BETTER TO BE BOLDER THAN OLDER.

Byline: TIM HADDOCK Motor Sports

The NASCAR youth movement continued with Elliott Sadler winning at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday. After seven races, the oldest driver to win a race has been Matt Kenseth, all 31 years of him. Every other race winner is under 30.

Four-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon, who turns 33 in August, was asked about the recent run of young winners and why he thinks some of the older drivers, like Dale Jarrett and Rusty Wallace, have had difficulties.

``If you look at what most of the older guys are doing - when they do do well - say, like a Bristol for instance, with Rusty, aerodynamics really don't play a role. Set-up does, the feel that you have,'' Gordon said. ``Where you're aggressiveness is totally different say at Texas or Vegas and places like that.''

The equipment on the cars - springs, shocks, tires - and aerodynamics has changed the way some of the younger drivers approach racing, Gordon said.

``And what that does is forces you to be extremely, extremely aggressive,'' Gordon said. ``What that means is the guy that's more aggressive is going to benefit from it the most and obviously young guys that haven't lost control of their cars or hit as many walls as some of the older guys, they have a lot more aggressiveness to put into that car.''

It reminded Gordon of how the late Dale Earnhardt adapted to changes in technology in NASCAR.

``One of the things that impressed me the most about Dale Earnhardt Sr. was that he went through so many transitions of cars and downforce and horsepower and tires and yet he was always able to come back and continue to be competitive,'' said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. ``And Rusty's another one of those guys. Bill Elliott's another one of those guys. It's tough. It takes time to transition through it.''

It's hard to believe, but this week will mark the 10th anniversary of Gordon's first NASCAR Winston Cup win, which came in the 1994 Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C. In those 10 years, Gordon has seen his share of changes in stock car racing. So many changes, in fact, that Gordon likened the evolution of stock cars to open-wheel cars.

``We're getting closer and closer to being like Indy cars where we have a lot of downforce and a lot of grip and the speed does not drop off very much throughout a run,'' Gordon said. ``So the way you set a car up and the way you run is completely different than it used to be.''

Gordon turned in his best showing of the year at Texas, finishing third. It also put him ninth in the standings.

With this year's NASCAR Nextel Cup Chase for the Championship, being in the top 10 is all that matters when the 27th race of the season starts. The top 10 drivers in the standings will have a chance to race for the Nextel Cup championship in the last 10 races.

But Gordon said it might be a little early to be points watching.

``Right now, I can't say there's a whole lot that has changed,'' Gordon said. ``But two, three months from now, that's when things are going to change tremendously for everybody.''

--Rookie moves: Kasey Kahne, the rookie driver of the No. 9 Dodge for Evernham Motorsports, turned in his third runner-up performance of the season, finishing second at Texas. After three second-place efforts, the frustrations should be mounting.

But Kahne seemed more upset with how long it took NASCAR officials to clean the track of debris during the race at Texas Motor Speedway than he was about finishing second again.

``I didn't see any debris out there half the time,'' Kahne said. ``They're putting speedy dry down the bottom of the backstretch where nobody runs. It's just ridiculous how long they took. That's something NASCAR really needs to look at. They do the one-lap safety rule and that's great. The extra eight, 10, 20 laps they run is ridiculous.''

--The end is near: Wallace had his second top-five finish in as many races, finishing fifth at Texas. But his winless streak continued. The last time Wallace won a race was at California Speedway in 2001, and he is eagerly anticipating his return to the Fontana track on May 2.

``We learned a lot (Sunday) for California, I can tell you that,'' said Wallace, driver of the No. 2 Dodge for Penske Racing South. ``I'll put it in my memory bank and take it back to the shop and put it in the car.''

--Return to Indy: Newman-Haas Racing, which is partially owned by actor Paul Newman, will be entered in the 88th running of the Indianapolis 500, the team announced Monday.

This will be the first appearance by a Newman-Haas team at Indianapolis Motor Speedway since 1995.

Newman-Haas Racing, with drivers Bruno Junqueira and Sebastien Bourdais, competes on the Champ Cars Series, which is set to open April 18 with the Grand Prix of Long Beach.

This will be the 14th time a Newman-Haas entry has attempted to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, the premiere race of the rival Indy Racing League. Newman-Haas Racing's highest finish in the race came in the 1985 Indy 500, when Mario Andretti finished second.

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