This was posted by the "Lady In Black" at Racinginsider.com
By Patty Kay
March 8, 2004
Well, given the present youth movement within the NASCAR ranks, both on the track and on the television, I suppose that it had to happen. <span style='color:red'><span style='font-family:Arial'>According to Rusty Wallace, in a quote given to a very well respected journalist, "NASCAR has suggested to many, many people that some drivers cut back to partial schedules</span></span>." This would be the same NASCAR already filling its fields with has-beens and wannabes because good teams cannot find sponsorship; the same NASCAR where Jimmy Spencer, Johnny Benson and Dave Blaney sit on the sidelines watching Morgan Shepherd or Kirk Shelmerdine race in cars that are far less than competitive.
Most of the older drivers in question are currently running with competitive teams and full sponsorship. There are several aging (but not dead) drivers on the circuit, including the likes of Sterling Marlin, Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, Ricky Rudd, Dale Jarrett, Terry LaBonte and Ken Schrader. Those seven drivers alone account for four Cup Championships and I wouldn't even begin to guess how many aggregate wins.
We can't have the likes of them cluttering up the track for much longer. We need to make room on the track for more young guns (I hate that term) like Shane Hmiel, Scott Wimmer and Kevin Grubb. Upstanding sportsmen with family values and morals that stem from a better time need not apply.
Good grief, it seems that everyone in Daytona has gone completely 'round the bend. It must be something in the water down there. These drivers are not stupid, despite your corporate opinion, and they will all be gone soon enough of their own volition. Your foot in their posterior is not necessary, nor will it be well received by the wide fan base that has followed them for years. There is a little thing called the rule of unintended consequences and it might just rise up to bite you on this one.
Surprising as it may be, there are many young race fans that follow the aforementioned septet and patronize their souvenir trailers, along of course with a vast number of us old farts. It is one thing to kill our historical tracks and blame it on progress (spelled m-o-n-e-y), but it's quite another to insult, mistreat or dismiss as unimportant, our drivers. If fans of all ages stop coming to the track, the money stops filling NASCAR's ever-enlarging pockets. Think it over carefully.
Probably a precursor rather than a result of these quiet little conversations are talk and rumors of a "Senior Circuit" much as we see now in the PGA. When one hears rumors circulating in the garage, there usually tends to be more than just a grain of truth in them, no matter how vehemently they are denied. Who knows, maybe a Senior Circuit would be a welcome replacement for what seems to be an ever-ailing Busch Series, but membership should be voluntary, not mandatory.
It's not the writer's intention to in any way put down the younger generation, but by the same token, drivers in their mid-forties are not old by definition and don't need to be replaced like a set of worn out brake linings. Stock car racing, like any other sport, will always see the young replace the old. That is simply the way of the world. Still, the replacement should be gradual and consensual, not a wholesale housecleaning in favor of children that are still too youthful to qualify as one of the Gillette Young Guns. Their turn will come soon enough.
The seven drivers that I mentioned earlier, and several more that are right behind them on the age scale, have more than paid their dues in this sport. They deserve the right to choose their own time for hanging up the helmet and settling into the rocking chair. With a few notable exceptions like the King and Ol' DW, most drivers know when their glory days have ended and retire gracefully into the history books. Those who do not, wind up looking like pathetic caricatures of their former selves and serve only to evoke pity.
Most, if not all of the drivers in question have already begun to talk about a life without racing and in at least one case (Mark Martin), there is already a replacement waiting in the wings to take over. (Carl Edwards, as announced by Jack Roush) This writer is danged if she can see any purpose to shoving them out the door one minute before they are ready to leave. Not one of them is "Too old to cut the mustard" and indeed most or all of them still cut a mean figure on the racetrack.
One doesn't even have to wonder what the scene would have been like, had some suit from Daytona suggested or even hinted that the late Dale Earnhardt might like to sun the soles of his shoes while someone else drove that old #3, but I surely would have liked the ticket concession for it.
Be well gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you.
~Patty Kay
You can contact Patty Kay at.. Insider Racing News
