Comments on: Bench Racing: Patrick Reynolds On "Buschwhacking"

By: Sarah Williams

Sarah Williams — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:16:16 +0000

I completely agree that the series needs to be more stand alone. I think the cup drivers ought to be allowed to drive in the series. They help make these up and coming drivers better. However, it’s the cup owners that I have a huge problem with. If this series doesn’t survive they will have to play a large part in the demise. These drivers ought to have to drive comparable equipment to the nationwide drivers. It would allow new ownership to come into the sport. I have a lot of respect for drivers like Vickers who will drive for nationwide only teams. However, the one thing that the series needs worse than anything to secure an identity is a Champion. In my opinion they haven’t had a marketable champion since 2006. Every time you hear about the last three champions it’s as the driver of the Shell Penzoil Chevrolet, the Jack Daniels/Cheerio’s Car, and the Aflac/Office Depot Ford. These drivers aren’t known for their nationwide cars other than in the championship commercial for Nascar. It provides the sport with no real identity. In all sports you get behind their champion. Their rise and fall through the sport is one of the great stories. Kick them out of the championship run and the excitement of the points run will return.

By: Mike Bearden

Mike Bearden — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:42:31 +0000

I agree that the Cup drivers offer a lot to the Nationwide races..but the standalone teams need help. Handicap the Cup Drivers/teams. If you are running a full Cup schedule you can race any Nationwide race with an extra 200 lbs of lead on your car…centrally placed so there is no handling benefit…if the car wins a race it picks up 25 more pounds. At the same time give the Nationwide teams a 100 lb weight break…when they win it’s 25 more lbs too. The Cup teams will still win a lot of the time due to better resources and talent. But at least they may not fill the top 10 places at every race…reducing the prize money for the standalone teams. Lots of racing series use handicaping to even out performance…why not Nationwide. You could carry the same idea to Cup… maybe the car picks up 25 or 50 lbs for every win. Again the top teams will generally win but the wins may be more spread around the garage…When the four major teams take all 12 spots in the Chase it’s got to be very hard to raise sponsorship for a team that’s going to run 20 or 25th each week…with no chance of winning..”We’re no. 25 and we just might make it to 18th this year”

By: Todd Van Dyke

Todd Van Dyke — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 01:54:06 +0000

Great article…NASCAR is in need of a good feeder series with its own identity. I disagree with the popular notion that the Nationwide series would be invisible without the big names from the Cup series racing. Look at all the hype surrounding new stars like Lagano and Keselowski. The race-fan public loves to grab on to the up-and-coming future stars of the sport. Eliminate the “Buschwackers” and a whole new generation of drivers would take centerstage. Excitement would build to see if the champions of the Nationwide series would graduate to Cup. The Nationwide series needs to be a place for Cup teams to develop new drivers, a less expensive alternative to race at a national level, and of course, a place for experienced drivers (without a Cup ride) to race.