How Long Will They Race?

Flash back to the 1982 Southern 500, a race that ended in a dramatic, side-by-side battle between Cale Yarborough and Richard Petty.

With the laps winding down and Petty leading, 45-year-old Yarborough and 45-year-old Petty locked into a side-by-side duel going through Darlington Raceway’s infamous first turn with smoke flying from their tires rubbing. Yarborough would eventually win that battle and win the race.

What made that event so interesting is the top drivers in the sport—with the exception of Darrell Waltrip—were all in their mid-40s at the time. Other drivers in the field who were still considered racing superstars were Bobby Allison, who would go on to win the 1983 Winston Cup title, and David Pearson. Benny Parsons and Buddy Baker were still threats to win.

Petty, Allison, Yarborough, Parsons and Baker were all drivers who were still behind the wheel racing into their late 40s. Some, such as Petty and Harry Gant, raced well into their mid-50s before retiring and turning the wheel over to younger drivers.

If a driver could stay healthy in this era, they could not only continue to earn a paycheck as a race car driver, but remain reasonably competitive. Fast forward to 2002 and the elder statesmen of the sport are Bill Elliott, Ricky Rudd, Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace, Terry Labonte, Mark Martin, and Ken Schrader. All are in their early- to mid-40s, and many of them don’t expect to be racing as they approach 50.

When Darrell Waltrip retired last season, he was 53. Waltrip admits if he had it to do all over again he would have retired four to five years earlier than he did. And as the NASCAR Winston Cup schedule continues to expand to a tour that consists of 36 races spread over 38 racing weekends, how long do these drivers want to put up with such a demanding lifestyle?

Changes Ahead?

“The number of drivers in their upper-40s and early-50s will diminish a great deal,” predicts Jeff Burton, a 34-year-old driver who is one of the reasons the older drivers won’t be racing so long. “I don’t think you will see the number of 48- or 50-year-old drivers be very high.”

Burton bases his prediction on two factors. First, new drivers, such as Casey Atwood and Ryan Newman in their early 20s, keep reaching the ranks of Winston Cup. Second, combine that with solid young drivers such as four-time Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart—both just 30 years old—and the retirement age for a Winston Cup driver gets lower.

“Understand my reason for saying that is not that the veteran drivers fear the competition or they can’t do it anymore. It’s just getting harder,” Burton says. “Your time is way more than a full-time job. It’s a total commitment of your life. I think people are financially compensated today much better than drivers have ever been. That alone will allow drivers to stop sooner than they would otherwise.

“Then you add to it the frustration of never being home. Most of the guys who are doing it have been doing it since they were 10. I may have been in Winston Cup for eight or nine years, but I started racing when I was seven. I started traveling around the state of Virginia when I was five. When I’m 40, I will have been doing this for 33 years. Most of the guys in this garage are the same way.”

Some veteran drivers say retirement isn’t even a thought. That’s because they are still driving at or near the level it takes to win races and championships.

“As long as you are at the top of your game, you will tolerate a lot of things because you are doing what you want to do,” Burton says. “Darrell Waltrip is an example of what is happening in almost every sport. A great athlete doesn’t know what he is going to do and isn’t comfortable when he quits performing. So, you stretch it.

“Some stretch it too long and some don’t. In Darrell’s case, he probably stretched it too long. It was from his passion of the sport that he did that. He loved what he did.

“To look at Dale Jarrett and Ricky Rudd today, to say they would retire in two years would be ludicrous. Maybe Rudd thought that a year ago, but he isn’t thinking that today. He’s thinking, ‘How am I going to win that championship next year?’”

Staying Competitive

To watch 45-year-old Rusty Wallace operate is to see a driver seemingly in perpetual motion. He is completely focused on getting his race car to drive well.

Wallace is also keenly aware of the limited time a driver has to remain at the top of his game. He is still close to that peak, but he knows that as he travels further into his 40s, the lure of getting out will become stronger.

“What keeps me going is we are constantly competitive, we are winning races, running up front and we’re still at the top of our game,” Wallace says. “If my performance starts to slip, I’d say the hell with it. All of my contracts run through 2003, and I’ll have to make my mind up if I want to continue that on after 2003. I probably will. As long as I’m winning, I’ll keep on digging.”

When Wallace left the American Speed Association (ASA) to join team owner Cliff Stewart as a Winston Cup rookie in 1984, Petty, Allison, and Yarborough were still winning races and Parsons and Baker were still considered stars. But, as Wallace started to win races, many of those older drivers were finding it more difficult to find Victory Lane.

“The only reason those guys ran that long was because there was no money in the sport and that is all they knew how to do for a living,” Wallace says. “Now, there is a lot of money in this sport, and you don’t have to run as long to be financially stable and where you would like to be in your career. Before, you ran and ran and ran.

“Unfortunately, when David Pearson, Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, and Richard Petty ran, it didn’t pay anything. Now, there is a lot out there. That’s the reason I think drivers will not take the risk and keep carrying on. I think they will think about backing off kind of early.” Mark Martin is another product of the early 1980s who came to NASCAR Winston Cup from ASA. In fact, when Martin raced out of North Liberty, Indiana, in the late ’70s, he was the youngest driver in ASA history to win the national championship. Martin was just a teenager when he won ASA championships in 1978, then repeated in 1979 and 1980.

The 2001 season broke a Martin tradition of being a championship contender, and that took its toll on the racer. “I was depressed because I really have enjoyed being a championship contender for a dozen years straight,” says Martin. Spending time with his son, Matt, and his quarter-midget operation in Florida has given Martin a new outlook on what it means to be a Winston Cup driver at age 43.

“I realize the importance of what I do out on the racetrack,” Martin says. “It’s more important than winning every race. Those kids, it didn’t matter to them that I didn’t have the best year. It really didn’t matter to them. They still looked at me the same way, and I realize that now. “Instead of judging my self-worth based on where I am in the points or how many races I won this year, maybe I should just go out there, keep my eye on the target and do the best that we can all do and not let that drag me down when it doesn’t always work out the best.”

The Clock Is Ticking

While Martin takes a philosophical approach to his role as a NASCAR Winston Cup driver, Ricky Rudd is a realist. The 45-year-old driver, who battled Jeff Gordon for the Winston Cup title for most of the 2001 season, knows he won’t be competing for many more championships.

“For all of us old-timers who are still out there racing, it could be in three to five years before I decided to stop racing,” Rudd says. “I don’t see myself driving when I’m 50. I think a lot of the older guys are here because we love the sport. When we started, we loved the sport of racing. When I get to the point where I’m physically handicapped and I cannot contribute and my reactions are not as good as they once were, whether it is next year or the year after that, it’s time to go.”

Rudd’s performance in 2001 gives him hope for the future.

“If I were having the worst year I ever had, then it would be time for me to get out,” Rudd says. “Realistically, I have three to five years to win a championship. Probably three years being more realistic. We have a hard time saying we’ll get our act together next year and come back next year. “There aren’t too many more next years.”

Rudd is 15 years older than Gordon, and, while age may play a factor in how much longer Rudd decides to race, the list of goals left for Gordon to accomplish are getting smaller.

Gordon is a driver who may actually retire from the sport one day because he has run out of challenges. After winning a fourth Winston Cup championship at age 30, a record eighth title is a realistic possibility for the driver of the DuPont Chevrolet.

If Gordon continues to get better as a driver between the ages of 30 and 40 as he did between 20 and 30, why would he continue racing in his 40s? “It’s not about accomplishing something that was left on my checklist because I’ve far exceeded that already,” Gordon says. “I didn’t ever think I would accomplish the things I have accomplished.

“After I’ve been doing this for 20 years, the desire might go away. I don’t put a number on it, so I don’t know that answer. Right now, I’m healthy and I have the desire.”

The final race of the 1992 Winston Cup season was historic for many reasons. Not only did Alan Kulwicki culminate a fantastic comeback season by winning the closest battle in Winston Cup history, the race marked a moment in time for the past and future of the sport.

It was the final race of Richard Petty’s glorious career. It was also the first Winston Cup race for the driver who would become the face of the sport for the 21st century—Jeff Gordon. As Petty puttered around at the back at 55 years old, Gordon crashed out of that race early as a 21-year-old.

It may have been the one day that signaled the glory days of drivers racing well into their 50s would come to an end.

What makes Gordon’s career different from Rudd’s is the amount of time it took each driver to land with a team that was ready to win championships. When Gordon joined Hendrick Motorsports, he was part of a team that included Rudd and Kenny Schrader. Gordon’s “third team” was being built with Ray Evernham as the crew chief.

Conversely, Rudd joined the series as a 21-year-old competing in four races for Bill Champion in 1975 before running for his father, Al Rudd, from 1976-78. He joined Junie Donlavey in 1979, returned to his father’s operation in 1980 and ran one year for DiGard Racing in 1981.

It wasn’t until he joined Richard Childress Racing in 1982—a team far different than the championship squad with the late Dale Earnhardt—that Rudd was part of a team capable of winning races.

Rudd finished second to Earnhardt in the Winston Cup championship in 1991 at Hendrick Motorsports. He formed his own race team in 1994 before the economics of the game changed, forcing him to sell off his equipment after the 1999 season and join Robert Yates Racing.

“The opportunity for Robert Yates came at the end of my career,” Rudd says. “I would have loved to have this ride 15 years ago, but there are guys who are very talented who have never had the opportunity to have a ride of this caliber.

“I’m winding down my career with one of the best teams in racing. It’s kind of hard to step aside right now.”

Life After Racing

So when the moment of decision does come, what do some of these drivers want to do with their free time?

“I’d love to be an assistant Little League coach,” Rudd says. “Landon (his son) is also into roller hockey. I don’t want to be the coach; I want to be the assistant. I don’t want to hear all the headaches and the griping from the parents. I want to be the assistant. That’s what I want to do when I get out.”

Bill Elliott would love to spend more time at home. He admits he doesn’t enjoy the crowds, the hassles, the travel and the outside distractions that come with being a race car driver, but the 46-year-old loves the feeling of being behind the wheel, which is why he continues to deal with the other things.

“Instead of 100 fans in the garage area, we have 10,000,” Elliott says. “The demands on our time are much greater. We are running more races during the year and, with the demands from the sponsor going up, it’s a vicious cycle.

“Parts of this are not fun, but I still enjoy driving the race car. One has to outweigh the other. There are certain parts of the politics of the game that I don’t like. All in all, the gains outweigh the negatives.

“Right now, I feel pretty comfortable where I’m at. I enjoy driving for Ray Evernham. I have another two years on my deal with him with another two-year option after that. I’ll determine next year what I want to do after that. I can determine a year at a time what I want to do.”

Elliott remembers when he started racing in 1976, it was a much simpler sport. “In the 1970s, I walked down to the Monroe truck, got me a handful of Monroe shocks and that is what I put on the race cars,” Elliott says. “Now, you have to have a shock specialist and a spring specialist. The evolution of the sport has changed so much. Physically it is harder on the driver today.”

When Elliott decides he’s had enough as a driver, Evernham would like to keep Elliott on his team as a consultant, a driving mentor similar to the role Rick Mears has with Penske Racing’s Indy car team.

“I’d like to stay on as a consultant,” Elliott says. “Ray Evernham, to this point, has been great to drive for. I still enjoy it. Like I told Ray not too long ago, if I can contribute to the team and still feel like I can do a pretty decent job on the racetrack, I would still like to do it. But when I become a negative to the race team, get me out of here.”

Elliott recalls a much simpler sport when he started racing in 1976.

“I haven’t seen anybody drive these race cars forever,” Elliott says. “There comes a point where you say, the younger generation has come in; here it is; it’s time for me to take the backseat and head on down the road. I don’t care what it is in life, whether you are playing in a rock ‘n’ roll band or you are out there driving a race car, or playing a professional sport. Eventually, you say it’s time to go on.”