Did You Notice?: What Age Is Too Old for NASCAR Success?

Did You Notice?… Josh Berry won his first NASCAR Cup Series race at age 34? It happened in just his 53rd career Cup start, putting together a masterful drive for the Wood Brothers at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday (March 16).

The relationship between team and driver may be just five races old, but it has the makings of a perfect match. It’s one of the sport’s last remaining single-car teams (Team Penske affiliation notwithstanding) paired with an underdog who waited over a decade for a lifeline to move up the NASCAR ranks.

But what’s also unique about their partnership is it came in an era where most drivers who haven’t made it to the top by Berry’s age have long been thrown into the shredder. Among the current crop of Cup full-timers, Michael McDowell is the lone driver whose first Cup win came after age 35, and he racked up more than 300 starts before finding victory lane.

Oldest First-Time Cup Series Winners

• Active Cup Drivers Only

It’s a far cry from a generation ago, when Berry would have been the norm and not the exception in Cup. NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett didn’t earn his first win until age 34 (also with the Wood Brothers, coincidentally) and didn’t reach the peak of his NASCAR Cup success until after age 40. Bobby Hamilton won Rookie of the Year in 1991 at age 34, then won a handful of Cup races in a career that saw him racing full-time in competitive rides all the way through his mid-40s.

And, of course, there was Dick Trickle, one of the sport’s iconic drivers who won ROTY in 1989 at the ripe young age of 48. Trickle ran full time all the way through his mid-50s, collecting 15 top-five finishes with a short track background in the Midwest that would make Berry blush. He also had the added quirk of smoking inside the car (when it was allowed) in an old-school NASCAR moment we can all appreciate.

But I digress. What changed to make Berry’s mid-30s development arc an endangered species? The answer comes in a generation’s worth of Jeff Gordon copycats, his meteoric rise to a title at age 24 in 1995 leaving every top-tier NASCAR owner drooling to play copycat.

Combine an influx of corporate sponsorship and it’s easy to see why Fortune 500 companies were eager to pick people like Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, and Kyle Larson as this century unfolded. When you’re eager to market your sport to a younger crowd, it’s easy to get addicted to 20-somethings with a much longer career timeline (in theory) instead of 30-somethings with Dad Bod.

As Gordon’s title heads toward its 30th anniversary, the teenage craze continues. William Sawalich and Connor Zilisch are headed toward Cup rides before they’re legally old enough to drink. Corey Day just earned the Craftsman Truck Series pole at Las Vegas at the ripe old age of 19.

But maybe — just maybe — there’s some gentle realignment coming. SVG was plucked from Down Under to run for ROTY in his mid-30s, like Berry. He’s got the steady backing of Trackhouse and sponsors like Red Bull behind him. Allmendinger was promoted to Cup full-time for Kaulig this year, reappearing at the sport’s top level at age 43. Four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves moonlighted at the Daytona 500 and may dabble in NASCAR more despite turning 50 in May.

Perhaps more importantly, though, is a reinvestment in the short track level, the grassroots programs that led to generations of NASCAR stars. Twenty-seven-year-old Brenden Queen (Butterbean) is living proof of that; the 2024 CARS Late Model Stock Car Champion has opened eyes with an ARCA Menards Series Daytona win this February. The short track organization owned by former NASCAR stars Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Dale Earnhardt Jr., among others, aims to bring drivers up the old-fashioned way: showcasing their talents at bullrings across the southeast.

The end result of Berry’s success, along with SVG, is that there’s more of a balance going forward. As recently as 2009, 50-year-old Mark Martin finished second in the Cup standings. The ability to have talent in a sport that can last that long should be seen as a marketing advantage, not a detriment. After all, what helped make that 1995 title battle so appealing? Forty-four-year-old Dale Earnhardt Sr. battling against a changing of the guard, the rise of a driver nearly half his age.

Those are the special stories that capture attention of new fans. Let’s hope the sport keeps calibrating nicely as it finds that perfect balance between young and old.

Did You Notice? … Quick hits before taking off…

• Ty Gibbs. I hate to keep mentioning him, but boy does the pressure feel like it’s mounting every week. It’s hard to knock yourself out of contention this early in the NASCAR playoff system, but 60 points behind the cut line in five races? That’s a pretty deep hole. What’s worse is Gibbs has gone from a driver on the verge of a win to somebody driving the equivalent of a 30th-place car for a championship-caliber operation. And it happened in only a matter of months.
• In one of the quirkier stats this year, Joey Logano has led the most laps in the Cup Series (247) but has yet to earn a top-10 finish. Is odd-numbered Joey striking again?
• They’ve only won once, at the Daytona 500, but Hendrick Motorsports feels like they’re closing in on Team Penske a bit. All four drivers sit inside the top six in points and each one has battled back from mistakes that could have snakebit them in multiple races. Long way to go but there’s no other multi-car team that appears this strong across the board.

Follow Tom Bowles on X at @NASCARBowles

Tom Bowles

Majority Owner and Editor in Chief at Frontstretch

The author of Did You Notice? (Wednesdays) Tom spends his time overseeing Frontstretch’s 40+ staff members as its majority owner and Editor-in-Chief. Based outside Philadelphia, Bowles is a two-time Emmy winner in NASCAR television and has worked in racing production with FOX, TNT, and ESPN while appearing on-air for SIRIUS XM Radio and FOX Sports 1's former show, the Crowd Goes Wild. He most recently consulted with SRX Racing, helping manage cutting-edge technology and graphics that appeared on their CBS broadcasts during 2021 and 2022.

You can find Tom’s writing here, at CBSSports.com and Athlonsports.com, where he’s been an editorial consultant for the annual racing magazine for 15 years.