But all of that changed with
the advent of Jeff Gordon, who entered the Busch and Cup scene in his early twenties. Jeff was anything but inexperienced,
near perfection on the track and a perfect interview off the track combined with movie-star looks. And he was fast. Do not
misunderstand; Gordon paid his dues, starting at a very young age.
But more importantly he changed
the entire look of the sport. TV pundits began talking extensively about the “young guns” overtaking the “old
guard” and Cup teams began investing in drivers at a very young age. And they have been fast, no doubt, in fast cars.
They also tend to be more than
ready to put the car in a hole that is almost big enough for it, make a few trips from time to time to the NASCAR trailer,
and take years to gain true consistency.
Clearly, the above statements
are generalizations, and exceptions can be made in every case.
But one thing is also clear,
the veterans, lets call them “Smoking Guns” are back with fire in their eyes and are every bit as determined as
the younger drivers.
Consider:
Ricky Rudd returns to Robert
Yates Racing (RYR). Ironically, when he left RYR in 2002, he was discussing retiring in part because of all of the media coverage
of the younger drivers, regardless of their track position, that was indirectly causing the veterans to essentially involuntarily
retire. Now Yates chose Rudd to bring experience to a team that needs it as opposed to a relative unknown.
Ward Burton returns to Cup
with the Morgan McClure team for largely the same reasons.
Michael Waltrip is not only
still driving but a driving big dollar force in the sport, ushering in the coming of Toyota to Cup, and chose to hire Dale
Jarrett to field one of his cars, and David Reutimann (who is a rookie but came up in the traditional way and is currently
in his thirties) to drive the other.
2006 StockCar Review.
