DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — While the main conversation at Daytona International Speedway this week has revolved around NASCAR’s new Next Gen race car, and rightfully so, another next generational movement is taking place behind the wheel of that car.
With all due respect to the machines the sanctioning body has touted as a vehicle that will drive the sport forward, it’s the wave of young drivers piloting those machines who will be the quite literal face of stock car racing’s future. More accurately, faces, plural. Because there sure are a lot of them, and man, they sure are young.
Like the new car, the new drivers look cool. They look slick. They look fast. And very much like the new car, the new drivers are also much cheaper to put onto the racetrack than the older models. Can they perform as expected? They did one year ago, and that’s why we’re seeing so many more of them this year.
