Ok, it’s hard to call them Buschwackers now, since NASCAR has had Nationwide Insurance as a sponsor for its penultimate national series… but it used to be sponsored by Busch Beer.  And the term for Cup drivers (Winston Cup, Nextel Cup and now Sprint Cup) that that were moonlighting from the top series became Buschwackers…

As I write this, during the Nationwide Series season opener at Daytona, the front 11 drivers are Sprint Cup regulars… and the next 3 drivers aren’t strangers to Sprint Cup.  In effect, they are the class of the field…

It would kind of be like having Major League Baseball players warm up by playing on AAA farm teams.

I know WHY drivers do it.  There are some great reasons for drivers to seek the extra seat time.  Seat time is VERY valuable.  There is no better way to be a better racer than to spend time racing.  And honestly, these guys LOVE their sport.  Most professional drivers spend their own money to do it more.  As a former (and perhaps future) racer… on a completely different level (spelled l-o-w-b-u-c-k) I can say that it is the one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.

I know WHY teams do it.  Teams can get great information about the track dynamics and car dynamics by spending more time racing.  Even though there are significant differences between Sprint Cup cars and Nationwide cars, there are a lot of similarities.  And the teams that run both series have data that allows them to translate what they learn from one car to another type of car.

So… what is the problem?

The problem is that Sprint Cup racing is the top level of the most competitive series in the US.  And the Nationwide series is designed to groom drivers for Sprint Cup…  While Nationwide racers are FAR from rookies, I still don’t see it as a great way to showcase newer drivers.  I’ve seen it in the stands… the fans aren’t cheering for the “up and coming”… they are cheering for the same guy they will cheer for during the Sprint Cup race.

I know WHY NASCAR hasn’t put a stop to it though…  Money.  Established drivers bring in big sponsors.  Big sponsors raise the profile of the events.  More fans and more TV time flow in with the big name drivers.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck series doesn’t have the same participation from Sprint Cup drivers.  The data doesn’t translate as well…  And that might explain why the trucks don’t get the TV time and why the stands are not nearly as full as they are for the Nationwide races or the Sprint Cup races.

Solution?

Switch the Nationwide series cars to fuel injection…  Or switch the Spring Cup cars to fuel injection…  This would kill a lot of the data that teams get in one series being applicable in the other.  The bodies of the Sprint Cup cars and the Nationwide series cars are currently almost identical.  What would be cool would be to change the Nationwide cars to the pony group…  This would KILL data aquisition as a reason for teams to field both levels…  And think of how much fun the fans would have with a Dodge Challenger v Chevy Camaro v Ford Mustang matchup on the track every week…

I think that the change to “Muscle Cars” would be enough to pull in some fans.  Adding to the technology would bring in other fans.  It would add to the cost considerably for the Sprint Cup teams that field both types of cars, but it wouldn’t add that much to the dedicated Nationwide series teams.  While they might not be able to piggy-back off of the Sprint Cup technology, I think in the great scheme of things it would be an obstacle they could overcome.

All this just to try to keep the top level drivers from stepping down to the lower levels to beat up on the less experienced drivers…

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