Bushwacking: A Solution

Originally Posted on Foxsports.com on March 5, 2006

                 Buschwacking:    When a Nextel Cup driver drives in the Busch series  race.    Usually occurs at the same track the day prior to the Cup race.  Does not refer to insulting the President, at least not in this post.

To diehard Nascar fans (meaning those who would show up 4 days early to a track to catch a Nascar-sanctioned paper airplane race), Buschwacking is a serious problem.  When a Cup driver shows up to race at a Busch race, he brings sponsors, Cup mechanics & team members, and fans with him.   Busch drivers say the Cup drivers are welcome because they provide additional competition - and a learning experience.  But, the flip side of the coin is that he takes sponsorships from the teams who are racing weekly.  The media flocks to talk to the Cup guy, ignoring the Busch drivers.  And if he finishes well, he takes points and part of the purse with him,   leaving the typically smaller Busch teams who run the series each week out of the money, points, and scrambling for sponsorships. 

The new Cup testing limitations have convinced teams to have their drivers drive in the Busch races as a way to "test" without violating the rules.  While the Busch cars are lighter, have smaller engines and have limitations on the number of tire changes in a race, the similarities of the cars help Buschwackers on Saturday run their race on Sunday.  Sometimes, wholesale teams run a Busch race (think Tony Stewart with Greg Zipadeli at Charlotte last fall or Carl Edwards and Bob Osborne at Mexico City today).  Other times, a driver races for another team or his own team (Stewart for Kevin Harvick's team or Michael Waltrip for himself).

In fairness, there are Cup drivers who have committed to run the whole Busch season (Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin).  And those drivers are not the problem - they will be at the tracks which are not connected to a Cup race, such as Kentucky and Nashville.

Nascar has debated how to reward teams who run each week, while still encouraging Cup drivers to run in the Busch series.  The bottom line for tracks is that Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Mark Martin, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Brian Vickers, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Michael Waltrip, Denny Hamlin, Clint Boyer, Joe Nemechek, Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, and Kyle Busch (to name a few regular Buschwackers) sell tickets.

One idea that I think has merit (and it's not my original idea) is to change the cars raced in the Busch race.  Right now, the Busch race and the Cup race look identical - and with the technical exceptions listed above, they are - Chevrolet races Monte Carlos, Ford races Fusions, Dodge races Chargers. 

Why not run sports cars?  Ford could run a Mustang, Chevrolet could run a Corvette or a Cavilier (or maybe Pontiac could run a GTO) etc.  The advantage would be that the series would be different from Cup-lite that it on appearances looks to be.

The biggest issue is that the cars would need to be phased in over a period of time.  The smaller teams simply cannot afford to trash 20+ cars and replace them (I know, I know, it has happened before, as in USAC Silver Crown).  But, by phasing the "new" sports cars in over a 2-3 year period, as cars crashed/wore out etc., teams could invest in the newer chassis.  The car companies would have another car model to promote through Nascar racing.  And the series should pick up new fans  - especially those who idolize the sports cars.  The new cars would minimize the transfer of information from one series to the other, and probably would eliminate some Buschwacking. 

Those Buschwackers who stayed are probably doing it (a) for the love of the sport or (b) for the payola.  Either way, they probably won't be detered by whatever Nascar does.