Golden oldies: youth dominates NASCAR, but this season is proof there is room for the over-40 set in the truck series

Sporting News, The, August 2, 2004 by Pete Wickham

Old age and treachery beats youth and talent.

How many middle-aged men have clung to that mantra while wheezing through basketball or jogging? In NASCAR, such talk is at a crescendo as Baby Boomer drivers try to muffle the incessant noise about the Young Guns.

Yet in the past six years, there have been only two over-40 champions in NASCAR's top three series--Dale Jarrett won the Cup championship in 1999, and Ron Hornaday Jr. won the Craftsman Truck Series in 1998. In 2003, Cup champ Matt Kenseth was the graybeard of the three series champions--at 31.

This season, there's hope for the salt-and-pepper generation truckers. Oh, there are hotshots such as defending series champ Travis Kvapil (28) and Carl Edwards (24). But among the points leaders are a handful of guys for whom 40 is in the rearview mirror. Atop the list, for now, is 44-year-old Dennis Setzer, who seems to have been hanging around NASCAR forever, waiting for his once-in-a-lifetime shot.

Setzer and the No. 46 Morgan-Dollar Chevrolet team finished just nine points behind Kvapil last season. Then Chevrolet, feeling pressure from newcomer Toyota, stepped up its truck series commitment--including a full 2004 sponsorship for Morgan-Dollar. Team owners Rob Morgan and David Dollar moved their shop from Hennessey, Okla., to the NASCAR capital, Charlotte. They added veteran local crew members and Richard Childress engines.

"We were a great team last year, but we're tremendously better right now," says Setzer, who leads 47-year-old Bobby Hamilton by 64 points and Edwards by 166. Setzer has finished in the top five at Martinsville, Mansfield (Ohio), Memphis, Milwaukee and St. Louis--all the kind of short oval track he excels on. But superspeedway wins at Lowe's and Texas are a huge step forward for the No. 46.

"That's the RCR power, the new GM wind tunnel, the new talent, a wealth of new information," Setzer says. "All of a sudden we're big-track racers. The new kid on the block (Toyota) made everyone step up."

Dollar is so serious about winning that he sold his trucking business to his employees and now splits his time between the shop in North Carolina and his home in Oklahoma, where his wife and two daughters live.

"It's bittersweet in some ways," he says. "But when GM stepped up the program, part of the deal was having all the teams in one area. Having Dennis helped my learning curve. Now we have the team to put around him and (crew chief) Danny Gill."

The over-40 drivers chasing Setzer have different ideas about how to catch him. Hamilton and sixth-place Ted Musgrave, 48, aren't fond of points racing. Hamilton: "The moment you focus on something other than your everyday deal, you're not going to win a championship." Musgrave: "I win races. I don't understand points."

Seventh-place Rick Crawford, 46, the series leader in career starts (185), believes in consistency. "In the Craftsman Truck Series, you have to bring your 'A' game every week," says Crawford, who won at Martinsville. "You can't shoot yourself in the foot like we have at times this year. There are more lead-lap trucks in this series than ever--and that will take a toll on the (points) leaders."

The first truck champ, Mike Skinner, 47, has struggled this season in the No. 42 Toyota. But Skinner, who is 12th in points, thinks long-term.

"I want to be in a position where, when I stop racing full time, I can be part of the R and D, part of the testing program and a part-time driver if and when Toyota moves to Cup," he says. "This year, we're building the base for a championship in the next year or two, but if you stay close in this series..."

The age of consistency

The over-40 drivers in the truck series won't all admit
to racing for points, but most of them are good at it.
If a top 10 finish is NASCAR's equivalent of a base hit,
the truckers with the highest career "batting averages"
--five of the too six--are over 40.

Name (Current points position)   Starts    Top 10s    Avg.      Wins

* Jack Sprague (9)#               184#      142#      .772       24#
Travis Kvapil (8)                  83        60       .723        3
Ted Musgrave (6)#                  86#       61#      .709       14#
Mike Skinner (12)#                 66#       44#      .667       16#
Dennis Setzer (1)#                154#      102#      .662       12#
Bobby Hamilton (2)#                61#       34#      .557        7#
Carl Edwards (3)                    44       23       .545        5
Jon Wood (10)                       75       39       .520        2
Rick Crawford (7)#                185#       93#      .503        3#
Matt Crafton (4)                    84       39       .464        0
Chad Chaffin (5)                    44       20       .455        1
David Starr (11)                   102       40       .392        2

* Over-40 drivers in bold; Sprague turns 40 on August 8.

TSN's TRUCK POLL

                      TSN paints:       TSN         Truck
     Driver           last 10 races   points     Series points

 (1) Dennis Setzer        921        1,058 (1)     1,837 (1)
 (2) Bobby Hamilton       792        1,008 (2)     1,773 (2)
 (3) Jack Sprague         756          756 (7)     1,544 (9)
 (4) Ted Musgrave         730          803 (5)     1,610 (6)
 (5) Chad Chaffin         705          817 (4)     1,650 (5)
 (6) Rick Crawford        657          745 (8)     1,603 (7)
 (7) Matt Crafton         651          757 (6)     1,651 (4)
 (8) Carl Edwards         638          875 (3)     1,671 (3)
 (9) David Starr          623          675 (9)     1,495 (11)
(10) Jon Wood             553          625 (11)    1,527 (10)

Through race No. 12, at Gateway International Raceway. Get a
complete TSN Power Poll and a points system explanation at