The Daytona 500 is a Reflection of American Society: Part 3 – The Drivers

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The 1950s were a much different time in Central Florida. When the first Daytona 500 was held, most of the drivers were basically reformed moonshine runners from the hills of South Carolina, trying their best to earn an “honest” living going in excess of 150 miles per hour on a high banked tri-oval in the swampy wilderness that was Daytona Beach. Fast forward nearly 60 years, and you have a full field of paid professional drivers, where even the team that finishes in last place in the Great American race earns a paycheck in excess of a quarter million dollars!

The makeup of the drivers themselves has changed quite a bit as well. The era of the middle aged experienced guy behind the wheel has all but come to a close. It has been replaced by younger drivers whose passion for the sport and eagerness to do anything to win has pushed the envelope of racing to a tipping point.

It has been said that the new drivers coming into the sport mature so quickly because of the advances in modern technology, such as video games and simulations. This is a point that can be argued until you are blue in the face, but the simply answer is that most of these young men and women have been racing almost as long as the middle aged men were when they got into the sport; they just got into it much younger in life.

Some drivers start racing as young as 4 years of age, taking on the world of quarter midgets and sprint cars, and slowly making their way up into the heavy dinosaurs that are the modern stock car. Even if they enter the upper echelon of the Cup series when they are in their late teens, most of them already have more than a decade of racing under their belts.

The sport also attracts drivers from other series as well. IndyCar star and Formula One winner Juan Pablo Montoya spent more than 10 years behind the wheel in NASCAR before returning to his open wheel roots.

“To be honest with you bro, my winning Monaco was very special, or my first win at Monza in 2001,” stated Montoya. “Those two are pretty big. There are a lot of good memories from there. Had a good time there.”

NASCAR has also attracted what might be the biggest money making machine in the history of the sport; Danica Patrick. Patrick had one win in the IndyCar series before moving her driving “talent,” and massive sponsor appeal to the Cup series. Although this is her last year under contract with Stewart Haas Racing, her star hasn’t tarnished despite not making it to Victory Lane in NASCAR.

In this year’s Daytona 500, Patrick finished in 21st place. Before the race began, Patrick joked with spotter Brandon Benesch that she should send her stylist bill to NASCAR because the week had made her hair “significantly gray.”

NASCAR has also seen the rise of only the second African American to make it to the upper eschelon of the sport. Darrell “Bubba” Wallace, who drove to many victories for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, began 2015 with a 12th place finish in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

Another driver who came up through the ranks of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity is Kyle Larson, who enjoys driving anything with wheels! His early success in motorsports led him to the Cup Series, driving for Target Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.  Larson’s sophomore campaign got off to a slow start after a day marred by pit road troubles that seemed to derail the 2014 Sunoco Rookie of the Year at inopportune times.

One of the up and coming drivers who quietly slipped under the radar of most of NASCAR fandom is 23 year old Cole Whitt, driver of the No. 35 Speed Stick Ford for Front Row Motorsports. In his first start with the expanded Front Row organization, Whitt had his best-career finish at Daytona.

“There’s nothing better than experience and seat time. Racing in this top tier of the sport, you pick up things that Kevin Harvick does really well and things that Kyle Busch does really well, and you can you that to advance your position on the track,” stated Whitt.

NASCAR has come very far from the days of backwoods hicks trying to run from the law, and has developed into a multi-billion dollar industry where the amount of money you have can, and often does, determine how well you finish.  Be sure to read part 1 of the series, discussing the track; part 2, talking about the teams; and stay tuned for part 4 of the series, where we discuss the fans and why they love the sport.

Adam Sinclair
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