Chase Elliott leaves the garage after practice Thursday at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. The 22-year-old Dawsonville, Ga., native is among the young drivers who were expected to boost NASCAR, but the 2016 rookie of the year has yet to win a Cup Series race.DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It was the finish NASCAR banked on as the genesis of its ballyhooed youth movement.
Austin Dillon and Darrell Wallace Jr. finished first and second in the Daytona 500 this past February. The promising of 20-somethings were behind the wheel of cars sporting numbers that could excite old-school fans, yet they possessed enough social media savvy to attract millennials to a sport in dire need of a spark.
The kids were coming!
Wallace and good buddy Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Chase Elliott and Daniel Suarez were among the relative newcomers in NASCAR who had their images plastered on billboards and program covers, hailed as the Cup Series’ version of the next big thing.
But with the regular season more than halfway over, the series returns this weekend to Daytona International Speedway with the so-called “Young Guns” in danger of becoming the next big bust.