When Do NASCAR Drivers Mature?

These days, there are two paths to becoming a front-running NASCAR Cup Series driver.

The first, and more common, sees guys like Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and William Byron identified as superstars in the making from their teenage years. Their ascent up the NASCAR ladder is funded by one of the sport’s biggest teams or a manufacturer development program. They win championships at the NASCAR Camping World Truck or Xfinity series level, earn themselves a ton of race wins and fans and explode onto the scene with sky-high expectations.

Then it takes them a couple of years, and maybe a jump from a satellite team to the mothership, to gather the skills and experience they need to run with the big dogs and, usually at around the 100-start mark, emerge as a regular race winner. Reddick, Bell and Byron have all crossed this mark in 2022, earning the first multi-win seasons of their career and impressing viewers.

RETWEET to congratulate @TylerReddick!

He wins at @TXMotorSpeedway, and the team says they’re “NOT DONE YET!” pic.twitter.com/0FSfazCVaa

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 26, 2022

The other path, the one less traveled by, was the one favored by old-school NASCAR heroes. Dale Earnhardt and Mark Martin both bounced around back-of-the-pack teams gathering experience at the Cup level, so that when that big break finally came around, they’d be prepared to explode out of the gate in Rod Osterlund or Jack Roush’s top-tier equipment.

This is the path taken by Bubba Wallace and Ross Chastain, both of whom ground it out at less-competitive teams for years before finally achieving success in the form of two wins apiece with high-profile moves to exciting new programs in 23XI Racing and Trackhouse Racing Team, respectively. 

But something else unites Wallace and Chastain; a twist on what could easily be fan-favorite underdog stories. As of last Sunday, Oct. 16, they are the two drivers who’ve done the most embarrassing, egregious examples of intentional contact this season, creating a dark cloud over career-high seasons for both. 

After claiming his first career pole position and leading 22 laps in August’s race at Michigan International Speedway, Wallace teared up in post-race interviews.

“I’ll wear this one on my heart for a while,” Wallace, who fell just under three seconds short of his second career victory, said. “I failed everybody. … I want to win so bad, and this was the best opportunity.”

“I failed…