NASCAR’s Golden Age effectively ended years ago.
While many might claim the end came on the day of Dale Earnhardt’s death, it lasted well past that dark day.
Its true date of expiration is likely located somewhere in the vicinity of July 27, 2008, the day of the 15th Brickyard 400, and Sept. 29, 2008, the day the stock market crashed and sent the economy into a tailspin that impacted everyone.
However, reminders of NASCAR’s heyday — jam-packed grandstands, NASCAR drivers everywhere on TV and races lit up by camera flashbulbs — are still here.
At least while Kevin Harvick is around.
For a long time, Jeff Gordon represented a bridge to NASCAR’s past. He made his Cup debut in Richard Petty’s final start in 1992, he competed in the final North Wilkesboro race in 1996 and raced full time until 2015.
Last year, one of my favorite stats that was thrown around was that Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch were the last active NASCAR drivers to have competed in races with Earnhardt (and Busch was the last driver to be flipped off by Earnhardt, in the 2001 Daytona 500).
Newman’s NASCAR career unceremoniously ended in 2021, and Busch’s future is in limbo as he recovers from a concussion.
While Busch broke into the NASCAR Cup Series a year before Harvick, Harvick has been in NASCAR’s orbit far longer.
On Oct. 19, 1995, just under a year after Earnhardt won his last Cup title, a 19-year-old Harvick made his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut. It came at Mesa Marin Raceway, his home track in Bakersfield, California. Before 2000, he made 69 Truck Series starts before getting called up to the NASCAR Xfinity Series by Richard Childress Racing.
In the last 27 years, Harvick has seen a lot. The good, the bad, the sport’s highest peaks and its low point.
If there’s any one track (not named Indianapolis Motor Speedway) that best represents the sports decline in popularity and stature over the last 15 years, it’s arguably Richmond Raceway. At one point, Richmond was nearly encircled by grandstands that sold out every year for 16 years. Now there are no grandstands along the backstretch or in turn 3. Those that remain are never completely full.
On Sunday (Aug. 14), the short track enjoyed one of its better crowds in recent years. After winning his 60th career Cup race and his fourth at Richmond, Harvick was asked to reflect on how the track and crowds have evolved in his time.
But because of his experience, it was “hard” for Harvick to…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Frontstretch…