“Look at the kid wrassle his car!” said Darrell Waltrip excitedly. And he is right. They are kids. I cannot comprehend the age the kids driving in NASCAR. They barely have their driver’s license and they are in charge of 800 horsepower machines. Those machines are slowly grinning, knowing they can devour the young kids. They do not know anything yet, but they can learn. NASCAR has always been known as an unnecessary sport for unrefined people, so let the kids go to college and earn a degree.

But, I expect NASCAR is afraid that the kids would do something else with their life. I always say half would stay and half would go, but it wouldn’t matter. The fans will still watch drivers like Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, and Jeff Gordon. They are all 30 and it is to late for them to get a degree.

On top of that, it is almost impossible to get into the sport if you waited until you were 20 years old. That is only two years, but in those two years you can learn to drive a stock car or learn something with a book because I always say a book is your best friend.

A great example of this is Ryan Newman. Newman went to the University of Purdue and got a degree in Mechanics. By the way, in case you didn’t know, all of the crew members and crew chiefs have degrees in mechanics. Anyway, Newman has a different career to fall back on. Joey Logano has been driving since he was 3 days removed from his 18th birthday. In NASCAR anyway. Other auto racing divisions like Legends cars can be driven from age 10. He worked his way hard through the system, and earned this privilidge by being the best at whatever car he was in, from Legends to


the NASCAR Nationwide Series. And, he is not a bad kid either, I am a huge fan, but he is just too young. But, what does Logano not have. A life after NASCAR.

Also, what about after their career? If they get hurt? What would they do? If they had majored in mechanics, they could at least get a desk job at a car dealer or tire shop. So, what I am trying to say is not that I hate NASCAR, I cherish it, but I just don’t think it is fair that a twenty year old cannot be a NASCAR driver or that a teenager could get hurt and ruin their life if they do not have a college education.