Personally, I don’t mind seeing Winston Cup Regulars in Busch Series races, but it seems to be getting out of hand. Dale Jr at Daytona is fine, Michael Waltrip, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, etc. seemingly every other race is excessive.
I am a Harvick fan, and in 2001, his racing both series was both necessary (due to his commitments prior to Earnhardt’s death) and exciting. But as well as running a full Cup schedule this year, he is running a partial Busch schedule. He is also trying to establish a truck team. An exhibition here and there, schedule permitting, is a real treat to see. But honestly, for as well as he’s doing when he runs Busch (5 starts, 4 top 5s, 5 top 10s, 1 pole), he no longer belongs there. Cup regulars should be limited to 5 Busch races per year. After 5 years in Cup, that number should drop to two.
I understand that Busch regulars will benefit from racing Winston regulars, but they are also missing out on paydays which, in some cases, may make or break a fledgling team.
This has been something I have railed against in the past. It was suggested about 10 years ago to prohibit drivers that finished in the top 25 in Winston Cup points the previous season or those in the top 25 in points after 4 races of the current season from competing in the Busch series. The idea was to give the less experienced drivers more opportunities to compete in races, especially those BGN races that are run in conjuction with Cup races. But track promoters and even many BGN team owners did not like the rule so it was never implemented.
Winston Cup drivers put butts in the stands on Saturdays. Consider the BGN race at Kentucky Speedway a few weeks ago. This race was run on Saturday afternoon the day before the Cup race at Martinsville. Other that Todd Bodine who is running for points in both series, no Cup drivers competed in the race. Kentucky Speedway can hold 40,000 had only about 18,000 in attendance. How many more folks would have shown up if Harvick, Waltrip, or Jeff Burton raced? Probably quite a few more.
The BGN race at Darlington had almost as many in attendance on Saturday as the Cup race on Sunday. I would pay to watch BGN regulars such as David Green, Randy Lajoie, Kasey Kahne, or Brian Vickers race. A lot of folks won’t. Was the great finish between Todd Bodine and Jamie McMurray (BTW, two Cup regulars) that folks talked about after the race? No. At the forums at NASCAR.com, it was Steve Park’s return to a Busch car at a track where he was almost killed a few years ago.
The Cup drivers in Busch also help draw sponsors to the BGN regulars. If your a BGN team owner and your looking for sponsorship money, what would impress a potential sponsor more, saying you will compete against Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Jason Keller?
ARCA does have a rule that drivers in the top 25 in Cup points cannot compete in races that are companion events to Cup races. Auto racing is a sport that is controlled by money and if it means letting Cup drivers race in the BGN, so be it. Now days the only teams that really grumble about Cup drivers are the marginal teams that can barely make races.
On a side note, in 1988 I came into some cash and decided to race in what is now known as the Raybestos Brakes Northwest Tour. My local short track, Spanaway Speedway, did not host NWT races so this meant I would not be driving at my home track. But in early May, Bobby Allison was brought in to drive a late model race with the track regulars. I could not resist, it was an off weekend for the Northwest Tours so I decided to race at Spanaway that night. Spanaway has seating for about 3,000, that night, almost 10,000 folks packed into the track. Even though I competed against Chad Little, Derrike Cope, and Hershel McGriff, all who would compete as regulars in the Winston Cup series, I can say I drove in race with Bobby Allison. Unfortunatly, a few months later his driving career would end at Pocono in a horrible crash. Bobby drove a backup car of one of the tracks hotshoes and he put on a show. He started mid pack but raced to the lead and was flat out kicking our butts. He dropped out after about 75 of the 100 laps (wore out the cars brakes) but it was fun for all involved. I had a 3rd place finish all wrapped up till I cut down a tire with only a few laps to go and ended up 15th out of the 22 starters. It all has to do with star power and I learned why that one special night. I consider that night one of the few highlights of my stock car racing career.
I pretty much agree with what Casey said about putting limits on the number of Busch races a Cup driver should be able to run.
On a mostly-unrelated note, Dave Blaney and Tony Stewart race at my local dirt track once or twice a year. The track (Lebanon Valley Motor Speedway) gets packed pretty well every Saturday night when it’s warm regardless of what the special features are, but when the NASCAR drivers are gonna be there you have to buy your tickets well in advance and good luck finding a parking spot. (The parking lot is an empty field. People drive up the day before with campers and spend Friday night there.) This year, unfortunately, they’re not going to be there before I move away, and I no longer have a press pass to show once I’m in the pits so I probably wouldn’t be able to get to 'em anyway.
I’m OK with limited exhibitions, such as Harvick and Hornaday at Mesa Martin, Stewart doing a Sprint race or two when he’s available, or Schrader doing his thing (I understand one of his dirt track races is full of WC and BGN regulars, and benefits charity). Where I see the problem is when they run routinely in series in which they do not belong.
Minor hijack, but “slumming” has always been a part of auto racing and has led to some truely silly moments, such as when AJ Foyt was run over by his own sprint car the day after his 1972 Indy 500 run. By the way, this incident, among many others, was immortalized in a book called Stand On It, which was just (happily) republished!
In addition to contract obligations and bringing fans to the race, I think the big names also go back to Busch and dirt tracks as a way to “play race” where the stakes aren’t as high. That said, I wouldn’t be against limits on Cup drivers in Busch or the other leagues. The trick is doing it in a way that still lets the Cup guys “get back to their roots” from time to time and also help bring up new drivers through Busch.
