The journey of a race car driver begins right from their childhood days. Young racers from the age of five get their first experience of racing on dirt tracks. This is one of the reasons why midget racing has exploded in recent years. From dirt tracks, the young drivers switch to asphalt, and by the age of 16 they are race-ready to compete in NASCAR.
But how exactly did this massive shift come into the picture, and who paved the way for this trend? Well, it looks like Kenny Wallace has an answer for that. And he isn’t impressed with how everyone is trying to fit into this new ideology of developing racers who are in their childhood phase.
Kenny Wallace highlights the big shift in nurturing young talent for the NASCAR stage
There’s a long list of kids who have already picked up racing as their career choice, thanks to their family’s racing roots. The likes of Brexton Busch, Wyatt Miller, Keelan Harvick, and Owen Larson are some of the big names who have already started to rake up wins and have a roadmap ahead of them. Well, things were different back when Wallace started racing; in fact, he had to start as a mechanic at Benfield Racing. And then transition into the role of a crew chief.
Brexton Busch is already making a name for himself, racking up multiple wins; he has 32 race wins at 13 different tracks. Keelan Harvick, on the other hand, has been making waves on the asphalt, winning the 2024 Legend Car Asphalt National Championship. For context, Brexton is just nine, whereas Keelan is just eleven, and their family has already planned out a road map for them. But, despite not being a fan of this trend of getting kids early into racing, Wallace has identified a positive element from this process.
