Ward Burton, a 2002 Daytona 500 winner and former NASCAR driver, has blasted young drivers in the sport for showing little regard for competition, especially those in the Xfinity Series. He emphasized that because they are given early opportunities, they bypass the learning process and become more rude to other drivers. In recent weeks, there has been much discussion about the conduct of young drivers in NASCAR, and the Xfinity Series race from Martinsville last weekend appears to have added gasoline to the fire. Young drivers “got no skin in the game,” Kyle Petty recently noted, highlighting the lack of respect.
Sammy Smith lost the lead after colliding with race leader Taylor Gray in the final lap of last Saturday’s Xfinity race. Behind them, the incident set off a series of events that resulted in other drivers colliding. Following the event, Smith and Gray almost got into a physical altercation outside the care facility. Thankfully, security stopped the two drivers from fighting. Burton underlined that he used to win the respect of NASCAR veterans during his time in the sport, and it wasn’t done by slamming into them. In his Crossroads podcast, he stated: “The young men coming into these series don’t show the ones that’s been running these series the respect that I used to show when I first got to the Busch Series or I first got to the Winston Cup Series.
I had to gain the respect of those older males. I wasn’t going to earn it by running them over. Once more, I will refrain from using derogatory language. Long before he made his Cup Series debut at age 33, Burton joined the Xfinity Series at the age of 29. However, with 22-year-old drivers like Ty Gibbs and Carson Hocevar participating in the Cup Series, things have changed. “They just don’t have that kind of respect, especially in the Xfinity Series and the Cup Series,” Burton continued. For someone who has been in the series for a long time to run you over, or for someone to run over the 11 car.
When I was racing, that didn’t happen. That degree of respect should therefore return, but I’m worried that given the current situation and the ages of many of these children receiving opportunities, they haven’t had the same educational possibilities as we did in the past.” Will NASCAR amend the regulations to guarantee that young drivers follow the rules? Time will tell.
