“My Take”: Looking at the NASCAR age limit that is currently at age 18 for all three series (Truck Series, Nationwide Series and Cup Series) works fine were it is, however that’s not what needs to be changed in the requirements, what should be changed is the experiences level that a driver must have before entering the Cup Series.
What do I mean by experience level, well, every driver regardless of what there past driving experience is whether it’s a former Formula winner or champion, an IRL champion, an Indy 500 winner or even a Rolex 24 winner should be required to be at least 18 years old and have a minimum of two (2) full years competing in either the Truck Series or the Nationwide (formerly Busch) Series period. I know that that’s a little much, but consider that some of the NASCAR rookie crop don’t have 6 races under there belts, let along even a season in the Truck Series or Nationwide Series, that’s were NASCAR needs look at.
So who fits on that list, try the just about the entire 2008 rookie crop including Patrick Carpentier, Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish and Jacques Villeneuve just to name a few. Now I have nothing against these drivers, but they don’t have that much experience in a stock car, let along 250 mile – 600-mile races, like I said, age isn’t the problem.
I know, what about Joey Logano, yes Joey Logano would be on that list too, however he has some experience in a stock car as he not only won the NASCAR Busch East Series Championship, but the NASCAR Toyota Showdown at Irwindale last November and he has more experience in a stock car then most of this years rookie crop combined.
While this was going on, finally signs of the 2008 NASCAR season is just a couple weeks away as most of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams were turning single car runs and even drafting runs at Daytona. I don’t know what it is about testing that excites me, maybe it’s the sound of V8 Stock car engines in air, burning rubber, yeah, its more that these cars on finally back on track even if its just testing.
So what did we learn? Toyota has not been licking there wounds, instead they have been working on there program and I have to imagine that with the help of Joe Gibbs Racing including Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch, yes I said Kyle Busch, they got it right and it showed too, as they were fast in both weeks of testing and so was Waltrip Racing for that matter. With that, did anyone see Tony Stewart’s test carHowever the two men making headlines first last week and then earlier this week, yes, Jimmie Johnson in his Lowe’s Herbie look alike test car and his new teammate junior..
Yeah, Dale Earnhardt Jr. turned the second fast laps all three days in his #88 Amp Energy/National Guard/Mountain Dew Hendrick Chevrolet and what a sight it was. Fans learned that Junior is ready for 2008 in a big way and so is this junior fan.So who would have guessed it, Toyota and Chevrolet (mainly Hendrick Motorsports – Jimmie Johnson in the first week and Dale Jr. in week two) were the fastest testing, well the Toyota was a little surprising.
- Racedriven
2 Comments:
They Toyota is a little less surprising when you reckon that A. Gibbs has an impressive record with the COT and B. they've always been decent at testing/qualifying pace when that's what the car had been built for. Let's see how the non Gibbs cars do in actual race situations in a few weeks before we make any judgments.
Johnny, thanks for the comment and I couldn't agree with you more, but let's go one step further, The big questions are still going to remain until after Martinsville, that's six races in, the 2008 owners points will already have taken effect and fans then can say is Toyota with Gibbs good or not and the same goes for everybody else.
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