Soap Box: Can The Nationwide Series Be Saved?

Editor’s Note: You may recall yesterday as I introduced John “Dawg” Chapman, I said he called ‘em like he’d seen ‘em. Today, Chapman share a very thought provoking idea concerning the Nationwide Series.

If you’re like me, I’ve not been too enamored with NASCAR’s “junior varsity.” If it was meant as a developmental series- or even a “champions” (read that “old timers”) series- it fails as both in my opinion. As Patrick Reynolds has written here before, it’s a series without an identity.

Dawg’s idea may be completely crazy, but it may be “crazy like a fox.” Read it and see what you think. It’s simply an idea, and frankly it’s a lot more interesting than most I’ve read.

Can the Nationwide Series be saved?????

More to the point, Should it be saved? My short answer is a resounding NO!

Now that I have your attention, let me tell you why I’ve come to this conclusion. If this series were a true feeder series where promising new drivers came to perfect their chops, get noticed and hopefully move on up to the Cup series, then I’d be one of it’s strongest supporters.

As it stands, it’s become the Saturday playground of slumming Cup drivers, driving cars mostly owned by Cup owners and pitted by Cup crews. Talk about a stacked deck.

At the start of this season, the chart shows 40 full time Nationwide teams. Of these, 10 are owned by Cup owners. I didn’t include cars owned by Kevin Harvick or Joe Nemechek. I did include cars of JR Motorsports because these are at least partially owned be Hendrick now. Of the 17 races run- as of this writing- 16 have been won by drivers with full time Cup rides. The exception was Mike Bliss, who won for James Finch. This race was called early under a rain delay. Anyone see a pattern showing up here?

I’ve heard the brave words from the non-Cup regulars should anyone take the trouble to interview them. “We learn so much racing against the Cup drivers.” Maybe some truth there. “To be the best, you have to beat the best.” Like a lot of cliché’s this doesn’t mean much. Why? Because as I said, they’re not beating them. Maybe beating them for 14th place when one of them has trouble, but who’s going to notice that?

A “Nationwide only” driver beating the Cup guys is so rare that David Gilliland built his Cup career on his 1 and only Nationwide Series win. No small accomplishment by the way.

Between the well-sponsored and factory supported (that part of the playing field has been leveled) teams at the top skimming off the lions share of the purses- plus the bottom feeding, start and park teams at the other end, this doesn’t leave a whole lot of the meager to begin with any money to fight over.

You don’t see Tiger Woods dropping down to play on the Nationwide Tour. You don’t see a Major League baseball player fattening his batting average by playing in the minor leagues. Why then do we see it in NA$CAR? You have to look no further than the third letter. In the cozy (read incestuous) world of NA$CAR, with them owning the majority of the tracks, the established Cup stars sell tickets… end of story.

With all the problems facing today’s owners and even NA$CAR itself, I think there is a better way. NA$CAR has been proposing changes to the Nationwide cars ever since the CoT took over in Cup. I have serious doubts that the Nationwide only owners are in a strong enough position to absorb this change.

My solution would be to do away with this series altogether.

When I first started going to my local track, they only had one class of cars,  one set of rules. The top cars were “A” feature cars. Our “A” feature started 17 cars. The “B” feature (let’s say) also started 17. This was determined by points. Probably the top 15 or so were always going to be “A” feature cars. The last  couple of spots would be filled by cars bouncing back and forth between the “A” and “B” features. The “C” feature cars pretty much stayed as “C” cars.

This is exactly what I would love to see NA$CAR go to.

All cars would be Cup cars. The top 20 (not an arbitrary number)  would be locked in. The remaining cars would race in a transfer race on Saturday. The top 23 finishers would transfer to race on Sunday.

Saturday’s race would start everyone who showed up. Last year- we had something like 9 qualifying rainouts. That meant that teams most in need of a payday had to load up and home, after the expense of showing up without ever having an opportunity to make the field and without their sponsors ever getting any TV exposure. My guess is that Saturday’s field would be about the same number as a full Cup field.

Think about the implications of this race. Run too boldly, & crash out, you won’t transfer. Play it too safe, Sorry Charley. I think this race would have the potential to be better than the Sunday races. You could control things by only counting points won in the Sunday race. Remember, if you’re not inside the cut off number, then the 21st car, and the 50th car have the same chance to transfer.

The advantages would be that Every car that shows up gets to race. This should make it easier for cars that weren’t top cars to secure sponsorship. In fact, cars that are more likely to transfer, could have an edge as they figure to run both races the majority of the time. Drivers would have a better opportunity to showcase their talents in the transfer races, as the elate Cup stars would be setting out.

Cars could still “start and park” on Sunday but they would have to race their way in rather than running one qualifying lap. I happen to think that the reason that the start and park cars can  beat some cars that show up to actually race is that the “S&P’s” never have to even think about race set up.

We didn’t have to buy separate tickets for the A,B and C features- neither would the fans now. A race ticket would be good for both races. The price would be about what separate tickets now would be. If the transfer races were as good as I think, people shouldn’t kick. The purse split would be about what it is now.

Could this ever happen? Not a chance. Would I love to see it? You bet your bippy.