NASCAR's young 'uns are growing up. Generation Next isn't sitting around the garage, smitten by tales of their elders and genuflecting at the sight of their firesuits.
They are out to kick some old-man backside.
Respectfully so, of course. But still, it's cool to see Kyle Larson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez take the wheel.
Everyone knows the sport is searching for the Next Great Stock-Car Racer. Dale Earnhardt Jr. will leave the garage after this season, joining Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. They all were superstars. Stewart and Gordon have the Cup titles to prove it, and Earnhardt Jr. has the family legacy and Internet clicks that move the needle each and every day.
That's why somebody needs to be Next Up.
The good news is that there's a strong talent pool to make a run at greatness. Larson (24 years old), Stenhouse (29) and Dillon (27) each has a playoff-qualifying victory this season. Elliott (21) would get in on points if the playoffs began this week.
Blaney (23) is 14th in the standings. Jones (21) is 19th. Suarez (25 and a native of Mexico) is 20th and recently scored his best Cup finish by placing sixth at Dover.
"I really wasn't expecting to be in this position right now five years ago," Suarez said at the start of the season. "I wish I was, but I wasn't expecting to be here, and now to be here it is something really cool, to be living there and now to be able to try to help a little bit the new generations that are coming here to the United States from Mexico or from all over the world."
It's not your grandpappy's NASCAR anymore, as Suarez is quick to remind us. But NASCAR's homespun roots provide important connective tissue between past and present. Generation Next needs to be cognizant of that before it is distracted by modern-day technology.
A tweet is good. A handshake is better.
"Sometimes we have this preconceived-mold idea about what Corporate America thinks they should be like," NASCAR veteran Clint Bowyer said. "There's only one thing they need to do: Perform. It's a performance-driven business, and aside from that, you have to be yourself.
"That's what makes this sport what it is. It's the closest the fans gets to that character, that driver, that personality. They need to be themselves, and that's all anybody could ask other than winning races."
They're working on that. Stenhouse and Dillon, who have never been in the Cup postseason, are pushing guys like Bowyer to the max.
Bowyer, a 12-year Cup veteran, is 15th in the standings but does not have a victory, leaving him in a precarious position to qualify for the 16-driver playoffs.
"They're doing a good job of stepping up to the plate," Bowyer said.
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