Stephen Leicht, who drives Robert Yates Racing’s entry in the NASCAR Busch Series, won his first series race last weekend and became the first non-Nextel Cup regular to win a series race this season. Ironically, the same scenario unfolded last season when then-Busch driver David Gilliland pulled off a surprise win at Kentucky and was followed by Paul Menard’s win at The Milwaukee Mile. Until Leicht’s victory, Cup drivers had won every series race since.
“It is starting to sink in. It sets in more when I am with my team," Leicht said. "I don’t think the smiles have left their faces since we left victory lane,” said Leicht, who will look for his second consecutive win in Saturday‘s A####mp;T 250 at The Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wisc. (8 p.m. Eastern, ESPN2). “It is hard to describe how excited everyone is. I had to replay the end of the race a few times just to see the actual win and make sure that it was real.”
So who will it be? Marcos Ambrose? Bobby Hamilton Jr.,? Leicht again?
This blog is a copy of two of my responses, one to JayJayDean and one to photographer on JayJay's blog. O.K., I admit it. I am a bit conceited. I think these responses are decent enough to merit their own blog. But more than that I wanted to save the info where I could find it later.
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DAMN IT I CAN"T STAND NO PICTURES ON MY BLOG. FILE OR NOT
1. Ward Burton 2. Kyle Busch 3. David Gilliland 4. Kevin Harvick 5. Matt Kenseth 6. Reed Sorenson
These are Nextel Cup regulars that run only the companion Busch events which in my mind is the pure definition of a Buschwacker. Let's call them Type I wackers.
Then there are those that are at least more honorable in that they are running all Busch Series events so that they could be termed Nextel and Busch regulars. Let's call them Type II wackers.
They include;
1. Greg Biffle 2. Dave Blaney 3. Carl Edwards 4. Juan Pablo Montoya 5. David Ragan 6. David Reuttiman 7. J. J. Yeley
Adding all of the Type I and Type II wackers together gives you 13 Nextel Cup drivers that make up the majority of the wackers by running Busch races roughly 85% of the time.
Then add the 12 Busch regulars and you have the typical 25 cars you normally see in Busch races. The remaining 18 cars are pretty much field fillers whether they are "Mexican" road racers or "American" oval racers.
photo,
The fact that there are 13 wackers discourages decent mid-level racers from running the Busch series, so they go run trucks. That is what leaves approximately 18 local field fillers that run Busch that at best might be qualified to run trucks regularly. You take these 18 to Bristol and you get a wreckfest.
This is why NASCAR needs to
1) Allow the top 35 from the previous season to run a full Nextel Cup Season. 2) Have a qualifying school in January for the other 8 positions and you are in all year. 3) Do not allow Nextel Cup drivers to run Busch. 4) Increase Busch Purses to add more incentive for regular truck drivers to run Busch.
Then and only then will we have a healthy Busch series.
David Gilliland “The thing that I love about road courses is that so much of the team’s performance is determined by the driver. We go to a lot of tracks that the car does all the work and the driver doesn’t have as much say in the outcome. At road courses, though, your finish has to do with how well you can turn the wheel. You don’t have to worry about aero-push or having your fenders ####ed in; it’s mostly about how well the driver can get through the course.
CARL EDWARDS-60-Scotts Ford Fusion
DO YOU LIKE COMING TO MEXICO TO RACE?
"I like it a lot. It's fun and it's totally different. I wish we went to places like this more often. I'm excited to go to Canada. I'm sure it's more of a nightmare for everybody that has to drive a truck here or deal with all of the paperwork or whatever, but for me as a driver, I got up this morning in my bed in Charlotte and flew down here with Greg (Biffle) and got to take a great van ride. Jon Wood was interpreting for everybody, which was pretty funny."
DOES HE SPEAK SPANISH?
"Almost as much as I do, which is not a lot. We had fun, and it's just different. Like tonight, I'm excited to go back to the hotel and check it out and try to understand what they're saying on TV."
YOU WERE VOCAL ABOUT THE NEED TO REMOVE THE CHICANE FROM THE ROAD COURSE, AND THIS YEAR IT'S GONE. WAS IT THAT BAD?
"No, it just got me that one trip to the hospital there. But other than, it's fine and it was fun. I think it will be better without it. It will be just a little more straightforward. The only problem with the chicane was that in traffic you couldn't see the curbs very well at all, so everybody just had to agree to take easy though there and that made it a little bit tough."
HOW WILL IT CHANGE THE RACING?
"I think it will make passing a little more straightforward if you get a good run off of the last corner. It will make it simpler to make a pass on somebody, and you get that whole straightaway to figure out how you're going to pass them. I think you'll see some neat blocking and stuff because that's a long straightaway."
DO YOU THINK THE OPINION OF THE DRIVERS HELPED TO REMOVE THE CHICANE?
"I don't know about that. I think it's pretty obvious that that was a band-aid for the long straightaway. I think practice went pretty well. I didn't feel that I was going much faster at the end of the straightaway than we were, and it just felt a lot more comfortable. It was just a bottleneck and I think will be fine without it. I think it will be better. That was kind of a bottleneck and kind of a crutch to keep everybody going a little bit slower, but it kind of took the racing away from that section of the race track. You couldn't get a run on somebody and pass them off of the corner because you had to feed right back in line. I think it's good."
The brush south of the border can get thick in places I hear. Never fear. The Buschwackers are coming. Carl Edwards is leading the way.
Edwards says, “I really love traveling to Mexico. They have great fans and I am very excited. The Mexican drivers are fast. They’re going to be very hard to beat because this is their third year in the Busch cars. We have finished in the top-10 both years, but we struggled a little last year. I feel like we can do much better this year and I would love to do my back flip in front of the Mexican fans!”
On his right flank is Dave Blaney.
Although this is the third Mexico City race for the Busch Series, it will be Dave Blaney’s first time participating in the Telcel-Motorola 200. Blaney has never even seen the 2.518-mile road course, but he’s been doing his homework. Blaney has been watching tapes of the past two Mexico races to get a better feel for the track. Kicking off the season with a second place finish in Daytona and capturing the pole in California, Blaney and the Fan1st.com team plan to keep the momentum going in Mexico. Although he has never raced at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, he has logged a combined 21 starts at Watkins Glen International and Pocono Raceway.
Behind them are David Gilliland, Juan Pablo Montoya and David Reutimann. O.K. so it isn't a big bunch of wackers. Which makes my point. Separate the venues between Nextel Cup and Busch and you get a truer Busch race.
Of course I am also trying to drag you in here and get you interested in Busch racing. So stick with me.
Actually this is an excellent opportunity for Regan Smith to climb in the point standings and see if he can win the Busch title this year. Currently Edwards is second, Blaney is fourth and Smith is ninth.
Apparently, after filing an entry, wacker Greg Biffle who is currently fifth in the points, has decided not to make this trip. Current points leader and wacker Kevin Harvick did not plan to race. Neither did wackers Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart or Kyle Bush.
Coverage of the Telcel-Motorola 200 begins Sunday at 1:30 p.m. ET on ESPN 2.
Any way he slices it, life in NASCAR's fast lane can't get much better for former Riversider David Gilliland. First Gilliland, the 30-year-old who cut his racing teeth at Perris Auto Speedway and other California short tracks, outraced more veteran drivers and finished runner-up to Tony Stewart in the Bud Shootout exhibition race at Daytona International Speedway. Then he put the Robert Yates Racing M& M Ford on the pole for the Daytona 500 with a qualifying speed of 186.320 mph. In his first Great American Race, Gilliland overcame a pit-road accident and was among the leaders until the very end, when he got caught up in the multi-car pileup on the last lap. Still, he finished eighth behind Kevin Harvick.
"I thought we had it," Gilliland said after the Daytona 500. "Guys started wrecking and it kind of came away and we were going through the middle. I was in front of Harvick, and it just kind of closed in on me at the end. But an eighth-place finish after all we went through, we'll take it. We had a great car.
Now it's a homecoming of sorts for Gilliland as he prepares to run his second Nextel Cup Series race Sunday at California Speedway in Fontana. "There is no other feeling in the world like this," Gilliland said of his early-season performance. "I'm loving every minute of it."
Gilliland will also drive the No. 25 FreeCreditReport.com Ford Fusion for Team Rensi Motorsports in the Busch race this weekend. This event marks Gilliland’s first NASCAR Busch Series race at the California Speedway. “Any time I go to California Speedway it’s like going home,"Gilliland said.
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