Silver Crown and sprint cars.

“There have been several guys who have made that transition. Unfortunately, guys like Rich Vogler and Robby Stanley were never able to complete that. Tony Stewart is the latest example and I would like to be the next.”

When Leffler was an aspiring open wheel racer from California, he quickly became one of the top drivers in USAC. But he had no idea that his career path was going to lead him to Winston Cup racing.

“When I first got into open-wheel racing, my dream was to win the USAC midget title,” Leffler says. “After that, it was to move on to the best team possible, whether it was open wheel or stock cars. I think it’s great for USAC for midget racing, sprint car racing and Silver Bullet racing. They are all great series. You learn to race hard, you learn to race close, but you don’t have the fenders. Racing every weekend, two or three times a week like those guys do really helps. That is what it takes to do well in this series.

“I don’t get overly excited. These are long races—not like a 30-lap midget main. It takes time for everything to play out. I need to get as much experience as I can.”

So, why are all these young drivers from all over the country and from so many different types of racing coming to NASCAR Winston Cup at such an early age?

“If you are a young driver, Winston Cup is the top form of racing in the United States,” Leffler says. “This is where they are all striving to be right now.

“We are just in the right place at the right time. There is a lot of opportunity for young drivers right now and it may close up a couple years from now.”