There has been a lot to like about the first two weeks of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup season.

The top series in auto racing has been reinvigorated by a youth movement featuring charismatic — and good — young drivers like Austin Dillon and Bubba Wallace, both of whom seized starring roles at Daytona on Feb. 18.

But the sport’s seeming resurgence isn’t solely thanks to dudes in their 20s repeatedly turning fast laps. There’s a level of acceptance among the old guard — both drivers and fans, alike — thanks, in large part to the reverence drivers like Dillon and Wallace have shown for the history of the sport.

Wallace, the first full-time African-American driver at this level in over four decades, has the personality and the talent to become the fresh, new face of NASCAR. But he has also been moved to genuine emotion when reflecting on just what it means that he is standing at the forefront of the sport as the driver of Richard Petty’s No. 43.

Dillon, born into the advantage of being the grandson of Richard Childress, has not taken his rapid ascension within the sport for granted, nor has he avoided acknowledging the edge that his family tree provides.

Time and again, Dillon has distributed graciousness throughout his garage area, for the opportunity afforded to him by his grandfather, for the world-class team that surrounds him, and, most recently, for the trail that was blazed by Dale Earnhardt Sr. — along with the willingness of Earnhardt's children to let Dillon bring the No. 3 back to the sport.

Seventeen years to the day after the pinnacle of auto racing lost its most popular, most successful driver of all time, an RCR car with that familiar digit painted across its roof crossed the finish line ahead of every remaining driver in the field.

Dillon’s Daytona triumph came 20 years after Earnhardt’s lone trip to Victory Lane at the famed track — and the 27-year-old, acutely aware of the symmetry, had a special celebration in mind.

It was nice, all of it. It was nice to see exciting, competitive racing — partially a result of the still relatively new stage racing format, and partially a result of the relative inexperience scattered throughout the field. It was nice to see new blood at the top — and it was nice to see new blood with historical context and appreciation for legends of the sport.

On Sunday in Atlanta, Kevin Harvick — the first man in Earnhardt’s Childress ride following his death — paid homage similarly, following his first victory at Atlanta since 2001.

It was in 2001, just three weeks after Earnhardt passed away, that the rookie Harvick, saddled with the unimaginably immense responsibility of replacing the fallen icon, won his first Cup at the same track. On that day, Harvick saluted the giant of the sport in the very same manner.

After what we’ve seen at Daytona and Atlanta, it’s tough to imagine a better, more appropriate beginning to what will be the sport’s first full season without any Dale Earnhardt — be it Sr. or Jr. — since 1974.