NASCAR's young guns lack for nothing

SONOMA, Calif. - Dale Jarrett paid his dues. So did Ricky Rudd. And Rusty Wallace. And Mark Martin.

Not one of those NASCAR Winston Cup veterans won their first race until they were into at least their third full season on the circuit. They all worked their way through the ranks, bouncing from team to team looking for a break, a way into the elite cadre of drivers with a legitimate chance of winning on any given week.

Now that generation is being pushed hard by a group of young drivers who are in the midst of turning the whole notion of climbing up from the bottom of the Winston Cup ladder into a mere historical footnote.

Just as the cars have gotten exponentially faster over the years, so have the success curves for 20-somethings like Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart, all of whom have won races as rookies in the past eight months.

Soon the memories of guys like Jarrett and Rudd will sound like the stories your cranky grandfather used to tell about walking three miles to school in the snow - uphill both ways.

"This is a new trend for teams like ours, to recognize that the young people coming in bring a lot of excitement," said Jack Roush, owner of a five-car Winston Cup stable. "It's a time of renewal for NASCAR."

After taking the last two Busch Grand National series crowns, Earnhardt Jr., 25, burst onto the Winston Cup scene April 2 with a win in just his 12th race - the DirecTV 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Kenseth, 28, started more slowly but has come on in the last month, winning the Coca-Cola 600 in Concord, N.C., on May 28, then placing second in the MBNA Platinum 400 in Dover, Del., the following week. And 29-year-old Stewart, 1999's Rookie of the Year, posted more victories by a first-year driver (three) than any other Winston Cup novice in history.

He's taken two of the last three Winston Cup races, winning the MBNA Platinum 400 in Dover, Del., on June 4, then taking the Kmart 400 at Michigan Speedway a week later.

The trio currently sits at seventh (Stewart), 12th (Kenseth) and 14th (Earnhardt Jr.) in the Winston Cup points standings heading into Sunday's Save Mart/Kragen 350 at Sears Point Raceway.

Though the rookies are beating out the grizzled old-schoolers, they still know when to pay respect to their elders. And in the case of guys like Earnhardt Jr., Kenseth and Stewart, that means lighting a candle at the statue of St. Jeff. Without Jeff Gordon's meteoric rise through the Winston Cup ranks - winning 50 races and three series titles before his 29th birthday - Earnhardt Jr. and Kenseth might still be toiling on the fringes.

"You probably have to give (Gordon) a lot of credit for making the doors open in NASCAR to give young drivers a chance, like me and Tony Stewart and Dale Jr.," Kenseth said. "Before that, there wasn't people that young and with that experience getting opportunities in them kind of rides."

Those rides are some of most plum spots on pit row. Earnhardt Jr. is racing a car backed by his father, seven-time series champion Dale Earnhardt Sr., and Budweiser. Kenseth runs out of Roush's widely-respected garage - also home to Martin and Jeff Burton, who finished third and fifth in last year's Winston Cup standings.

"I heard or read an interview with Ricky Rudd a while back, and he was saying that back when he was a rookie and a lot of other drivers were rookies, they had to drive junk and work their way into more competitive teams," Kenseth said. "I think that these days, almost all the teams in Winston Cup are good teams, have good equipment, have all the resources they need to be able to win races - and that makes a big difference.

"We stepped right into Roush Racing. We have Mark Martin and Jeff Burton, who've both been winning races for the last bunch of years. We have all the same equipment available to us that they have available to them, so that gives us a big head start," Kenseth said.

According to Martin - who originally spotted Kenseth and convinced Roush to sign him before the owner even had a car ready for him - the youngsters are benefiting from greater parity up and down Pit Row than when he came up the Winston Cup in 1981.

"Back then, there were only six or eight good cars in the whole circuit," Martin said. "So there were only six or eight superstars - like Buddy Baker, Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, Richard Petty, Bobby Allison. They were full up with superstars. Now, there's 40 good cars, and everybody's looking for that next superstar."

He'll get no argument from Roush.

"Rookies today are getting a chance to really be in top-notch equipment," Roush said. "There was a predisposition, say 10 years ago, that a rookie coming in was going to have to suffer in a program where he didn't have the best cars and the most able people and the best opportunity to win his races.

"Matt, Junior and Tony Stewart, for three, have all lacked for nothing."

Including victories.

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