NASCAR's Winston Cup circuit will be age 40 or older.
Currently, 20 Winston Cup drivers fit into that particular
age bracket.But Mark said the sport's future drivers will begin their careers at a younger age, they'll have a schedule that will consume 40 weekends annually and they'll still have to deal with tests, sponsor obligations and other business that now accompanies NASCAR's premier series.
"Not only will these guys be tired of it when they get over 40, they will have accomplished what they want to in their career," Mark said. "They will have started as a teenager."
Mark also notes that experience won't be as valuable as it is today because of the technology that will be available.
"Their team is going to have the car right for them instead of them having to get the car right for the team," Mark explained recently. "So many of the drivers today tell the teams what to do to the cars. Rusty (Wallace) does. I do. (Jeff) Burton does. A lot of other ones do."
He noted that the late Dale Earnhardt always knew about his car, but wouldn't discuss it. On the other hand, Wallace and Mark have traded information since their ASA days.
"Ten years ago, in 1991, I was so close to race cars at that time and worked on them myself for years, that if I had time, I could buy a chassis, get some buddies to help me in a garage, hang the body, get a motor and put in it," Mark said. "I knew what springs and shocks to put under the car. I could go to the track and qualify in the top five and race in the top five with a good pit crew and all of the right ingredients. The car would be very competitive.
"If I built a car today, it would not be competitive at all. There's so many people and technology and specialization that I couldn't do the things I did 10 years ago. It's not because I've lost touch with racing; it's because of the technical assistance that exists. To me, that makes the driver less important.
"One of the reasons I think young drivers are the wave of the future is because drivers 40 and over were critical in the past because of their car knowledge and their experience. They didn't have the engineering backup of people as much to rely on, so you had to rely on the driver for an enormous amount of input. Now, the teams are headed off in the Formula 1 technology direction.
"It's a challenging adjustment for me because I'm an old-school guy who runs those setups in his mind while he lays in the bed at night awake, when I can't sleep. The engineers run them on a computer and they're probably more accurate than mine."
