Almost…. The list is actually the top eight in the NASCAR Busch Series Point’s Championship. Seven of the eight are Nextel Cup drivers, fifth place Bobby Hamilton, Jr. is the only true Busch Series driver among the top eight in the series standings following the Talladega Superspeedway race. The driver of the McDonald’s Ford has his sights set on climbing further up the point’s ladder next week in Richmond. With a solid and consistent 12th place finish on Saturday, Hamilton climbed four positions in the standings to fifth.
I think it is ashame that NASCAR Cup drivers fill up the top positions in the Busch points standings. Don't get me wrong I enjoy watching the Cup drivers compete in the Busch series. I think it helps to develop the regular Busch drivers.
I just think that Cup drivers need to be limited to how many Busch races that they can run a year. I seriously think that the Busch series champion should be a driver who is not in Cup.
Yep, like I have blogged, I think we need 43 franchised Cup drivers that qualify with the top 35 based on previous years points and the last eight through a qualifying school. Then no major leaguers should be allowed to run in any other NASCAR sanctioned events.
I can't understand why they would want to spread so thin anyways. I didn't like the idea of it when it first started happening either. I like the color of that Old ####e car.
I thought some of you might appreciate Tony being in the pic with my man Bobby.
I am also now aware that Bobby Labonte was driving the "Dollar General" car, a Tennessee based company. I might have had to cheer for Bobby Labonte with my daughter had I been there.
Isn't it worth pointing out that it was a Busch-only team that finished 1-2 at Talladega? Sure Bobby and Tony were Buschwacking DRIVERS, but it's not like the race at Talladega was a test for some Cup team's Busch program, since Harvick (a) doesn't run Cup and (b) even if he did Tony and Bobby drive for different owners.
It also makes Kyle Krisiloff's fifth and Brad Coleman's pole and ninth-place finish that much more impressive.
Harvick owns a Busch team but he gets all the help he wants from Childress and that is probably part of his contract with Childress so no it isn't worth pointing out in my opinion. Anyway, this blog isn't about Buschwackers. This blog is about a "True Busch Series Driver."
Question: Let's say Jeff Gordon got killed in a tragic wreck at Talladega and Hendrick hired Bobby Hamilton Jr. to step in, but Hamilton did so only on the condition that he was allowed to finish the season in Busch. Is Bobby Hamilton Jr. then still a True Busch Series Driver™?
Your getting into technicalities that would require definition. But since I have thought through this with my "Real Busch Standings", under current rules, in my mind, if you made less than half of the Cup races, you are by default a "Busch Driver."
But you are saying that only your True Busch Series Drivers™ should be the only ones allowed to run for the championship, right? So you would be creating a scenario where a guy could potentially be offered an opportunity to move up to Cup but in turn he would have to forfeit a chance at the Busch title.
(Not that we want to revisit it, but Richard Childress would have had to factor that in when he put Harvick in the Goodwrench Chevy, so it's not like that's unprecedented.)
No it's not unprecedented. There would have to be rules agreed to before the system was implemented. It might be as simple as, before race 18 you give up your Busch rights and after race 18 you didn't. That's not so different from the if you run 8 races your not a rookie the next year, but if you run seven you can be rule we have right now.
Right, but being a rookie is a function of experience, and once you get past it you can't go back and try to be a rookie again, and no one would want to do that anyway. OTOH, most every guy running for the Busch title wants two things (I'm guessing): to win the Busch title and have a Cup ride. Right now there isn't any reason they can't have both, but you would potentially be creating a situation where guys have to make choices that they currently don't have to make.
If I am the starting left fielder for the Richmond Braves while the team is leading the division, I'm hitting .300 (tenth in the league), I'm looking at a Gold Glove and a candidate for the Southern League All-Star team in June and the Braves call me up to start in left field for Atlanta, do I say, as a matter of fact I'll just stay here in Richmond because we are leading the Division, I'm hitting .300, looking at another Gold Glove and really want to play in the Southern League All-Star Game?
I understand that comparison when you are talking about a stick-and-ball sport, but you are forgetting one thing: if those sports minor league players make minor league money. In racing, if you racing in the Cup Series you still get the money from driving in the Busch Series, so it's not really an either-or type of situation, it's "do I want to sit around on Saturday or do I want to get in a car and race and get paid."
Of course, I guess if you made the NASCAR driver choose whether they were going to get paid on Saturday or Sunday, they would all choose Sunday, but the independent contractor system of drivers doesn't work that way, and it also allows Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart to hop into Kevin Harvick's Busch car even though he doesn't own their Cup teams.
Second. The notion they are independent contractors is just that, simply a notion. Note the recent press release by NASCAR refering to "our athletes."
I do not understand why the owners do not demand franchises. To me it is the owners that could change things for the better if they wanted to. You tell me NASCAR wouldn't listen to Hendrick and Roush.
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