Buschwhacking (merged)

[Fish_Flake]

The easy way is to limit full-time Cup drivers to 15-20 Grand National starts.

[R59]

Per year, or in their career?

[duke_toaster]

Originally Posted by Fish_Flake

...
I say that instead of attempting to restrict Buschwhacking, which isn't going to work in the present condition of NASCAR, the Busch Series should be dropped altogether as part of a major overhaul of the hierarchal structure of NASCAR. I've said all along the NEXTEL Cup Series needs to decrease the number of races in a season while increasing the number of venues. Every track is limited to one race, with the exception of one ISC track and one SMI track. Daytona would be the ISC track, while either Charlotte or Bristol retains its second date, dependent on whether Charlotte wants to remain host to the All-Star Challenge. Meanwhile, Mexico City, Kentucky, Milwaukee, Nashville, Montreal, and one other track currently not on the NEXTEL Cup schedule are reward with dates, for 30 races in total. The cap on how many cars a team can field is lifted, so that the current Buschwhacker operations can become Cup teams (another reason for the prominence of Buschwhacking). Instead of one single-car qualifying session to determine the Cup series field, only the top 8 in qualifying are automatically make it into the race. Instead, the rest of the field takes part in a sprint race on Saturday (when the Busch Series currently races) to determine the rest of the grid. The Truck series remains the same, because that format is working perfectly, allowing up-and-coming and veteran talent prove themselves in an environment where independent teams can survive even with the big boys interloping from time to time. The current Grand National regional series remain to provide a place for the small players of NASCAR to thrive.

I agree.

Make one NASCAR Championship Series, 29 points scoring races plus two exhibition events, the All-Star challenge and an annual trip to Europe (or it could be to Japan if you want).

Something like

ISC - 12 tracks, 1 each + 1 additional at Daytona - 13 races
SMI - 6 tracks, 1 each + 1 additional at Bristol - 7 races
OTH - 4 tracks, 1 each - 4 races
New - Laguna Seca, Miller MS Park, Hermanos Rodriguez, Ile de Notre Dame, Interlagos.

And

All-star event (Charlotte)
International exhibition event in Europe as a race in to the dark, a road course or an oval.

The COT will be nice and cheap to run hopefully. Small point - please put functioning headlamps on the cars, it would be great to see stock cars running using headlights on a roadcourse.

Make the quali a one run deal (no-one gets a free ride in to the race) for ovals, but something like F1 for qualifying on road courses.

[ThePenguin]

Originally Posted by Fish_Flake

The easy way is to limit full-time Cup drivers to 15-20 Grand National starts.

If that is per season, that probably won't make much of a difference. Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Clint Boyer, and Jeff Burton are all in the chase and have about 20 starts in the Busch series. For full-time cup drivers it should be just 5 and for part-time maybe 15. This way most of the wins should be from the drivers that do full time Busch and are developing their talent for the cup.

[kingfloopy]

I don't like the idea of restricting races. If you have a Cup driver lose his ride and land a Busch ride while still seeking out another Cup ride what happens? It just seems like it would be a confusing mess to me. I think making the cars different will help to some degree. There seems to be a slight tapering off in the number of guys running full schedules in both series this year and next.

I think the real solution would be to change the purse system. First, drivers that are entered in the next days Cup race get payed for lower positions. For instance 10 Cup drivers are entered in a given Busch race and finish in the top-10 spots. They receive the purse money for 34th to 43rd place. The 11th place finisher who's a Busch regular gets 1st place money. Also, there can be a limit set on appearance money.

Second, at the end of the season any driver who finished top-25 or better in Cup and will receive a payout from the points purse will not be eligible for money for points in either of the lower series.

A lot of the guys run the Busch series for money more than anything else, limiting that will help cut back on guys willing to run the races.

Anybody wondered what they are going to call this next year? "Nationwide-whacking" doesn't sound very good.

J.D.

[duke_toaster]

Originally Posted by kingfloopy

Anybody wondered what they are going to call this next year? "Nationwide-whacking" doesn't sound very good.

It will probably continue to call it Buschwhacking.

[Knowlesy]

Natwhacking.

Err...