Wanted: Young Guns

NASCAR’s ranks are devoid of up-and-coming young drivers. The sport needs to remedy that situation and fast, or it risks losing an entire generation of fans

Next time you’re flipping through the back pages of your favorite racing magazine, don’t be surprised if you run across a personal ad that reads something like this: “Big-time racing league ISO drivers age 20-26. Experience preferred but not required. Personality a plus. Sponsorship $$ or potential to attract sponsors a big must.”

Kyle Busch

OK, OK. You probably won’t see that ad anytime soon. But it’s become increasingly clear that NASCAR is in dire need of some fresh, young talent in its Sprint Cup Series. Attendance is down considerably, and — perhaps worse, in NASCAR’s eyes — TV ratings are way down as well.

Much of this decline appears to be caused not by the poor economy, but by the defection of men between the ages of 18 and 34, the young fans NASCAR hopes to build its next generation of support around. For the races it televised earlier this year, Fox Sports revealed that its ratings among that prized demographic were down 29 percent from 2009.

Brad Keselowski

“The biggest problem facing NASCAR is that the young males have left the sport,” Fox Sports executive David Hill told the Sports Business Journal. Hill didn’t speculate on what drove these viewers away or what they might be doing instead of watching or attending the races. But I wonder about this possibility:

Is NASCAR losing its young fans because there are so few young drivers in the Sprint Cup?

Did you realize that there were no rookies in the Daytona 500 this year? Or that the only true Sprint Cup rookie this year was 31-year-old Kevin Conway, who lost his ride in the No. 34 Ford in August after averaging a 32nd-place finish for the first two-thirds of the season?