Adding Mark Martin to Hendrick's stable of drivers next season isn't quite what most people would consider new blood. AP

WATKINS GLEN, New York -- Now that Mark Martin is back in a full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup ride for 2009 and Kyle Busch is back in Victory Lane after his thrilling win at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night, it draws a stark contrast to the different directions Chevrolet and Toyota are heading.

While Toyota has stockpiled an incredibly impressive group of young drivers such as 23-year-old Kyle Busch, 18-year-old Joey Logano, 24-year-old Brian Vickers, 27-year-old Denny Hamlin, 26-year-old A.J. Allmendinger and 25-year-old Scott Speed, Chevrolet only gets older.

The addition of Martin to Chevrolet's lineup at Hendrick Motorsports dramatically emphasizes this age-old debate.

Martin will turn 50 on Jan. 9 and while it's undeniable he still has the talent, desire and fire to win races and even a championship, he doesn't exactly qualify as a fresh new face.

When Toyota came into Sprint Cup full time last year, the fear factor in the garage area held that the Japanese automaker would outspend its American counterparts at Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge. And while that may one day be true as all three of the U.S. brands feeling the stranglehold of a poor economy, Toyota's approach for stock car domination also includes youth.

Sure, Ford has invested in such young drivers as Colin Braun and Chevrolet will counter with Brad Keselowski and Aric Almirola but the face of the manufacturer continues to be that of an older driver.

Tony Stewart, who currently drives for Toyota, will likely be in a Chevrolet next year when he becomes a driver/owner at Haas-CNC Racing. At 37, Stewart is beginning to show his age, and while he is the last of the great American racers -- a throwback to the A.J. Foyt days when a good race driver could drive anything, he has been put to the test at Joe Gibbs Racing by his much younger teammates.

Jeff Gordon still has talent, but he turns 37 on Aug. 4 and is going through one of the longest winless streaks of his career. Jimmie Johnson turns 33 on Sept. 7. Even "Junior" is senior by today's standards, as Dale Earnhardt Jr. turns 34 on October 10.

NASCAR is increasingly becoming a young man's sport and the recent developments at Daytona continue to emphasize the dramatic differences between Toyota and Chevrolet.

Of course, experience often outweighs youth but today's young drivers have come to the sport with plenty of experience.

Ironically, their role model was Gordon, who began his racing career as a 5-year-old in California before his family moved to Pittsboro, Ind. so he could compete in USAC as a 13 year old.

Logano's path to future greatness has been patterned after Gordon, and while it may be too early to predict how successful he will be as a Cup driver, but he already has the look of greatness.

After Busch notched his sixth win of the season Saturday night at Daytona, compared to just two for Chevrolet's powerhouse team at Hendrick Motorsports, it appears that the youthful approach is carrying the day.

"It was pretty crazy, that's for sure," Busch said after winning Saturday night. "The first thing is it's me that has to stay a little bit calm and just try to get back into the rhythm of what was going on and try to figure out what was happening so it doesn't happen again. There were some moves I could have made later in race again that were pretty evasive but I just stayed in line because I knew if I would have tried something else again, I probably would have wrecked.

"I just made sure that I drove a smart race and finished it out and whatever came to us was going to come to us tonight. I figured I was probably going to finish second to the 24 (Jeff Gordon), but [then] stuff started happening behind us, [and] you've always got to be ready for that and always be ready for your next move."

Busch's success is but a microcosm of American life, as the older workforce is being replaced by younger employees, often in a way to cut costs.

But the irony in all of this is Martin will be taking over a car that used to belong to Busch when he raced at Hendrick Motorsports from '04-07.

Talk about a time warp.

Another side of Danica

Danica Patrick was involved in another pit road incident in Sunday's Camping World Grand Prix at the Glen, only this time she was "right on target."

During a pit stop under caution after EJ Viso drove Vitor Meira off the track on the 40th lap, Patrick came into the pits for what should have been her final stop. She lit up the tires on the way out of pit lane and lost control of the car.

It headed into Scott Dixon's pit area, sending his crew members over the wall heading for cover after they had just serviced Dixon's car. Patrick's car hit one of the tires that had been taken off his car and then, appropriately, the nose of her car hit the Target "bullseye" logo.

"Christ, I know Scott called her a menace at Iowa, but she didn't have to take it out by trying to take out all of his boys," quipped Ron Dixon, Scott Dixon's father who was in the pit area at the time.