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Rock of ages Winston Cup drivers take their cue from life's lessonsPosted: Tuesday May 20, 2003 2:31 PM
Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough. -- Groucho Marx (1890-1977) A sports survey shows the average age of a Winston Cup driver is nearly 10 years greater than an NBA all-star, and about eight years more than baseball’s and football’s all-stars. That stands to reason, since NBA, MLB and NFL careers are considerably shorter than those of NASCAR's top drivers. Besides, as many non-NASCAR fans would have you believe, it's easy to drive a stock car for a longer period of time; it's just turn left, go fast. But while society as a whole grows older, there is something to be learned from our elders -- or at least those who came before us.
It's seemingly taken Tony Stewart a few years to realize this, but he's matured into less of a know-it-all.
Words to live by for the next 15 years for Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman.
It's a compliment to the likes of Mark Martin and Ricky Rudd that they remain competitive even as the years roll by.
Rusty Wallace was 33 when he won the Winston Cup title in 1989. In the ensuing 14 years, oh what could have been ...
What we wouldn't give to have watched Tim Richmond, Davey Allison and Alan Kulwicki grow older behind the wheel.
Ernie Irvan -- and every other driver who has defied death -- must repeat that 10 times a day.
How else to explain the fact that 44-year-old Derrike Cope has failed to finish 36 percent of his races, including four of five starts this year?
Oops, that's baseball players.
Amen. B. Duane Cross is a senior producer for SI.com.
Got a comment or question for Duane? Click here.
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