GENERATION NEXT ON RISE: ROOKIE CLASS PROMISING NASCAR COULD BENEFIT FROM THE INFLUX OF YOUTHFUL TALENT.

Byline: Tim Haddock Staff Writer

Remember the NBA rookie class of 1984?

Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Sam Perkins, Otis Thorpe and Kevin Willis.

It was so deep, John Stockton was the 16th overall selection to the Utah Jazz.

Then again, Terrance Stansbury went No. 15 to the Dallas Mavericks.

The 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup rookie class could be as impressive as those 1984 NBA rookies.

With Martin Truex, Clint Bowyer, Reed Sorenson, J.J. Yeley and Denny Hamlin, NASCAR has a talented group of rising stars.

Time will tell who will become the Michael Jordan of NASCAR - and who will be the Sam Bowie.

So who is the heir apparent as the ruler of NASCAR? Let's start with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Tony Stewart won his second Cup championship with Joe Gibbs Racing last year. But the two teammates who started the season with Stewart are no longer in the JGR stable.

No surprise, Jason Leffler didn't make it through the year in the newly formed No. 11 team. He was replaced by Hamlin and it didn't take long for the 25-year-old to get noticed.

Hamlin won the pole at Phoenix International Raceway in October, his sixth Nextel Cup Series career start, and won the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway, an exhibition race that pits the pole winners from the previous year against each other.

Hamlin made seven starts for Joe Gibbs Racing in the No. 11 Chevrolet Monte Carlo at the end of the 2005 season, posting three top 10s and a career-best seventh-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway.

``I think I got into that 11 car at an optimum time,'' Hamlin said. ``They had a lot of struggles toward the beginning of the year and basically when I got in it, they were just working some of the stuff out, trying to get caught back up on cars. It made me look better than what I really am, maybe, I don't know, it's just - I was just driving the equipment that was given to me.''

A little more surprising, Bobby Labonte, the 2000 NASCAR Winston Cup champion, left Joe Gibbs Racing for Petty Enterprises. That opened the door for another promising rookie in Yeley, who will be driving the No. 18 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

But unlike Hamlin, who rose through the ranks of stock car racing, Yeley made his way through USAC open-wheel competition.

The 29-year-old won a USAC national sprint car and Silver Crown Series championship before making the jump to NASCAR. And he will be the first to admit he has a lot to learn about NASCAR.

``The biggest thing for me, I am used to races that are 20 minutes long,'' Yeley said. ``I am used to running a 30-lap race on a half-mile so I've had that mentality for so long that you race the guys as hard as you can when the green flag drops to the checkered flag and in the Cup side you learn a lot more that a lot of guys will let you go, you cruise for a while and that's probably changed a lot over the years where the younger batch of drivers come on, they race harder than they did five, ten years ago.

``For me just having that time where you just let guys go and you kind of cruise along until 100 laps, 50 laps to go then you turned the wick up, but for me it was just hard getting used to cruising along for that long.''

Over at Dale Earnhardt Inc., it was good-bye to Michael Waltrip and hello Truex.

Well, sort of.

Truex will be driving the No. 1 Chevrolet Monte Carlo for DEI. Another rookie, Paul Menard, will be in the No. 15 Chevy previously driven my Waltrip, but only on a part-time basis.

It looks like DEI will be a three-car team again in 2007. For now, it's Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Truex at the Cup level, with an occasional appearance by Menard.

Expectations are high for Truex. He won six races in the NASCAR Busch Series last year, and posted his best finish in a Cup race during the Coca- Cola 600 at Lowes Motor Speedway, one of seven starts he made at the Cup level.

``Things are looking good,'' Truex said during testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway earlier this month. ``Me and Junior are good friends, just like we've been the past year, year and a half, two years or so. He's been a great friend and somebody I go to for advice, and I really look up to him as a person and as a race car driver.''

Bowyer will get a chance to revive the Richard Childress Racing camp.

Once a powerhouse NASCAR team, with the late Dale Earnhardt as its top driver, Richard Childress Racing has yet to qualify a team in the Chase of the Championship.

Bowyer, 26, takes over the No. 07 Chevrolet Monte Carlo previously driven by Dave Blaney in the Cup Series. Additionally, he is expected to race the No. 2 Chevy for RCR in the NASCAR Busch Series full time, pulling double duty much like his teammate Kevin Harvick did a few years back.

Not that you'll hear Bowyer complaining much about having to race in the two NASCAR series.

``It definitely was a huge advantage racing with those guys almost week in and week out,'' Bowyer said. ``It's not that huge culture shock when you look over and you see Mark Martin to your side. I think that will go along ways as all of us rookies go into this Cup series this year.''

And finally, Chip Ganassi Racing has a lot of young faces in its cars this year. The veteran of the bunch is 27-year-old Casey Mears, who moves into the No. 42 Dodge previously driven by Jamie McMurray who is now at Roush Racing.

Rookies Sorenson, 20, and David Stremme, 28, will be in the Nos. 41 and 40 Dodges.

``I believe this year that myself and David and Casey and the teams are a lot closer together maybe than they've ever been,'' said Sorenson, who drove for Ganassi at the Busch Series level last year. ``I think we're going to work a little bit better together. If I can't win it, I want David to win it, and I think he thinks the same way. We're not going to be sitting there picking battles between each other. We've got to work together to beat 42 other cars or 41 other cars out there, and it's going to be a hard job so we're going to need each other to get through it.''

To round out the rookie class, Brent Sherman will be in the No. 49 Dodge for BAM Racing.

``I think the rookie battle is going to be a lot of fun,'' Truex said. ``It's all guys that we pretty much cut our teeth with our first season last year and looking forward to racing those same guys for rookie honors this year.''

Tim Haddock, [phone]

timothy.haddock(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

8 photos, 5 boxes

Photo:

(1) Rookie Denny Hamlin already has made noise in NASCAR, winning the Budweiser Shootout.

Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

(2) CLINT BOWYER

(3) DENNY HAMLIN

(4) BRENT SHERMAN

(5) REED SORENSON

(6) DAVID STREMME

(7) MARTIN TRUEX JR.

(8) J.J. YELEY

Box:

(1) NASCAR WEEKEND AT CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY

(2) TRACK INFO

(3) TICKETS

(4) NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES LEADERS

(5) THE ROOKIES