Don't look now, but there is a youth movement underway at Indianapolis. A quick survey of the 24 cars provisionally qualified for the 86th Indianapolis 500 shows nine drivers 30 or under.

"This is a sport for the young," explained Eddie Cheever, Jr. the oldest driver currently in the field and owner of two Red Bull Infiniti entries for 22-year-old Tomas Scheckter and Max Papis.

	Sarah Fisher, top, is benefitting from the more-experienced Robbie Buhl's mentorship.

NASCAR heralds their youth movement in lock step with their new hip and quick marketing campaigns. The reality is that Indy cars have cornered a higher percentage of the X-generation.

Sam Hornish Jr., leads Indy's young guns. His posse includes 500-champion Helio Castroneves, Sarah Fisher, Felipe Giaffone, Scheckter, Laurent Redon and George Mack. Throw in Indy only drivers, Tony Kannan, Bruno Junqueria, and Oriol Servia and you get a good picture of the transition taking place in open-wheel racing.

The primary reason for this upswing in young drivers selecting Indy cars for their career is the connection being made with karting. Hornish and Fisher have raced against each other since the age of 10.

Junqueria, Giaffone and Kannan all started running karts together in Brazil. "I was from a small city that didn't have a karting track," Junqueria remembers. "So we would sneak onto soccer pitches and the streets to race."

Mack recorded more than 200 karting victories and numerous championships at Willow Springs and Santa Maria in California. He won the International Karting Federation Grand National Championship in 1994.

"It's a lot cheaper to get into than NASCAR," says Fisher. "A lot of the young drivers are coming from open wheels, so Indy being open wheels helps.

"Plus, it includes the Indianapolis 500 which is the Greatest Spectacle in Racing and everybody wants to be a part of that that grows up in America."

A karting background makes it easy to transition to open wheelers.

"The thing that karting does for drivers is it gives you that stiff balance that a lot of other race cars don't necessarily have. Karts teach you a lot of the basic skills about loose and tight and some of the things that you can do to a kart that translates over to Indy Cars," Fisher said.

Another reason for Indy's youth movement is an owner's desire to have a productive driver capable of running for the team for 10 years or more. There is certainly less driver movement in Indy cars than in NASCAR.

"For a while it seemed like it always was 40-year-old guys getting replaced by 30-year-old guys," observed IRL-champion Hornish. "Now teams are starting to trade-off some of that experience for youth figuring that they can train them for a couple of years and then possibly have them for 20 years."

The move up to Indy Cars is still a big jump.

"There's definitely things you have to learn once your in the car," observed the 22-year-old Pennzoil Panther driver. "A lot of drivers in the past were a little too picky. If they couldn't get a top ride then they didn't want to do it."

More young drivers will consider Indy Cars over NASCAR with the scheduled debut of the IRL's Infiniti Pro series later this summer. The Infiniti series' mission is to provide a bridge for young drivers between their entry level drives and Indy Cars.

Arie Luyendyk Jr. is one of the Infiniti Pro Series drivers who has an eye upon the race his dad has won twice.

"I hope that I could be trying Indy next year or the year after that," said the 20 year old. "It all depends on how things go."