The New Face of NASCAR

Carl Edwards, a rookie in the Busch Series and a guy who has only run 17 Nextel Cup races, pulled off an amazing double this weekend, winning both the Busch and Nextel Cup races. Both races were his first wins in each division. That's never been done at Atlanta before.

Carl is the new face of NASCAR, and I would think the powers-that-be in NASCAR are very, very happy. Edwards is an articulate, good looking, enthusiastic 25 year old who is a sponsor's dream. He comes off well on TV, and besides being able to drive a racecar, that's probably the most important skill a driver can have these days.

Not long ago the standard issue NASCAR driver spoke rather poor, Redneck English and might not even have made it out of high school (there's still a few of them left). They were a pretty rough crowd and that didn't always play well on TV. It was hard to imagine some of them as spokesmen for multinational corporations.

There is a new generation of young driver's coming up in the sport, and many of the veterans will be retiring during the next couple of years. The sport will look very different in a few years with all of these media savvy drivers coming in. Being a good wheelman is not enough. If a driver can't stand up in front of a camera and properly represent a company that's investing $15 million a year to put their name on a car, he's not going to get a job in the highest levels of the sport.

TV and money have changed the requirements of the sport, and its appeal is sure to grow.