[shelbysaleen]

There are so many drivers in NASCAR that get recycled. They lose one ride and someone else picks them up. They get a built in fan base, a champions provisional, or something else that just makes it more appealing to hire a a known versus an unknown. For all the talk about young guns rising stars etc, NASCAR has always been about familiarity. Recently they received both. This weekend Chase Elliott won his second NATIONWIDE race in a row. While he missed out on being the youngest to ever win, he is the youngest to win two in a row.

With Chase NASCAR gets a young gun who is a rising star, and also they get a bit of familiarity. Chase being the son of future NASCAR Hall of famer Awesome Bill from Dawsonville. Chase already has more wins in what is now called the nationwide series than his dad. He has won in every series he has raced in. Chase seems to already be more comfortable with the press than Bill ever did. This is especially impressive since he has not graduated high school yet.

This two time NATIONWIDE winner is a high school senior. He drives his dads famous number 9 for the son of another NASCAR legend Dale Jr.

In 2011 Press Pass Inc. included Chase in its Element product. He only has seven official cards. All of which were in this one product. The price for these cards has more than doubled since his first win and continue to stay up for now. While it is hard to say how long these values will stay up. Even at half their current selling price its a hefty profit from what these cards sold for at the beginning.

Chase also has other cards that are not officially recognized in the OPG. There are cards that feature him with his father as a child. Personnally I would love to see these added to the OPG in the future.

Chase is the biggest name to come out of that years undiscoverd elements but he is not alone. Cole whit who is driving for swan racing is driving in cup this year. While his cards havent hit the level of chase if he were to win you can bank on them going up.

NASCAR collectors have not really been passionate about the rising stars, undiscovered elements and the like. However as more of the old guard start to retire from the sport some of these cards might be the Chase Elliotts of the future. You can pick many of them up for low enough they are worth holding onto.

[dunnere]

Great post. You know, I always associate prospecting with Baseball, but it certainly applies to NASCAR and the NHL just as much.

I have a couple of issues with the way NASCAR handles the other series. I do not understand why Kyle Busch and Joey Logano, etc., continue to get to race in the Nationwide series. I understand why they do it, I guess, but I think that The Sprint Cup should be full-time and the Nationwide or Camping World or whatever left for those guys that are not in the Sprint Cup full time...this would make developmental stuff more interesting to me, but generally, if I see that Kyle Busch is racing in a Nationwide race, I'm probably not watching it.

That has nothing to do with the content, but it does have something to do with Chase Elliot, marketing and development in NASCAR.

[Racinghy]

Great post. You know, I always associate prospecting with Baseball, but it certainly applies to NASCAR and the NHL just as much.

I have a couple of issues with the way NASCAR handles the other series. I do not understand why Kyle Busch and Joey Logano, etc., continue to get to race in the Nationwide series. I understand why they do it, I guess, but I think that The Sprint Cup should be full-time and the Nationwide or Camping World or whatever left for those guys that are not in the Sprint Cup full time...this would make developmental stuff more interesting to me, but generally, if I see that Kyle Busch is racing in a Nationwide race, I'm probably not watching it.

That has nothing to do with the content, but it does have something to do with Chase Elliot, marketing and development in NASCAR.

Yeah, I agree with that, but they will still allow it since they cannot get a full field of cars without the Cup regulars. It is also too expensive to race and the purse is barely enough to profit from it. Look at the field of cars from a race, and notice that some drivers are still running Dodge. Why? It is what they can afford although they have temporally pulled out of NASCAR due to the lack of interest by major teams. It is really interesting on why NASCAR allows the Cup drivers to still race in the lower ranks of NASCAR, but it sounds like a problem that will never be fixed without someone being PO'ed in the end.

[dunnere]

I really don't totally understand why the field has to be so big, anyway. Nationwide series should be the true minor leagues of the Sprint Cup series, have fewer cars in the race and get some young blood out there running these tracks.

You know, I don't have a solution, but a thought would be to do it a little like English Premier Soccer, where in order to move into the Sprint Cup, you need to score so many points in the Nationwide. And those cars in the Sprint that score at the low end must drop down in order to re-earn their spot. Now, I know that won't work like that necessarily, but it would make it interesting.

Also, I know that some of these guys just love to race, so keeping Kyle Busch out of a truck or the like would be tough, but somewhere there needs to be a stance for what is fair and unfair. If you look at how Major League Baseball does it, I don't ever see Miguel Cabrera playing in an AAA, AA, or A game on his day off so that he can get in a couple extra swings...I don't see why it is not more like that in NASCAR.

Good discussion, I just want to understand things a bit better...

[Mikarlo]

I've been keeping an eye on the 2011 Element #99 Chase Elliots BVs...and with the current selling prices even for a plain base card, let alone the prices the autos are going for...Beckett's racing staff must not have noticed! At this point, there is no way I'd trade my Chase Elliot RS cards for the same BV that they were listed for when the product came out as I'm pretty sure they've not changed.

Compare this to Mike Trout in the MLB or another hot young star in the NFL, and there is no way Beckett would let those BVs stay the same if they were selling 3-4x the BV. It's stuff like this that makes me wonder how "correct" the BV is for some of my other better racing cards...because it seems pretty obvious they don't update or keep up with our sport.