For three-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart, retirement doesn’t look that much different from when he was an active driver.

"Smoke" still straps into a race car every week -- now one of his 410 Outlaw Sprints -- and has no shortage of polarizing opinions about the state of North American motorsports.

The 47-year-old of course still owns a partial stake of Stewart-Haas Racing and is deeply invested in NASCAR. He has previously opined on NASCAR’s current infatuation with high-downforce race cars and has now taken a shot at drivers who are entering the highest levels of the sport at an earlier age than ever before.

In a Q&A with The Virginian-Pilot, Stewart says NASCAR needs drivers with more relatable backgrounds and personalities.

"They’ve got to get drivers that have personality. It’s great having opportunities to drive cars, but shoot, they’re not even old enough to go to a bar, and they’re trying to make these 18-year-old kids heroes," Stewart said. "I’m still a race fan, too, and it’s hard for me to embrace somebody who’s just graduating high school and they’re driving a Cup car.

"What have they done to really, legitimately earn their opportunity?

"There are hundreds of thousands of race-car drivers across the country that have clawed and scratched their way at Saturday night short tracks and worked on their cars all their life to get where they are. Then you get kids with rich fathers and deep pockets that put them in race cars. ... All the sudden, because they’re 18 years old, they think they deserve to be in a Cup car. I have a hard time with that. I think there are drivers out there with the experience and personality that makes race fans want to follow them. That’s what’s lacking in NASCAR."

Stewart likely finds consolation in the current Cup Series rookie class that includes two blue-collar short track standouts over the age of 25 in Ryan Preece and Daniel Hemric, both who are 28.

Stewart developed as a racer in the Indiana open-wheel culture and made his IndyCar debut in 1996 at 25 years old. He emerged as a NASCAR Cup Series rookie in 1999 at 28 and after an IndyCar championship and countless USAC trophies.

It’s something Stewart believes needs to be more commonplace moving forward.

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