I guess this would be more appropriately called "Busch Series-regular Watch '07", but that name isn't nearly as catchy.
I was listening to PRN Sunday night and Todd Kluever called in, and the hosts congratulated him for finishing twelfth and being the highest-finishing "Busch Series-regular". Um, EXCUSE ME? First of all, the highest finishing "BSR" would be the guy who WON, Carl Edwards, and secondly, Todd Kluever has MISSED TWO BUSCH RACES in 2007, which is pretty much teh OPPOSITE of "regular", is it not? If you were headed north on I-5 Sunday evening and you saw a guy shouting with nobody else in the car, well, as you can see I had good reason. It was the second-most angry I got at a racing personality on TV or the radio this weekend.
(If you're wondering, it was listening to Jimmy Spencer wildly speculate about who would be safe in the top-35 after Bristol on RaceDay. "I think Joe Nemechek will be OK." Would it KILL someone on tat show to do a TINY bit of research? He actually said he was worried about Paul Menard in the 15 bumping Johnny Sauter in the 70 from the top-35. On Sunday. After qualifying. When Paul Menard FAILED TO MAKE THE FIELD. Come ON, man! At least hte made up for it by almost making Kenny Wallace #### his pants when he was showing Cory Mac in the Top Fuel dragster.)
Here is the list of
guys who have run or tried to qualify for all six Busch races so far. The guys in RED are the drivers wth ZERO Nextel Cup starts in 2007.
Carl Edwards Dave Blaney Juan Pablo Montoya Greg Biffle Jason Leffler Marcos Ambrose Regan Smith Jon Wood Mike Wallace Brent Sherman David Reutimann Stephen Leicht Steve Wallace Bobby Hamilton Jr. Shane Huffman Kyle Krisiloff David Ragan J.J. Yeley Brad Keselowski
Actually, Regan Smith, Jon Wood and Mike Wallace are not trying to run full time in Nextel but are running full time in Busch so I do not consider them Buschwackers. Therefore, I see the true Busch standings as
1. Jason Leffler
2. Marcos Ambrose
3. Regan Smith
4. Jon Wood
5. Mike Wallace
6. Brent Sherman
7. Stephen Leicht
8. Steve Wallace
9. Bobby Hamilton Jr.
10. Shane Huffman
11. Kyle Krisiloff
12. Brad Keselowski
Still, the true Busch field is mighty slim. Sad.
Last edited by 14Falcons on March 27th at 8:21 AM.
I think when you get down to it, the only guys that I think you can really say WTF are they doing running Busch are Biffle and Blaney. Common sense says Carl Edwards, too, but he's only in his third full season at the Busch/Cup-level, so he's not really being offensive by going for the Busch title.
All NASCAR really needs to do is go back even to 2001 to see what they were doing differently on Busch vs. Cup, schedule and otherwise, because this is really a pretty new "problem".
The only person running full time Busch you might question is probably Carl. His promotion was accelerated by Kurt Busch leaving Roush suddenly and unexpectedly, so that may even be justifiable. But it is the Cup guys that run here and there that wind up with Cup drivers taking the top 10 in the Busch races that are the problem, like, well Jeff Burton, for example, if i might borrow from the Peyton Manning ad. I like Jeff. I just wish he would stick to Cup along with other seasoned veterans.
If you look at Buschwackers for 5 of the 6 events so far, (leaving out Mexico which many Buschwackers skipped) your list will look a lot different.
Last edited by 14Falcons on March 27th at 12:05 PM.
I really compare running both Busch and Cup series as playing in the MLB and Triple-A at the same time during the same season. Not to say that NASCAR is like any other sport, but in any other sport, you can't play in the minors and the big leagues at the same time.
"If you look at Buschwackers for 5 of the 6 events so far, (leaving out Mexico which many Buschwackers skipped) your list will look a lot different. "
Actually, that's totally wrong. The only guys with five Busch starts are Harvick, Kyle, Kenseth, Ward Burton, Gilliland, Sorenson, and Eric McClure. McClure would be the only guy to run the five races while skipping the Mexico race.
"I really compare running both Busch and Cup series as playing in the MLB and Triple-A at the same time during the same season. Not to say that NASCAR is like any other sport, but in any other sport, you can't play in the minors and the big leagues at the same time."
That's because baseball players have major league contracts, whereas NASCAR drivers are "independent contractors", or so we're told. If NASCAR thought it was a problem they would just make it more difficult for drivers to compete by moving the races to different venues on the same weekend. They could also put a cap on the total number of teams an owner could have on all levels, not just Cup, and I bet if they ran some Busch races on Saturdays RIGHT BEFORE the Cup event, hardly any Cup guys would run those Busch races.
"Actually, that's totally wrong. The only guys with five Busch starts are Harvick, Kyle, Kenseth, Ward Burton, Gilliland, Sorenson, and Eric McClure."
No, that's my point. these guys not trying to run a full Busch series that are running full time in Nextel are the real Buschwackers that make it extremely difficult for a true Busch Series racer to win the race and therefore any money.
Harvick, Kyle, Kenseth, Ward Burton, Gilliland, and Sorenson are a big part of the problem. Maybe Kyle, David and Reed need the seat time. But Kevin and Matt? No way!
Now Ward, he needs to run Busch and stay out of Nextel. Stick a fork in him. He's done.
Last edited by 14Falcons on March 27th at 4:41 PM.
Ok, because I totally thought you were implying that a bunch of guys would have run the Busch races except Mexico and that if I changed the list to add those guys, there would have been more BSRs, which wasn't the case.
Interesting comments. It is beginnig to unfold the true reason for Buschwackers ( Cup drivers also running Busch).There are not enough qualified Busch drivers to fill up the 43 positions so the Cup drivers are filling up the open Busch ranks ( Filler uppers. the new Buschwacker term).And all this time I thought the "filler uppers" were enticing more fans to watch Busch races.
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 Reuttiman
6. David Ragan
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.
Last edited by 14Falcons on March 27th at 10:00 PM.
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.
Last edited by 14Falcons on March 27th at 10:57 PM.
Falcons: Sounds good to me. I would like to see Cup drivers banned completely from Busch. Thus allowing the class for more up comming drivers from truck or ARCA classes to get into Busch.
Chaas and Manrub
made a good point that should be applied to NASCAR.
But it's not like there isn't any value to having the Cup guys be ing able to run Busch if they want. First, the BSRs get experience racing against the Cup guys, and second, the Busch teams get to work with a Cup driver. It isn't just about the drivers championship.
However, it seems like if they just used Busch as less of a support series for the Cup weekends that would take care of things. In 1997, 17 out of the 30 Busch races were run as companion races for a Cup race. In 2006, that number grew to 26 out of 35. In 1997, no one considered Buschwacking a problem, but consider:
Dale Jarrett finished 2nd in Cup points, ran 13 Busch races.
Mark Martin finished 3rd in Cup points, ran 15 Busch races.
Jeff Burton finished 4th in Cup points, ran 13 Busch races.
Terry Labonte finished 6th in Cup points, ran 14 Busch races.
Bobby Labonte finished 7th in Cup points, ran 16 Busch races.
Full-time Cup guys also won 14 of the 30 Busch races that season, twelve of which were on dual-race weekends.
With the Truck Series around there isn't any reason that they couldn't make more of a mix between having the Truck Series and Busch Series run on Saturdays so they could run the Busch races in different places. There really doesn't need to be three top-level NASCAR races at the same track, when they could really make that a special thing for Daytona in February and Homestead in November and maybe a couple of tracks here and there.
from 14Falcons blog
by williamwilman
Mar 28, 2007
7:17 AM could you tell me how to determine the health of the busch series. because on principle i think i disagree with you but im not sure.
Last edited by williamwilman on March 28th at 7:21 AM.
William,
A healthy Busch series would have 30 Busch regulars, defined as people that did not attempt any more than five Cup races and attempted at least 31 Busch races. Said series would allow for up to 6 Cup guys per race max if they want to do it that way and 7 local field fillers.
I'd rather the Nextel Cup champion be decided over the entire season, but I think if you are going to have a Chase for the Nextel Cup, you should break out the twelve guys and have them scored separately, so I'm tracking the points both ways.
I also strongly advocate a NCAA football playoff, so there will be some posts about that showing up here, although I have written this blog for over a year and haven't gone there yet.
I can be reached via e-mail or AIM at jayjaydean at gmail dot com.
