Austin Dillon, left, talks with Daniel Hemric before Friday’s qualifying session at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., for Sunday’s race on the new “roval” course.CONCORD, N.C. – Jamie McMurray set a record at Charlotte Motor Speedway when he won the second start of his NASCAR Cup Series career. Back at the track for the 16th anniversary of that surprise trip to victory lane, McMurray is just another veteran driver at a career crossroads.
McMurray doesn’t yet have a job for 2019. Neither does AJ Allmendinger or former Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne. Ryan Newman was released from Richard Childress Racing, Kurt Busch won’t be back at Stewart-Haas Racing and 2017 series champion Martin Truex Jr. is a free agent because his Furniture Row Racing team is shutting down after the season ends in November.
Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler are retiring at the end of the season. Casey Mears never got a retirement tour – his job prospects simply dried up, and he moved his family to Arizona over the summer.
That’s how it goes these days in NASCAR. The former rising stars who came in as a youthful wave of new energy early this century are now a bunch of aging graybeards fighting to hang on to their rides.
The youth movement continued Friday when JTG Daughtery Racing opened the weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway by introducing 27-year-old Ryan Preece as Allmendinger’s replacement. A few hours later, Richard Childress Racing announced Daniel Hemric, also 27, would fill Newman’s seat.