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Enjoy the last of a generation

By JOHN ROMANO
Published February 20, 2005

DAYTONA BEACH - The season, it begins in a rush. Weeks of anticipation, obliterated in a single moment of noise and commotion.

The era, it passes more slowly. It unfolds driver by driver, race by race, until the day you look up and realize it is nearly gone.

So enjoy the start of something fresh today. Thrill in the sound of engines turning over and a season starting anew.

But savor the passing of an era, too.

You may not see another like it for quite some time.

Yes, there are plenty of stories to be told these days. Of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kurt Busch. Of shorter spoilers and softer tires. Of a sport that continues to swell beyond logic and expectation.

This is not a story along those lines. This is about a group of men long past 40 and racing toward 50. This is about drivers steering toward retirement.

Bill Elliott pulled up last season. Terry Labonte, Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace are beginning their final drives this season. Dale Jarrett, Sterling Marlin, Kyle Petty and Ricky Rudd have made no announcements about retirement, but vacations in the rearview mirror may be closer than they appear.

They are some of the biggest names in stock car racing. The bridge between the legends who grew the sport, and the fresh faces taking it somewhere new.

This is the last full generation of drivers who spent years chasing checkered flags on cheap dirt tracks, working nights to repair their own engines, and sweating in a garage before it became the land of millionaires.

"We've seen this sort of thing happen before, with my dad and Bobby Allison and (Cale) Yarborough and (David) Pearson and some of those guys," Petty said. "A group of drivers racing against each other for 20 or 30 years and then, all of a sudden, disappearing from the landscape.

"Now we're seeing it again, but I think this will be the last mass exit from the sport. After this group is gone, I think you'll see it more like other sports, where they start leaving at a younger age. This might be the last class that hangs in there this long."

It's not the drivers who have changed. It's more the opportunities. Drivers need not spend a decade waiting for a decent ride to come their way. They are barely out of high school and running in the front of the pack.

The fortunes, too, have changed. Martin finished 14th in the Cup standings in his first full season in 1982, and won about $125,000. Busch finished 27th in his first full season in 2001 and won more than $2.1-million.

By the time Jeff Gordon turned 30 in 2001, he was the richest driver in NASCAR history with more than $45-million in career earnings. And, though he is not talking retirement, he makes it clear he will not follow the current crowd by driving into his late 40s.

"Even if I'm healthy and everything is good, I won't go to that age," Gordon said. "There are more demands on your time these days and, as the years go by, they wear you down. Because the sport has been so good to me, I've been able to build up outside interests. But because of the demands in the sport, I haven't had time to enjoy them."

In a way, this generation of drivers has gotten exactly what they sought. The sport has grown, the money has zoomed, the profile has been raised.

But somewhere along the line, that meant sacrificing the simplicity of the competition for the grandiosity of the business.

"Buckling the seat belt, grabbing the steering wheel, that's what we love. That's what we dreamed about," Petty said. "Flying across the country for a two-hour meeting with the sponsor? Signing autographs for four hours at Target? That's not what we dreamed about.

"I'm not complaining. This is what we've built. But it's like a snowball rolling downhill, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and there's no way to stop it. If it was just about driving, we'd all drive forever."

This is ultimately what has driven Martin to the idea of retirement. He still wants to compete, but he doesn't want to work.

That means, at 46, Martin will pick and choose his races. He may race in the truck series. He may go to smaller dirt tracks. He definitely will spend more time with his son at races.

"I have never called in sick. I've driven with broken ribs, wrists, knees. I've been bruised with this and sick with that," Martin said. "But that's the type of commitment it takes, and I'm not willing to do that in 2006.

"I don't want to wait until it's too late. I don't want to look back and say I wish I had been around my family more. I'm still capable and I still have a passion, but I'm not going to be caught hanging on to something I can't hang on to. The idea of that scares me to death."

Wallace, too, is tired of the grind. Enough so that he is ready to walk away from something he dearly loves.

"I'm still waking up in the middle of the night, doubting my decision," Wallace said. "I lay in bed thinking, "I love this sport. Why am I doing this?' "

Among them, Elliott, Jarrett, Labonte, Martin, Rudd and Wallace represent nearly half of the top 13 winningest drivers in the modern era (post-1972). They represent an era when the sport was still confined mostly to the South. An era when fans seemed closer to the action, and drivers seemed nearer the common man. An era when racing was all that mattered.

"When I was younger, (Richard) Petty and Yarborough and Allison and that crew were all beginning to retire," Labonte said. "We carried on without them, and the sport will continue without us."

Sure, when the last of them have gone, NASCAR may look the same.

It may even sound the same.

But it will feel different.

[Last modified February 20, 2005, 00:54:14]