Since Jeff Gordon broke the mold over 20 years ago that dictated experienced drivers are a must-have for race team owners, it seems car owners these days are going for younger and younger talents. Everyone, of course, is looking for the next Jeff Gordon, but not every career pans out.
With the influx of up-and-coming drivers in NASCAR, it can be a valuable tool to know who shines the brightest and who is a flash in the pan.
These are drivers who haven’t yet started their first full rookie season in the Cup series, and in my humble opinion have shown the greatest potential to be the Sprint Cup series stars of tomorrow (and in some cases, quite literally tomorrow).
Top NASCAR Young Guns
10. John Hunter Nemechek — The 17-year-old son of NASCAR veteran Joe Nemechek broke out last December with a top five finish in the highly-regarded late model event, the Snowball Derby, at Five Flags Speedway.
He has since backed that up with three top-10’s in five starts in the Camping World Truck series in 2014. After a sixth place at the “Monster Mile”, Dover International Speedway in late May, he saw a potential victory at Gateway in June ruined by a flat tire late in the race. He still led 53 laps (of 160) and ran up front most of the night, impressing a lot of folks.
When the Truck series headed to the half-mile dirt track of Eldora Speedway a couple weeks ago for the second running of the “Mudsummer” Classic”, Nemechek proved he could race with the best by coming home sixth.
Before he reached NASCAR, Nemechek was crowned the 2012 Allison Legacy Series champion, winning 15 of the series’ 18 events. Look for John Hunter in upcoming Truck races, and do not be surprised if you see him get a win before the year is out.
9. Brett Moffitt — Moffitt made his Sprint Cup debut earlier this year at Dover, driving the No. 66 Toyota owned by Jay Robinson to a well-deserved second place finish after starting 18th. This is a car that is primarily shared between veterans Joe Nemechek, Jeff Burton and Michael Waltrip, and Moffitt took it to one of its top performances of the year at one of the toughest tracks on the schedule.
Moffitt is a driver that has been able to lead laps and dominate races in the K&N Pro East series, but has also had the unfortunate characteristic of being unable to close out those same races. In 61 career starts, Moffitt has nine wins, and he nearly won the 2012 East season championship, coming up short at Rockingham when Moffitt and Tyler Reddick collided on the final lap while battling for the win (As a nod to his maturity, Moffitt gave a composed and classy interview after the race).
Moffitt inked a multi-year deal with Michael Waltrip Racing in June, so his future looks set for the time being.
8. Darrell Wallace Jr. — The Joe Gibbs developmental driver has been a valuable asset to the team in 2014, sitting fifth in the Truck series standings with two wins. “Bubba” also leads the series regulars in the laps-led category with 291.
After a rough start to the season that saw Wallace Jr. record only two top-10’s in the first six races and fall to 11th in the standings, he rebounded with four straight races that averaged a driver rating of 132.5 (out of a perfect 150), including wins at Gateway and Eldora, where he led 97 of 150 laps at the tough dirt track and held off a charging Kyle Larson.
In 2011, Bubba finished second in the K&N Pro East series championship, sharing the series lead of three wins.
Of course, one of the biggest reasons Bubba garnishes as much attention as he does is the fact that he’s African-American, and when he captured his first Truck win last fall at Martinsville, he became only the second black driver ever to win a NASCAR-sanctioned race, after Wendell Scott set the standard in 1963 at Jacksonville.
Currently in the pipeline to drive a Gibbs Toyota in the Cup series at some point in the near future, Wallace Jr. is preparing to join an elite team that furnishes fast cars and valuable veterans such as Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and (probably) Carl Edwards.
7. Daniel Suarez — A graduate of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, Suarez got 2014 off to a kicking start with three wins in three races spanning the K&N Pro East and NASCAR Toyota series. The native of Monterrey, Mexico, is currently leading the NASCAR Toyota series championship standings with four wins in eight races this year and an average finish of 4.5.
Suarez made his Nationwide series debut this year as well, piloting the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Toyota to a 19th place finish at Richmond in late April, after starting 12th.
The Drive for Diversity program seems to be finally producing some realistically competitive drivers, and with some solid backing from an elite team such as Gibbs, Suarez could prove to be the most successful from that group.
6. Erik Jones — Beyond his early success in the NASCAR ranks, this up-and-coming 18-year-old has proven his mettle in the short track late model ranks, racking up victories in the 2013 Winchester 400, the 2014 Howie Lettow Memorial 150, and back to back wins in the Snowball Derby in 2012 and 2013.
Casual race fans may not recognize the names of these races, but on the regional scale of short track races, those are big wins. The Snowball Derby is one of the biggest and most prestigious late model races to be run every year. The race has been run every year since 1968 and always on the first weekend in December, which bodes well for the biggest stars of American stock car racing, since the NASCAR season is over and guys like Kyle Busch can run it.
Indiana’s Winchester Speedway has played host to a race of it’s namesake every fall since 1970, and some of NASCAR’s biggest stars, such as Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin, have won it and launched their careers.
The Howie Lettow Memorial 150 is a much newer event, but still draws praise as one of the midwest’s biggest summer races at the Milwaukee Mile, one of the world’s oldest continually operating racetracks.
Like Suarez, Jones made his Nationwide series debut this year in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota, finishing seventh after qualifying fourth at Chicagoland in July. Jones ran competitively all night, running in the top-15 for all but two laps.
With two wins in his first nine career Truck series starts driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports, Jones has shown all the potential of a NASCAR championship driver in the making.
5. Ryan Blaney — This year, Blaney is focusing on winning a Camping World Truck series championship, and is on course to do just that, as he currently leads the championship standings with seven top-fives in 11 races and an average finish of 7.4 in 2014. The only thing missing from his resume this year is a win.
But that hasn’t diminished his resume at all. Blaney, the son of sprint car legend and former NASCAR Cup driver Dave Blaney, found his inaugural victory in a truck in his third career start, beating the field at Iowa in 2012. The 20-year-old from High Point, North Carolina, brought home another Truck win in 2013 at Pocono.
In April 2012, Blaney made his Nationwide debut driving the No. 36 Tommy Baldwin Chevy, and finished seventh among some of the top teams in the series. Since that marvelous run, Roger Penske has picked up Blaney and put him in a competitive ride, which resulted in his first career win at Kentucky last September.
In seven starts in this year’s Nationwide campaign, Blaney has six top-10’s and a pole at Iowa to back up his stock car prowess. Blaney also debuted in the Cup series earlier this season at Kansas Speedway, bringing the No. 12 Penske Ford home to a 27th-place finish after suffering a late tire problem. Blaney was running on the lead lap for most of the night.
For those wondering what will become of Blaney, it was just announced last week that he will be running a partial schedule in the Cup series in 2015 with the legendary Wood Brothers, driving the No. 21 Ford that fellow Nationwide driver Trevor Bayne has piloted for the last three years. Blaney will still continue to drive for Penske with a full-time ride in the Nationwide series.
4. Ben Rhodes — This kid has turned up the wick big time in the K&N Pro East series in 2014, with a hot streak of four consecutive wins and five of six earlier in the season. He leads the standings by 72 points over Cameron Hayley (another fresh talent). The 17-year-old from Louisville, Kentucky, is well on his way to winning the title, with ten top-10’s out of 12 races thus far.
Rhodes’ qualifying has been a big help. In 12 races, he has five poles and an average starting position of 2.3, with a season low of sixth at Columbus. The excellent starts have helped him to run every lap run this year — a total of 1,709 — and has led 757 of those circuits.
Rhodes also snagged a top-10 finish in his first start in the NASCAR Truck series, finishing eighth at tough ol’ Martinsville Speedway in March, a half-mile known for punishing drivers that are hard on their brakes. If Rhodes is capable of a top-10 at the “paperclip”, it proves he has knowledge beyond his years.
Of course, some may add an asterisk to his success in the East series due to his financial backing. Driving for Turner-Scott Racing — a team that has dominated the lower divisions of stock car racing in recent years — will do that for you, but just take a glance at the tracks the series races at. All short tracks. The largest is the .875-mile Iowa Speedway, which does not require aerodynamics or a powerful engine to be fast.
Rhodes is on the fast track with an ever-improving Turner-Scott Motorsports team, and if he can time his move to the Cup series right, he’ll be on the fast track for a championship as well.
3. Ross Chastain — Under the radar of many race fans’ emerging superstar list, Chastain has been the unfortunate victim of a lack of space from the big teams. His biggest letdown thus far was being let go by 2012 Cup series champ Brad Keselowski from his Truck team at the end of the last year. This year, Chastain has three Nationwide starts to his name with a best finish of 12th at Michigan in June, all driving for underfunded teams.
Chastain finished 10th in his Truck series debut at Indianapolis Raceway Park in 2011. In 2013, the Florida native took his National Watermelon Association sponsorship with him to Brad Keselowski’s team and won two poles at Iowa and Phoenix, finishing second in both races as well. The runner-up at Phoenix was especially heartbreaking for Chastain, who led 63 of 150 laps but lost the lead on a restart with 10 laps left to eventual winner Erik Jones.
His couple of near wins with Keselowski’s Truck team combined with his strong runs in weaker equipment should provide all the incentive for one of the top teams to pick him up. If no one does, it will be a great shame for a driver that possibly holds potential of winning a NASCAR championship some day.
2. Brandon Jones — I don’t know what’s more daunting — this kid’s future or his past.
What I’m referring to is Jones’ quickly developing reputation of using his front bumper to win races. He used a last lap bump-and-run move on Mason Mitchell at Winchester Speedway in early July that would make Dale Earnhardt blush, divebombing turn three and side-slamming Mitchell to win in his ARCA series debut.
Then, Jones pulled a near-identical move on Nick Drake on the final lap of the K&N Pro East series at Loudon, New Hampshire, a week later. That one did not work as well, as the two ended up wadded up in the wall and Jesse Little moving by both of them to win his maiden race.
The wrecklessness will not be the end of Jones, however. The list is long with driver names that have begun a career with crashes and mistakes, but have panned out to be successful, championship-worthy racers. Jones just needs to catch the right breaks with the top teams in the sport.
1. Chase Elliott — I know what you’re thinking. All we’ve heard about this year is the uprising of Chase Elliott, and how spectacular he has been against the top guns. But the proof is in the pudding.
The 18-year-old son of 1988 Winston Cup champion and 2-time Daytona 500 winner Bill Elliott has grabbed all the media hype in 2014, but frankly, he’s deserved much of it. Elliott took his first career Truck win last summer with a controversial dumping of Ty Dillon on the final corner of the race at Bowmanville.
Elliott has since added three victories to his resume in his inaugural season in the Nationwide series in 2014, in which he leads the championship standings. If Elliott can pull off winning the championship this year, he will become the first rookie-of-the-year contender to do so.
With wins in the 2011 Snowball Derby and the All American 400 at the old Nashville Fairgrounds, Elliott has proven his worth on the small scale, scrappy levels of racing, where good hard racing is the name of the game. Elliott also took the checkered flag first at the 2013 Snowball Derby, leading 233 of 300 laps, but the win was taken away after officials discovered tungsten in the car, an oversight by Elliott’s crew chief that resulted in the car being underweight.
The bottom line: Chase is on the path to becoming the best Elliott since, well, his father. Can he win a Cup championship and 40-plus races? Time will tell, but his early success and talent is pointed in that direction.
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