Growing up in the South, country music and Motor Racing Network played in the background no matter what you were doing.

Across the airwaves one day I heard icon George Jones wail a tune called Who's Gonna Fill Those Shoes?. The premise was that country music legends were retiring or dying, leaving the future of a musical genre in question. Fading were Waylon and Willie, Cash and Conway, Hank Jr. and Jones himself.

Like the music or not, that genre has enjoyed meteoric success since Jones asked that question a couple of decades ago. New stars have emerged and have ushered it into mainstream.

The same question was asked about NASCAR a few years ago when champions like Rusty, Jarrett, Awesome Bill and Texas Terry retired; characters like Schrader, Sterling, Kyle and Mikey stepped down; and the heavens took Earnhardt, Kulwicki, Davey and Adam.

If you watched last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, you got a glimpse into the future.

Sure, there are youngsters Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, neither of which look like they could grow stubble in a month. But they have been around three years and their pedigree has landed them firmly into premier NASCAR Sprint Cup rides. And there are guys like Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin who are collegiate age.

The two that made me stand up and take notice last weekend were Justin Allgaier and Trevor Bayne. Those guys are going to fill someone's shoes soon -- and may even design their own.

Allgaier, 24 and in his second full-time season with Penske Racing, battled for the lead most of the Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas. That is a significant task against the full-time Cup drivers. But he was dicing it up and faded only after everyone else in the field got tires and he didn't.

But the one whose future is limitless is Bayne, the young phenom driving for Diamond-Waltrip Racing. He entered the 2010 Nationwide campaign under such anonymity that his team is largely unsponsored because of the unknown quality.

This Tennessean turned 19 years old at California two weeks ago and has only 18 Nationwide Series starts. He already has a pole, three top-10s and scored his career-best finish of sixth at Las Vegas, a track that he has never seen before.

When a young driver is coming up through the ranks, their goal is to show respect and gain experience. Done correctly, the veterans will begin to reciprocate as they get comfortable racing around them.

Saturday at Las Vegas, a kid became a young man on the track.

Bayne raced aggressively, but smart. Twice veterans pinned him in the middle of three-wide on late restarts when the money and the points were on the line, clearly expecting the rookie to give. Trevor was the meat in a Harvick-Kyle sandwich going into Turn 3, and while all of the MWR faithful were gasping wanting him to lift, Trevor managed to come out of the corner leading them. That was a crowning moment, a career-changing moment. A misstep there could have caused a three-car crash with superstars and Trevor would have worn the blame like a scarlet letter for weeks.

Instead, he won this mini-battle and may be ready to wage war.

When asked by media members last week if there were any young drivers he is impressed with, Mark Martin said: "I think it's obvious -- very obvious the kid in the 99 [Trevor Bayne], he's awesome. I've watched him race since he was 16. He's a fine young man and an incredibly great driver."

It appears we have a couple of answers to that age-old question.

Ty Norris is vice president and general manager of Michael Waltrip Racing. He has worked within the NASCAR industry with MWR, Speedway Motorsports Inc., Dale Earnhardt Inc. and RJ Reynolds since 1990. He will share his opinions each Thursday on NASCAR.COM.