NASCAR’s newest stars far cry from pioneers

Thursday, May 28, 1998 | 10:36 a.m.

By MIKE HARRIS

AP Motorsports Writer

The late Curtis Turner liked to say that stock-car racing never would have started if the federal government hadn't chosen to tax moonshine.

It's well documented that Turner and many of the pioneer drivers of NASCAR built their first fast cars to outrun revenue agents while hauling white lightning.

But that was 50 years ago.

Back then, the fledgling sport existed mostly for the entertainment of good ol' boys in the southeastern United States. The drivers were hard-driving, hard-drinking, hard-playing men from the farm or the service station.

Quite often, the spectators were the same.

Now, NASCAR is a billion-dollar business, full of glitz, race tracks with luxury suites and drivers with razor-cut hair. From the spectacular growth curve, it seems to appeal to just about everyone.

The new young stars of the sport bear little resemblance to those of a half-century ago. But they do have one thing in common - the desire to race door-to-door and win.

The biggest star in the sport right now is Jeff Gordon, 26 years old and already a winner of 32 races and two Winston Cup championships.

Gordon, born in California, moved to Indiana as a teen-ager to drive race cars in the Midwest without a license.

John Bickford, his stepfather and the man who oversaw his climb from go-karts to Winston Cup, took Gordon to the track the first time, but it was the boy who wanted to go back.

"When he was 9, he'd been racing karts for four years, and I thought he was getting a little burned out." Bickford said. "I told him to take the summer off, play with his friends and we'd see about racing."

After two months of riding bicycles, swimming and just playing around, Gordon knew what he wanted.

"He said, 'Let's go racing."' Bickford recalled. "He hasn't stopped since.

That story is a fairly common among the young guns now challenging the established Winston Cup stars.

Of course, one path to the big time is through family.

Among the hot prospects in the Busch Series are third-generation drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jason Jarrett, son of Dale Jarrett. Coming soon are others - Terry Labonte's son, Justin, Kyle Petty's son, Adam, and Sterling Marlin's son, Steadman - all racing now at lower levels.

"This has always been a family business," said Kyle Petty, who followed his father, Richard, and his grandfather, Lee, to the NASCAR ovals. "I can't remember a time when it wasn't part of my life, and my daddy says the same thing.

"I wouldn't be encouraging my son to be part of it if I didn't believe it was a decent and worthwhile way to make a living."

Like Gordon, Tony Stewart is coming to stock cars by way of midwestern short tracks and open-wheel cars.

The 27-year-old Indiana native is the only driver to win titles in all three of the U.S. Auto Club's top divisions - Silver Crown, sprint and midget - in the same year. Since then, he has moved up to the Indy Racing League, where he won the series championship in 1997, and the Busch Series, where he drives for Joe Gibbs Racing.

The plan is for Stewart to move into Winston Cup next year as Bobby Labonte's teammate. His path to the big time has a familiar ring, starting with a child's car in the back yard.

"My mom was so furious at the amount of yard that I tore up. It was 'Something's got to go.' So we got a racing cart and started in that," Stewart said. "I guess I was 8 years old.

"At that age, you don't know anything about what you want to do, but I was just having fun doing it. I didn't mind giving up things to do that. I didn't go hang out with my friends on the weekends - I went racing. That was fine with me."

Jeremy Mayfield, a 28-year-old who stands second in the Winston Cup standings, heard the siren song of stock cars from his hometown of Owensboro, Ky.

"My uncle and my dad kind of messed with racing some, and I hung around them some," Mayfield said. "But I don't know if that's what got me thinking about it or not. All I can tell you is as long as I can remember, I've wanted to drive stock cars and be in Winston Cup racing."

Rookie Jerry Nadeau took another route to the top.

The 27-year-old from Danbury, Conn., came by way of the Skip Barber Racing School in Sears Point, Calif., the Formula Opal Series in Europe and IMSA's sports- car endurance series.

"I guess you can say it wasn't a traditional stock-car background," Nadeau said. "But it is a racing background.

"Originally, I figured I would wind up in an Indy-car racing in the Indianapolis 500. But, the road took me to NASCAR and the Daytona 500, and I couldn't be happier."