Rico Abreu, Ross Bailes, Donald McIntosh, Christopher Bell, Dalton Sargent, Colby Quick, Carson Ferguson and the list could go on for this whole blog with the names of drivers who are set to be the next "break-through" driver in the racing world.  Whether you are at the track or at home online you should take some time to get to know who will be charging to the front at the next race you see.

All this young talent that we know, and some that we will be learning about for the first time this year, are what is making the grassroots of racing so energized right now.  Tracks across the country are seeing record crowds to cheer on these racers compete against the established stars on circuits from POWRI to MAXXIS, CARS to K&N, LOS to WoO and beyond.

If you don't already follow a rising star, add a wild card to your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram accounts.  These drivers let it fly on the track and seem to find time to let us all peek in their lives via the World Wide Web between the races.  It is a wonderful adventure getting to know these racers from the words they post themselves before they have public relations folks editing what we get to know about them when they become sponsored drivers.

The race is always on to find the next great driver to thrill us with their unbelievable skills and talent on the track.  In today's world, it is the savvy race fan that finds that driver before the rest through the posts of these young stars-to-be as they climb racings latter.  For instance, which driver is posting that they are in their shop working late compared to the ones posting they are doing something less focused on racing.  Use these social media sites to find information on who has the best crews and what they are doing to make the team a winner. 

Your "follow" can also help your favorite driver obtain a sponsor.  Drivers with large groups of followers are more attractive to sponsors because the sponsor can figure that the driver with the larger audience of followers will have a built-in audience for the sponsor's product.  Drivers can gain horsepower by "speaking" well to their social media audience.  Drivers who develop a relationship with their fans are far more likely to sell t-shirts and other merchandise that then the driver can put the money back in to the machine to help them win races.

Your time on line matters to helping support racing.  As always, support your local dirt tracks, short track, legends and kart racing tracks when they have races.  But between those races tune-in to the byte-byte action each of these new era stars provide us on our cell phones and lap tops.