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Pimples and a dogged driving style used to be the quickest way to NASCAR. Not anymore. A combination of recent events has slowed the sport's youth movement, as some team owners idle their development programs and sideline young drivers.

"Some of these young guys &ellipses; are just kind of sitting in limbo," says David Smith, a driver scout who ranks the nation's top prospects.

Blame the economy, NASCAR's test restrictions and the sport's Car of Tomorrow for taking the focus away from teenage talent.

The flow of young talent continues, but it's nothing like 2004-07, when car owners signed nearly a dozen Cup drivers no older than 25. That group included Kyle Busch at Hendrick Motorsports, Carl Edwards at Roush Fenway Racing, Denny Hamlin at Joe Gibbs Racing and Martin Truex Jr. at Dale Earnhardt Inc.

Now, the younger crowd struggles to keep a job. Neither 19-year-old Landon Cassill, last year's Nationwide rookie of the year for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s team, nor 19-year-old Bryan Clauson, second to Cassill in the rookie standings, has raced in NASCAR this season.

Trevor Bayne and Marc Davis, both 18, also were without rides until they became creative. Bayne and his father brokered a deal among three groups to allow the youngster to drive at Bristol last weekend in a one-race deal. Davis, left without a ride when Gibbs could not find sponsorship for the African-American, started his own team and made his season debut last weekend.

Today, 18-year-old Joey Logano makes his Martinsville debut. Nicknamed "Sliced Bread" because many have said he's as good as it, Logano has struggled this season, causing some to question his quick rise to Cup. How he performs could impact how owners view teenage drivers.

"Every young driver needs to be rooting for Joey Logano," Smith says, "because that's what gives them a chance."

It's the economy

The main culprit stunting the youth movement is the economy. Money is tight. Teams merged last year just to survive. Development programs were cut to put that money into the race team.

"The economy is killing everyone right now," Davis says. "The way it was at Gibbs, the only sponsors they could find were the sponsors that wanted to spend the money to get the Cup drivers. You can't knock them for doing that. It's just the way the economy is."

Ty Norris, vice president and general manager at Michael Waltrip Racing, says a lot of development money came from team owners themselves since sponsorship didn't pay for it all.

"You had a little bit of extra money, so you said, 'OK, I'm going to invest in my future,' " Norris says. "Driver development is nothing different than an individual's investment in their own future.

"So, if you don't have the extra cash and you're making a mortgage payment and you're paying your monthly expenses ... then you can't dump a bunch of money each month into the market or an investment."

Bayne, who drove for Dale Earnhardt Inc. last year, arranged a deal among a team that had a sponsor, another team that had equipment and the group that had his rights to drive at Bristol. He finished 23rd. Next for Bayne?

"We find another mountain to climb," he says. "We're just working as hard as we can to put something together."

With fewer chances to race, driving skills can rust. That's why Bayne, Davis and others are trying to make their own deals to race.

"It's time for drivers to take the initiative and see what they can do on their own dollar," says Smith, the scout.

It's the car

Logano shakes his head. For all the success he had coming to the Sprint Cup series, nothing prepared him for this -- or at least this car.

The Cup series switched to what is known as the Car of Tomorrow full-time last year. Several drivers struggled with the transition, including four-time champion Jeff Gordon, who was winless last year for the first time since his rookie season.

For a rookie, this car makes the transition to Cup more difficult.

"The Nationwide car does not help you one bit with this Cup car," Logano says. "I think that's why a veteran has an advantage, because they've got the experience with these cars."

Thomasville's Brian Vickers, who made his Cup debut at age 20 in 2003, says drivers can't "manhandle" this car the way they could the older version.

He says the new Cup car is "more about driver skill, finesse, experience, knowing the tracks, knowing where to go, what to do."

All are aspects that rookies are still learning.

Young drivers might not get a reprieve any time soon. Joe Balash, the Nationwide series' director, says the plan is to run a Nationwide version of the Car of Tomorrow as early as next season, but that's dependent on the economy. Changing to a Nationwide COT will force teams to build all new cars, a tremendous expense even when the economy is healthy.

It's the testing rule

NASCAR officials announced before this season a ban on all testing at NASCAR-sanctioned tracks. The rule was implemented to help teams save money -- and teams are likely to save millions -- but that doesn't help young drivers who often drove the test sessions Cup drivers couldn't or didn't want to do.

Cassill helped play a role in developing the Car of Tomorrow for Hendrick Motorsports by testing it. His help, or that of other young drivers, isn't needed as often now.

Since the Cup car is cantankerous, many drivers continue to learn about it. Thus, when a team does test, its driver often goes. That's lost track time for younger drivers.

"When that (No.) 48 car goes to the track, that's my car, that's my team," says Jimmie Johnson, the three-time defending series champion. "It's really, really important to find that last little bit with the right driver and right crew chief."

Not all is lost

Although the future seems cloudy for young drivers, Joe Gibbs Racing continues to fund its development program. The team signed 17-year-old Matt DiBenedetto and 15-year-old Darrell Wallace Jr. to development deals last month.

The development program remains valuable for the organization because it not only provides driver talent but also serves as a proving ground for crew members.

Of course, developing drivers is paramount.

"We'd like to develop the next Tony Stewart," says Steve de Souza, vice president of Nationwide operations for JGR.

There remain risks. If a team doesn't have room for a development driver, that's an investment lost.

"That's part of the game," says de Souza, who has developed Hamlin, Aric Almirola and Logano. "We'd like to look at every one of them and say they're our driver and they're going to end up in our Cup car, but if it doesn't happen, we kind of said that's just being a good steward in the sport. I think the Gibbses are very open to wanting to help the sport grow, and that means investing in young guys."

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com