Buschwhackin' Side Effect: The End of the NASCAR Youth Movement

The birth of the Chase signified the beginning of a new NASCAR in 2004. Along with the Chase came the promise of schedule realignment, parity among car makes and a youth movement. It was the youth movement that garnered much coverage from the media at the time as drivers like Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch entered the NASCAR ranks at shockingly young ages.

Prior to the younger Busch joining the Cup Series, NASCAR enacted an age limit to prevent it's drivers from becoming too young. To NASCAR it appeared as if this would become a larger problem as the years wore on.

Except that hasn't exactly panned out as predicated. In fact, the average age of the top twenty and points has been creeping upwards almost consistently since 2006. Don't believe me? Take a look at this highly unofficial table and graph outlining the ages of drivers corresponding with their points finish going back to 1997.

Average Age - Table
Average Age - Graph

What's happened during this time period? If these younger drivers were supposed to take over the sport as advertised, why are there not more Joey Logano-type drivers?

An attractive answer is the influx of Cup drivers into the Busch, now Nationwide, Series. In 2006, Kevin Harvick became the first full time Cup driver to win a Busch Series championship. As has been covered repeatedly over the years, more and more Cup drivers began to attempt the same feat.

What we are left with now is the fact that there are no longer as many rides for up and coming drivers. Sponsors and teams often do not want to risk putting an 18-year-old kid with little to none experience in one of their cars.

Where Vickers and Busch were able to secure full time rides and eventually rise to the Cup series, most new drivers struggle to run two-thirds of a Nationwide season in a competitive ride.

Look at the last few years of Sprint Cup rookies. They consist of former F1, IRL, and CART drivers. Marcos Ambrose came to NASCAR from the V8 Super Car Series in Australia. All the while, the number of actual developmental drivers rising from the lower NASCAR ranks has begun to dwindle.

Sure, drivers like Brad Keselowski, David Ragan and David Reutimann made their way to Cup the old fashion way. For the most part though, they were riding the coattails of an ending era.

Now we are left with an ever aging Cup field. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it is something that needs to be considered when discussing what, if anything, is wrong with the Nationwide Series.

Call it an unintended side effective of Buschwhackin', but it has effectively killed NASCAR youth's movement before it fully started. It is unknown whether or not this is bad for the sport, but it is something which is certainly intriguing.

Maybe Mark Martin isn't that old after all...