Buschwhackers want to do double duty again in 2008
Quote selected text Published July 24th, 2007 in NASCAR News
The four Nextel Cup drivers also competing full time in the Busch Series this season all say they want to run every race in both series next year, too.
Carl Edwards, David Reutimann, David Ragan and Dave Blaney all said they were willing to run the full Cup and Busch schedules in 2008, though none of the drivers has Busch plans finalized.
- Leffler to pull double-duty in Phoenix
- Ambrose to delay his Nextel Cup debut at Sonoma
- GEM testing at Nashville
- Schrader back in the Wood Bros No 21 for New Hampshire
- 4 Nextel Cup Drivers Test at Infineon Raceway
This is horrible and detrimental to the Busch Series, as we have already seen.
That is why Ashton Lewis Motorsports is out of business as well as Kertus Davis’ team.
Too many Cup drivers in the Busch Series has really thinned the field to highly financed Cup drivers and struggling Busch teams.
Its rediculous NASCAR needs to do something.
You dont see Peyton Manning going back to the minor leagues to play a game do you?
I really wish they would do something about this like say that a full-time Cup driver can compete in a limited number of Busch races a year, like maybe 5 races.
Either that or have a lottery for Cup driver slots in the Busch race where you draw a number out of a hat, and numbers 1-5 race and everyone else doesn’t. That would make planning almost impossible, though.
The sad thing is that nothing will change anything because having an overwhelming number of Cup drivers in the Busch races makes NASCAR a TON of money, and that’s all they really care about. Perhaps one day Brian France will realize that there’s more to racing than lining his pockets. If he figures that out, maybe they will fix this and a number of other things!
Of course they want to continue running the Busch series; it gives
them a 300[[ish]] mile practice session the day before the race, so
to speak. They shouldn’t be allowed to because actual Busch drivers
rarely ever win anymore because of it, but for them to say they’re
“still willing to” is pretty assanine.
next year with the Crap Of Tomorrow car, it will provide zero valuable testing for them because the cars are so very different(according to the drivers….not breanna, you pick your authority), so it will be the perfect time to address the issue.
It’ll still help them learn nuances of the track and introduce them
to tracks that have had off-season rennovations before the rest of the
drivers, though you make a good point that I didn’t take into consideration.
Yeah, some of the “practice” incentives will go away with the CoT running full time, but like Breanna said it will give them a chance to get a feel for the track, practice getting onto pit road, yadda yadda yadda… I think they’ll still get enough feedback to make it worth their while to do it from that standpoint.
The other two big reasons they probably do it are:
1) The money.
2) It beats sitting around on Saturday afternoon waiting for the race on Sunday!
-Jeff
as professionals, they can ‘walk’ the track to check the conditions. They are supposed to be highly trained racers, which they are. They have the experience to alreday know the nuances of the track….most of which they have raced on many times.
Sprint car and short track guys do this nightly and this is where these drivers came from…
I think nascar needs to do something about it that series is for low budget teams or up an coming drivers but they get sent home cause 15 cup guys enter the race,an if I was a cup owner I wouldnt want my driver racing other series taking chances of getting hurt.
Anon, do you REALLY think that if you gave a sprint driver the chance to drive a prep race on the same track he would be driving a feature race that night or the next night on that he would turn it down?
If you think that they would turn it down you’re out of your mind. If they had the chance they would do whatever they had to do to get a leg up on the competition, including running a race the day before to see what the track was going to be like. Anyone with the slightest bit of common sense would do it, regardless of experience and training. Just because they don’t have the chance to do it doesn’t mean they wouldn’t! Besides, comparing the world of a sprint car driver and a multi-million dollar Cup team is absurd. Two completely different things, IMO.
And what about all the re-paving projects and levigation and other craziness that tracks are doing? Las Vegas was not only a new surface, but a new physical layout when the teams arrived this spring! Wouldn’t a quick spin in a Busch car be an enormous benefit to a Cup driver in that case?
I think the Cup teams and drivers are killing the Busch series. Sure its some limited excitement when the big dogs are racing but I would rather see new guys making a name for themselves. I think they should completely stop Cup drivers from participating in the Busch series. I mean, look at what Carl has done… Completely dominated. Let Cup drivers race in the Craftsman truck series if they feel they need something else to do during the weekend. Hell, let them have one Busch race a year if everyone is so scared of change. NASCAR and its big corporate buddies want you to believe that the Busch series would be nothing without the big names in it and they let the drivers tell us how beneficial it is when in reality there’s not much for them to learn, especially the seasoned veterans. If they want to learn the shape and bumps of the track they should play the video game version. This is another example of NASCAR’s current anti competition mind set. This pro money shit needs to go out the door. In reality they’re just worried about the sponsors pocket books suffering in the short term… In the long run I don’t see how they would.
Busch is supposed to be a developemnet series for up and coming drivers to showcase their skills.
Jeff,
A sprint car driver WOULD do that because they love to race for the love of racing. But, if you ask any good sprint car driver, they will tell you the track conditions will never be the same from one day to the next. Especially on dirt.
I think the biggest problem with Buschwhacking is it takes a spot away from a younger driver to get experience and move up to the Sprint/Nextel/AT&T/Cingular/Verizon Cup.
Okay, NO MORE BUSCHWHACKING. This is ridiculous. It’s destroying the Busch Series and I haven’t seen a good points race, or a race Carl Edwards or Kevin Harvick CAN’T win, since 2005.
Don’t you think that Cup drivers love to race as well and that is more than likely a very large contributing factor in them choosing to run Busch races? I would go so far as to say that it’s a bigger factor than the experience or the money, actually.
Yes, the track conditions will change from day to day and even from race to race on the same day, but that bump at Texas is a bump no matter what kind of car drives over it… The pit road commitment line is in the same spot for both cars at every track, and I imagine pit road speed is the same as well.
All that being said, I think it sucks that all these guys run in the Busch series. Like I said in my first post, if they put a cap on the number of races a Cup driver could run, that would be great. My brother is friends with Kevin Hamlin and he’s had some good runs, but doesn’t have a regular ride because JPM is driving almost every week. I’d love to see him get a fair shake in a regular ride, but so far that chance hasn’t come, thanks mostly to all these Buschwhackers!
Whether it helps the drivers or not, whether it hurts the sponsors or
not, bottom line is what happened to the days when drivers people who
only watched Cup hadn’t heard of were the ones that won the Busch
races? It’s supposed to be a series for new guys to get their shot,
not for the Cup guys to get a leg up and put more money in Nascar’s
pocket because the sponsors popped a biggun watching their company get
more advertising in.
I got so sick and tired of all the cup drivers winning the Busch races
that I don’t watch them anymore. The Busch drivers won a total of two
races last year. Check it out! Does Asscar ever wonder why the Busch
teams are disappearing. Wake up Brian. What sponsor would put up their
money to sponsor a car if the only cars recognized are the cup cars. Give
the Busch guys a chance to win some money for their teams.
Dale Jr and Harvick both own Busch teams. Both have driven his own cars which I think is alright to see how their programs are going. 2 to 4 per year would bo OK.
The rest of the Cup guys should stick with their Cup rides. If they want to own their own cars then let them race a few races
The actual Busch drivers, from what I have heard, actualy dont care about them being in the field. They like trying to beat the best of the business and prove that they are actualy good. And if the Cup guys werent there. The top teams would still be in there winning. No matter what.