Far be it for me to tell NASCAR what they should be doing, but that's the point of this blog.  NASCAR needs to hear it, and I've nominated my screwed-up self for the task.  Introductions aside...

Beginning at some point in 2009, the Nationwide Series will move to a varied form of the Sprint Cup Series' "CoT" (a bit of a misnomer at this point, but one could make the argument that it should stand for something a bit more generic, like posing the question of "Car Or Truck?" given the blunt front ends these things have).  I don't have the specifics in front of me, and I don't feel like looking it up.  But NASCAR is doing a disservice to itself and its fans by keeping with the status quo and not, at the very least, using a different automotive platform as its base for the NNS CoT.

There was a time when the Grand National division was distinct from the Cup series, even as recently as the early 1990's.  Generally, a driver spent two, three, sometimes five or more years in the lower division as prep work for the Cup series.  Someone reaching the top level of NASCAR competition before they turned 27 was pretty much unheardof except in a few rare circumstances.  It started with Jeff Gordon, but didn't really gain momentum until about the time guys like Kenny Irwin, Jr. (RIP) and Adam Petty moved up.  Now it seems like the owners have a bet to see who can be the first to get a kid into a car before he (or she) is potty-trained.  Does Joey Lagano even shave yet?

The benefit of the old system was that once guys "graduated" they usually stayed put, aside from running one of the bigger Grand National events here and there.  What once was a handful of Cup veterans running in a given GN race has now become a 50/50 split between guys who are too young to be racing on a national level and guys who should have been disqualified from running the feeder series years ago..

This is where using smaller vehicles, like the Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro and Dodge Challenger would make a world of difference.  First, it eases the young drivers into having to drive a 3,400-pound tank by putting them in lighter, lower-powered cars in a more gradual step up from the light-weight sprints and late models they likely came from.  Second, it gives the Cup vets less of a reason to race on Saturday, because it gives them less of a feel for what their Sunday cars are going to do on the race track.  As it stands, GN races are largely just a bonus practice session for those Cup guys who choose to participate.

NASCAR has argued that the Cup drivers are a large selling point for the lesser series; while I agree to some extent, it's only because NASCAR hasn't given us any other reason to watch.  If the cars drove different and the action was more exciting (which is something a lighter car will inherently provide), it would be more of an incentive to watch.  Right now, the only difference is the drivers and about 100 horsepower, sans the shapes of the cars.  And that's just not good enough.