This list was compiled based on the following. Any Cup driver who has run 4 or more of the 6 cup races is not qualified.
However, attempting to qualify for a Cup race and not qualifying does not make you a Cup driver. If you fail to qualify for less than half of the cup races, you are simply a Cup wanabee. Therefore you will find a driver on this list who has attempted to make the field for all of the Cup races. However, he is a Cup wanabee and needs to run Busch the rest of the year to see if he is capable of learning more on the Busch track instead of on the Cup sidelines. Can you say Paul Menard? Or should we say Daddy's Money Menard.
You will find also Ward Burton on this list for a similar reason. He has tried to make five of six Cup races but Morgan McClure Racing just needs to hang up the Cup dream. Face it guys, if you can't get along with other people well enough to merge with another potential Cup team, your days of Cup dreams are over.
This list also includes drivers that have not attempted all Busch Races. You don't have to try to race all Busch races to be a Busch regular or a "Busch guy." All of these drivers have run at least four of the seven Busch races.
It's an interesting group. And with more support from NASCAR it could be a very interesting group.
C'mon NASCAR, word is some NASCAR fans were bored this weekend because there was not a Cup race. We will never fix that really. There will always be singularly focused fans who are bigger celebrity worshipers than race fans and will never see past the NASCAR trees thus missing out on other great forests. But maybe somewhere out there under some of those eight caps there may be some fans that we might attract to other racing series if we package them right. What do you say we put our heads together and see what we can come up with?
I dunno, man. Your "points leader" has a best finish of eighth in seven races. I'd like a little more out of a "series champion", myself. I think eliminating some guys because they ran too many Cup races (which is essentially a way of saying they are "too good" for the other guys to beat) is pretty weak.
They don't have IRL and Champ Car drivers dropping down to run IPS or Atlantics because the cars are JV versions of the top series' cars. Maybe it's time for the Busch Series to run kiddie models too. They could even have a similar sign outside the Busch-line like they have at the amusement park: if your accomplishments are THIS much, you are too big for this ride.
Maybe at some point the Cup guys will decide it isn't worth it to run the entire Busch season. After all, if you look down the list of Cup champions, there isn't one who ran more than 18 Busch races during his Cup championship season, and most only ran a handful of Busch races.
P.S. I found a way for you to like my points-system again, I think.
2003 BUSCH SERIES STANDINGS THE NASCAR WAY
1 Brian Vickers - 4637
2 David Green - 4623
3 Ron Hornaday, Jr. - 4591
4 Bobby Hamilton, Jr. - 4588
5 Jason Keller - 4528
2003 BUSCH SERIES STANDINGS THE JJD WAY
1 Bobby Hamilton Jr. - 271
2 Brian Vickers - 257
3 Kevin Harvick - 247
4 David Green - 240
5 Scott Riggs - 227
Here is a better one. Under The "original" Chase rules your 2001 Nextel Cup Champion would have been Sterling Marlin. You can change the point system all you want. When it is all said and done it is still a points system. It's like Michael Waltrip says, "just tell us what the rules are and we will race for the championship under those rules."
The Cup drivers are not too good. The Cup teams are. They have unlimited resources due to big Cup sponsorships that the Busch owner does not have available. The Cup deals pay for the Busch deals too, as practice. That's not fair to the guy that just wants to go Busch racing.
My preferred solution is still, separate the Busch Series venue from the Cup Series venue more often.
My second preferred solution is the tour card approach.
And my third is have a Cup class and a Busch class in the Busch races with separate points awarded. That way you can still have the overall race, you can award two champions, and the "Busch guy" might still win the whole thing.
Last edited by 14Falcons on April 11th at 7:25 AM.
"You can change the point system all you want. When it is all said and done it is still a points system. It's like Michael Waltrip says, 'just tell us what the rules are and we will race for the championship under those rules.'"
That's why I make the important point to say I don't think the points system is UNFAIR, I just think it's POOR.
Bigger-funded Cup teams have been Buschwacking for forever, but it's only been the last two years that some Cup drivers have seen fit to run both complete schedules. I don't have a real problem with it, but if you want to have a Busch champion in the spirit of what the Busch Series is, they have to separate more races from the Cup races. OTOH, maybe they wouldn't have the ESPN contract without the Cup/Busch weekends being so prevalent. After all, when do they show IPS and Atlantics races? Certainly not live, for the most part.
More Cup teams started running Busch when Cup practices were limited. Open up more Cup practice sessions and some of the Buschwackers will go away. Either you can afford to run Cup or you can't. But trying to make Cup more fair at the expense of Busch isn't fair.
Look, here I go, opening up another can of worms, but why do you think all of the good old Cup guys are running trucks? They want to go run a series away from the Buschwackers. That's part of what is hurting Busch too. I hadn't gone there yet. But I have now.
Here's an idea. Disband the truck series. Then these guys go back to Busch racing. If you want to have a third series start a Senior Tour Series for guys 45 and older only.
Seinor series for drivers over 45. Good idea just like the seinors golf pro series.
Disban Trucks.. Nope make it for the young upcomming guns under 45. Ok maybe under 25.
It does seem a a bit unlevel playing grounds with the well funded Cup teams running in Busch with the Cup regulars. Nascar is always talking about evening out the playing field in cup but nothing is done in Busch.
"The Cup drivers are not too good. The Cup teams are."
When Cup teams were winning Busch titles with less-experienced drivers there was much less complaining about Buschwacking. Were we hearing such complaints when Kevin Harvick was winning the Busch title in 2001 for RCR? No. When Greg Biffle won in 2002 for Roush? No. How about in 2003 when Brian Vickers won for Hendrick, or '04 and '05 when Martin Truex won back-to-back titles for DEI? No, no, and no. This is a DRIVER issue, not a team issue.
Carl Edwards' Busch team has Roush resources it isn't his Cup team running Busch, it's a Busch team with a Busch crew chief and Busch crew guys. If it was a Todd Kluever in the car winning races everyone would have a hard-on about a "Busch guy" leading the points, when it's still a Cup-level organization backing him.
This might just be a cyclical situation that will pass in time with the implementation of the COT and teams bolstering their driver depth.
That was seen differently because it was developing drivers and I would like to see a return to that. The tipping point ocurred when Cup practices were limited to "cut costs". Of course the wealthy teams just spend there money elsewhere, spending more on their Busch teams and letting their Cup drivers practice in Busch cars. Please acknowledge this argument. Do you agree or disagree that the practice limitations led to what we have now.
Last edited by 14Falcons on April 12th at 1:51 PM.
I'm not dismissing your contention that the lack of Cup practice has contributed to the Buschwacking, and I think it's noteworthy that several of the guys doing the Cup/Busch double so far are very young (even Edwards is only in his third full Cup season). I just don't think it is THAT big of a factor, because I think if it was, you'd see entire Cup teams (or even partial Cup teams) dropping down and doing crew work for Busch races, which I don't think happens now, and which is part of my point that looking at the drivers only is somewhat myopic. (A quick check of jayski leads me to believe that only DEI has their Cup-level crew chiefs calling Busch races.)
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