Six fast fixes for the 2008 Nationwide Series - part 1

How would you go about fixing the Busch-Wacker problem in the queen of NASCAR's racing royalty?

The Nextel - soon to be Sprint - Cup Series is the King of American motorsports.  You can spout all the stats on declining TV ratings and track attendance figures that you want.  Those things matter when measuring competing media properties or when comparing the performance of NASCAR against the NFL.  It doesn't mean a thing when you compare racing series.  That game is over.  See ya' Bernie, have fun in Bahrain.  Tony George's league will be running support races for Moto GP soon. The France family won by TKO.

The massive popularity of NASCAR's Cup Series has helped to turn the Busch/Nationwide Series into the number two racing show in this hemisphere.  That is kind of stunning for a championship that is usually thought of as a developmental series and somewhat minor-league compared to the Cup Chase.

Still people want to fix it - it being the number two racing series in ......blah blah blah.  I can just hear the owners of the Champ Car World Series - or whatever it's called this year - wishing that their venture were broken like that too. 

Broken or not, I posted some ideas that I've had for changing the Busch/Nationwide Series.  My suggestions did not address the one factor that seems to bother fans of stock car racing the most.

The Busch-Wacker phenomenom

When people talk or write about fixing the Busch Series they seem to pine for the old days.  The big complaint being that the series is dominated today by Cup Series drivers - the Busch-Wackers - and the poor, over-matched Busch-only - or Busch-mainly - teams have no chance.  It wasn't like that back in the day, supposedly.

Carl Edwards finished off a dominating 2007 Busch Series season at Texas Motor Speedway in an anti-climactic end to the series championship.  Carl has had this one in the vault for months. Carl Edwards is a Busch-Wacker. Therein lies the Busch-Wacker problem, as fans see it.  The argument can get pretty heated, as it did on last night's ON PIT ROW.  We got plenty of comments on our Fast Lap questions this week.  4ever3 had some good ideas, as he always does - below is bit of his commentary regarding Fast Lap question #4.

4) Limit the number of races that Full-time Cupsters are allowed to run. For example, each full-time Cup driver is limited to say no more than 10 Busch races per year. more...

Bob's solution would probably work.  If all that you want to do is eliminate Cup Series drivers from winning the Nationwide Series Championship in future years, it's a done deal.  Here is where the Busch-Wacker problem (what are we gonna call these guys next year if we don't fix this?  Nationwide-Nippers...Nappers? We have to fix it now!) becomes a dilemma for NASCAR and NASCAR's wealthy promoters.

The Busch-Wacker dilemma

Assume that we agree that the presence of the Cup Series drivers is the main reason that Busch-only competitors can't win their own championship.  I say that you must also assume that the same star presence is responsible for the growth of the Busch Series to second in popularity of all North American motorsports.  There is the dilemma.  Any action that you take that limits the appearances of the Cup Series stars has the potential to degrade what NASCAR has built in their, one-time, developmental series.

Is it smart for NASCAR to stop Dale Earnhardt Jr from appearing in a Busch race at, say, California Speedway, if he chose to run there?  How many more cans in the stands would he be worth?

Would Kevin Harvick be subject to the Cup racer limit, even though Kevin Harvick Racing, the team that fields most of his Busch rides is not involved in the Cup Series?  How would sponsors like Reeces and the Dish Network feel about their investments in Busch teams if the star couldn't drive the car?

This post is already too long.  If you stuck it out to the end, thank you.  In part two, I will give you my six ideas for changing the Nationwide Series.  As always, blast away in the comment section.

Picture credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR

Comments

[RevJim]

Right on Charlie. I've posted something similar on various forums and posts. Nationwide does better with the Cup drivers, as you point out, both in sponsorship and ticket sales. Also, most Nationwide drivers will say that it is better for them to have the Cup drivers to compete against.
As long as I can remember, the "number two" series has always been Cup lite. Ned Jarrett and Ralph Earnhardt were both Sportsman Series regulars, while also racing in Grand National events.
I suggest "Insurance adjusters" to replace Busch-Whackers. It's not my original idea, but I like it.

[auto racing history]

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