NASCAR's 'Young Stars' tired of blame for sport's woes

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — It was the finish NASCAR banked on as the genesis of its ballyhooed youth movement.

Austin Dillon and Darrell Wallace Jr. finished 1-2 in the Daytona 500, a promising pair of 20-somethings behind the wheel of iconic car numbers that could excite old-school fans, yet a pair with enough social media savvy that might attract millennials to a sport in dire need of a spark.

The kids were coming!

Wallace and good buddy Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, William Byron and Daniel Suarez were among the relative newcomers in NASCAR who had their images plastered on billboards and program covers and hailed as NASCAR's version of The Next Big Thing.