Every NASCAR team needs to have a starting point, and those starting points need capable drivers. But are teenagers the right targets for underfunded teams?
Small NASCAR teams know what they’re getting into when they start a Cup Series team. There are going to be a lot of struggles for many years and not many bright spots along the way.
You have success stories like that of Furniture Row Racing, who played the little guy in a David and Goliath-style tale. They’ve laid out the blueprint for smaller teams to follow, but many teams have yet to catch on.
Currently, these small and underfunded teams are electing to target younger drivers to race full seasons in their cars instead of veterans. The problem with this is the fact that these young drivers are being handed the keys to a full-time Cup Series ride and are taking this fast route over properly developing themselves in the lower ranks of NASCAR.
I’m assuming that all these young competitors thought jumping straight into the Cup Series with an immensely underfunded team was a good idea as opposed to doing it the old-fashioned way and earning their stripes in the lower series of NASCAR.
Maybe they thought that it would give them exposure, although I don’t understand how running between 30th and 40th place every race could be considered good exposure.
This is something I’ve noticed drivers doing with many small budget Cup Series teams, but the most frequent abusers of young drivers is definitely BK Racing.
BK Racing is a controversial team in many regards both on and off the track. Unlike most smaller teams who choose to let veteran drivers test their equipment and use the experience as a means to further the team, they choose to target younger drivers.
I want to highlight three young drivers that have fallen prey to this team’s temptations and whose careers I believe suffered as a result of it.
Alex Bowman
Alex Bowman has found his way to the golden valley of NASCAR at Hendrick Motorsports, but it wasn’t all easy early on in his career.
Before BK Racing, at age 18, Bowman raced for a number of teams in different series across the NASCAR plane. In 2011, he raced for four different K&N Pro Series East teams in 12 races and found his way to seven top 10 finishes. Also in 2011, he earned two wins in two races while competing in ARCA.
That consistent effort landed Bowman a full-time ride for Cunningham Motorsports in ARCA in 2012. This is where he was able to show off his talent and finished in 4th place in the standings with four wins, 11 top 5 finishes, and 13 top 10 finishes.
Bowman made the next leap to the Xfinity Series in the form of a full-time ride with RAB Racing in 2013. While the learning curve was noticeable given the fact that he only recorded two top 5 finishes and six top 10 finishes with an average finish of 16.5, he still put up solid statistics for a rookie and now had a great base to grow from as a driver.
Instead of choosing to take on another full-year in the Xfinity Series and continuing to grow, he jumped at the opportunity to become a Cup Series regular at BK Racing in 2014.
Alex Bowman (continued)
Fast forward two years and two full-time NASCAR Cup Series seasons later, and Alex Bowman has just four top 20 finishes in 72 races for BK Racing and Tommy Baldwin the 2014 and 2015 season, respectively.
At this point in his career, he was left without a full-time ride in any NASCAR series. His time at BK Racing and Tommy Baldwin Racing left him without any meaningful statistics to speak of and an evident lack of confidence.
Bowman was lucky to be granted a few races in the #88 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series in 2016, and he managed to secure three top 5 finishes and seven top 10 finishes in nine races.
Bowman had this to say about those races, according to USA Today:
"“Dale Earnhardt Jr. saved my career two years ago when he gave me that chance in the Xfinity car. Without him saying, ‘Hey put Alex in it,’ I don’t think that Hendrick Motorsports really would have thought of me (for Earnhardt’s replacement.)”"
So, Bowman’s career saved by a lucky break. What if Dale Earnhardt Jr. had never asked him to drive his car? He may have never found his way to the Cup Series again, and certainly not for Hendrick Motorsports.
Ryan Truex
At age 17, Ryan Truex found himself signing a development contract with Michael Waltrip Racing and getting ready to start a racing dynasty with his older brother Martin.
He started his NASCAR career in the K&N Pro Series East, where he won the series championship two years in a row with five wins, 15 top 5 finishes, and 17 top 10 finishes in just 21 starts combined in those two seasons, which would be an amazing start to anyone’s racing career.
In 2011, Truex was promoted to the Xfinity Series, where he was only granted 11 races before Michael Waltrip Racing released him from his contract due to lack of sponsorship. This also came during Michael Waltrip Racing’s decline and eventual shutdown.
He finished out the season driving for Joe Gibbs Racing. He finished his first Xfinity Series season with one top 5 finish and five top 10 finishes in 17 starts and an average finish of 16.4.
Truex found himself without a full-time ride for three years from 2011 to 2013. In 2012, he took part-time work in the Xfinity Series, where he recorded four top 10 finishes in 11 starts. This went on until BK Racing came calling in 2014.
Truex’s situation was a bit more understandable than Alex Bowman’s was. Truex struggled to latch on to a team after Michael Waltrip Racing let him go. He had a chance for a full-time ride, and while I still consider it a mistake, he took his only opportunity for consistent work.
Ryan Truex (continued)
After a 2014 season during which Ryan Truex recorded only one top 20 finish in 23 races, his Cup Series career came to an end after a wrist injury had him replaced from BK Racing before the season’s end.
This left him, once again, with his career in jeopardy since he did not have a ride in the 2015 season.
In 2016, Hattori Racing Enterprises called him up and offered him a part-time ride in the Truck Series and followed it with a full-time offer for the 2017 season. He managed nine top 5 finishes and 17 top 10 finishes in 38 starts with Hattori Racing Enterprises over the course of those two seasons.
He tweeted this out earlier in the 2018 season after Hattori Racing Enterprises found victory lane with Brett Moffitt. He was asked by a fan how it felt to see someone else win with the team after he failed to do so in both of the previous two seasons.
It’s all good. They helped me get my career back on track, those guys deserve every bit of success they get this year https://t.co/lHyE8Bj6WL
— Ryan Truex (@Ryan_Truex) February 25, 2018
Truex now drives for Kaulig Racing in the Xfinity Series and seems to have a stable foothold in his career, but at 26 years old, will he ever be able to make the name for himself that he could have if he hadn’t wasted his time riding around in 30th place with BK Racing?
Gray Gaulding
Currently, BK Racing is competing full-time in the Cup Series (from the back) with 20-year old Gray Gaulding. Gaulding started his career with one of the most desirable rides in racing with Krispy Kreme Donuts sponsoring him in every race of his young NASCAR career.
He started in the K&N Pro Series East driving for SS-Greenlight Racing and NTS Motorsports from in the 2013 season and the 2014 season, respectively. In those two seasons, he racked up seven top 5 finishes and 17 top 10 finishes in 30 starts.
These statistics were not outstanding, but for a young man with subpar equipment and a top-tier sponsor backing him, they were more than enough to warrant a further exploration of his career prospects.
Unfortunately, the 2014 season was the last season during which Gaulding would race a full-time NASCAR schedule until 2018.
He moved on from NTS Motorsports to run limited schedules for Red Horse Racing and Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Truck Series in 2015, where he showed enough promise to cause Roush Fenway Racing to sign him to a development driver contract. He competed in two races for RFR in the Xfinity Series in 2016, and he finished in 13th place in both.
Gray Gaulding (continued)
However, it can be speculated that patience was not considered a virtue by Gray Gaulding, as he opted out of his deal with Roush Fenway Racing and decided to jump straight into the Cup Series to drive for BK Racing in 2017 on a limited schedule, thus losing his loyal sponsor Krispy Kreme and possibly his chance at a dependable Cup Series ride in the future.
Obviously, this did not lead to much success, as Gaulding only managed two top 20 finishes, with both coming at Talladega, in 18 races for BK Racing during the 2017 season. He was lucky – or unlucky depending on how you choose to view it – to be given a contract to race for BK Racing full-time in 2018. He is currently competing for the team.
Instead of developing his career at a normal rate and earning his stripes in the lower divisions of NASCAR, Gaulding opted to take the low-hanging fruit and drive for an underfunded team that he had no chance of succeeding with.
Had he stayed with Roush Fenway Racing in the Xfinity Series, who knows where he’d be right now? Maybe his Krispy Kreme Ford would be driving around the track on Sundays.
It’s not fair to make assumptions about Gaulding’s mindset, though. Either way, can a young man be blamed for taking the Cup Series contract and salary that were thrown at him at age 20?
At what point does that blame shift to the race team itself?
Conclusion
These three drivers are just a small sample size of drivers whose careers have been affected by BK Racing targeting younger competitors. I don’t want to paint BK Racing red, however. That’s not the goal of this article. They’re not the only guilty party.
TriStar Motorsports and Premium Motorsports have also enticed younger drivers to their Cup Series teams, only to have them running around in 30th to 40th place and with their names slowly fading away from relevance.
To add on, Corey LaJoie, Cole Whitt, Ross Chastain, Timmy Hill, and Jeb Burton have all driven for or are currently competing for one of these three teams. All of them are talented, but none of them have found consistent success in NASCAR after racing for these teams.
Now, a case could be made that they wouldn’t have found any other rides elsewhere, so why not drive for an underfunded Cup Series team?
That’s the question: is it better to drive in 30th or 40th place in the Cup Series full-time or compete part-time in lower divisions where your talent can be on display for capable teams to monitor?
In my opinion, take the longer and harder road.
Conclusion (continued)
Compete in lower divisions. Maybe it’s not full-time and maybe you will make less money, but no driver can compete in the type of equipment being offered to them by BK Racing, Premium Motorsports or TriStar Motorsports.
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Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that these three teams shouldn’t compete. All teams have to start somewhere. But I don’t believe that they should be recruiting teenagers or drivers in their early 20’s to skip their development processes just so that they can drive for the team.
Take veterans who’ve served their time and can provide you with experience to help the race team grow. That is exactly what Furniture Row Racing did and what teams like Front Row Motorsports and Leavine Family Racing are attempting to do.
There are plenty of veteran drivers out there to give calls to before these younger guys.
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Alex Bowman managed to find a lucky break in the form of Dale Earnhardt Jr., while Ryan Truex is having to start from scratch with his career. I hope that Gray Gaulding and the other names I’ve mentioned find their paths into NASCAR prevalence. They all have the talent, but they need the patience and the equipment, two things that they won’t get from jumping into the NASCAR Cup Series before they’re ready with underfunded teams.