- NASCAR president Steve Phelps says the sanctioning body is reviewing the age requirement for drivers in NASCAR’s top three series.
- Currently, a driver must be 18 to compete full-time in NASCAR’s top three national touring series.
- The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series allows a person to compete as young as 16, but only on tracks one mile or less in length and road courses.
When stock car racing began in the late 1940s, a competitor was required to possess a driver’s license, and NASCAR’s premier division was reserved for those age 21 and older.
However, during the last two decades many teenagers have entered the late model ranks before their 16th birthday.
It’s a trend that NASCAR championship driver and team owner Tony Stewartbelieves is detrimental to the sport.
“I don’t like the direction motorsports is going as a whole,” says Stewart, who also possesses championships in Indy, Midget, Sprint and USAC Silver Crown cars. “I’m not just picking on NASCAR. There are series putting kids in late models at 12 and 14 (years old). It makes zero sense to me.”
Team co-owner and NASCAR champion Brad Keselowski agrees with Stewart.
“We did a disservice to our sport and to our industry when we reduced the age limits for all of these different garages,” Keselowski says. “Not just for the industry itself, but probably more specifically for the kids that we did it for. I think we really hurt them. We hurt them in their ability to develop their own lives.”
Keselowski says if he possessed the authority, he would go through the “entire industry” and raise the age in all the garage areas.
“It’s significantly too low for the maturity level that you can expect of someone at those ages to be able to handle these challenges and tasks,” Keselowski says. “It’s unfair to them. It ends up limiting their ability to grow as a person. I think that hurts them later in their lives.
“That’s one (thing) that’s probably near and dear to my heart is letting 16-year-olds be 16-year-olds and not trying to make them superstar race car drivers because it damages them so much in their lives. That ends up hurting our garage area, too, and our industry.”
Keselowski says the temptation to lower the age level existed because of a “number of financial incentives that permeated through the garage areas with specific people.”
“But I think it’s way past time to take a really deep dive and look at that and revert back to models of years past that I think served us well,” Keselowski says. “At some point, the industry has to protect itself from itself and start raising the age limits and fixing the garage areas.”
That said, starting young has worked for many of today's Cup stars.
Chase Elliott signed a contract with Rick Hendrick at age 15. He won his NASCAR Xfinity Series championship at age 18 and his NASCAR Cup title came 20 days before his 25th birthday.
Joey Logano made his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut with Joe Gibbs Racing one week after celebrating his 18th birthday. He made his Cup debut later that year and the following season he moved into NASCAR’s premier series full time. By age 22, Logano had lost his Cup ride with JGR.
Kyle Busch made his debut in NASCAR’S Craftsman Truck Series at age 16.
Ty Gibbs made his Cup debut at 19 years old, substituting for an injured Kurt Busch. He’s now competing in the Cup Series full-time at age 20.
Today, the top 20 in the NASCAR Cup driver standings average 33.25 years old with Gibbs the youngest and Kevin Harvick, who’s in his final season as a driver, the oldest at age 47. The belief had always been that a race car driver’s prime was from 35 to 45 years old. However, only seven of the top 20 fall into that age group.
NASCAR president Steve Phelps says the sanctioning body is reviewing the age requirement for drivers in NASCAR’s top three series.
Currently, a driver must be 18 to compete full-time in NASCAR’s top three national touring series.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series allows a person to compete as young as 16, but only on tracks one mile or less in length and road courses.
In the ARCA Menards Series, a driver can compete on tracks a mile in length and shorter and road courses at age 15.
Age, however, isn’t the sole factor. NASCAR and ARCA each have a committee that reviews every driver’s racing resume to determine the tracks that fit the driver’s experience level.
A driver’s age first became an issue in 2001 when a 16-year-old Kyle Busch wasn’t allowed to compete in a Truck series event at California Speedway. That weekend the CART FedEx Championship Series had a race at the track that was sponsored by Marlboro cigarettes. An interpretation of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement kept Busch from racing because the agreement prohibited people under age 18 from participating in events sponsored by tobacco companies.
Keselowski doesn’t believe any NASCAR Cup driver should be younger than 20 years old. He says his father didn’t allow him to start racing until he was 14 years old, and he didn’t like it. He saw 8-year-old children racing and he didn’t think it was fair that he couldn’t race, too.
“I hated it at the time, but I respect it immensely now,” Keselowski says. “Now, I realize what a blessing that was. I would have been a better driver (if I had started younger) and a worse person.
“Not being able to really be a race car driver in any form until I was 14 years old allowed me to develop in ways that have served my career and made me a better person.”
Stewart says mature drivers know how to analyze a race.
“It’s just little details and that’s what this sport is. It’s down to micro details,” Stewart says.
Stewart believes the sport began skewing towards younger drivers about five years ago when the OEMs started development programs with “really young, young, young drivers.”
“There’s great race car drivers that are young,” Stewart says. “It’s not that I’m bagging on that, but I appreciate a driver that understands all the things that are hard, that make it challenging.”
Austin Dillon entered the NASCAR ranks at age 18, while his younger brother Ty entered the truck series at 19 years old. Both were accomplished dirt track racers before they turned to asphalt, a requirement made by their grandfather team owner and former driver Richard Childress. They also had worked in the race shop and on wrecked race cars.
“When I look at a young driver or a driver, I want to know that he knows what a race car is rather than just sitting down in it and racing,” Childress says. “I’ve had some really good young drivers.”
Childress then cited Kevin Harvick at age 23 and Clint Bowyer at 24. He believes every person must be evaluated on an individual basis but admits “there is a point where they can be too young.”
However, if a driver starts in Legends cars, competes on dirt, and performs well in every series, then Childress believes that person should have an opportunity in a Xfinity Series ride when they’re 18 or 19 years old.
