October 19, 2006

By Rebecca Gladden

Rebecca Gladden

With five races left on the Busch series schedule, Kevin Harvick had a 729 point lead over the rest of the contenders for the Busch championship.

His ninth-place finish in Friday's Dollar General 300 at Lowe's Motor Speedway boosted that lead to 775 points and guaranteed Harvick the Busch series title.

Along with locking in the championship a full four races before the end of the season, Harvick has also won seven of the 31 Busch races this season - nearly a fourth of all the races run.

In theory, he could sit out the rest of the season and still bring home the championship trophy.

While I don't begrudge Harvick a second Busch title, his dominance does serve to illustrate big problems with the racing series, mockingly referred to by many as "Cup Lite" because of the preponderance of Nextel Cup drivers.

Currently, eight of the top 10 drivers in the Busch series are Cup regulars, including Harvick, Carl Edwards (2), Clint Bowyer (3), Denny Hamlin (4), J.J. Yeley (5), Kyle Busch (6), Greg Biffle (8), and Reed Sorenson (10).

Paul Menard and Johnny Sauter are the only non-Cup regulars in the Busch top 10.

Buschwhackers - as Cup racers in the Busch series are known - have won all but two of the 31 Busch races this season. Paul Menard and David Gilliland are the only non-Cup regulars to notch Busch wins so far this year.

In one Busch race this year, over half of the competitors - 24 of 43 entrants - were Cup drivers.

The situation poses a growing dilemma for NASCAR executives and track administrators.

The presence of the Cup boys in the Busch series draws added viewers to TV broadcasts and generates revenue at ticket offices.

But fans, along with many drivers, complain that the increased number of Buschwhackers has changed the nature of Busch racing and made it harder for smaller teams and less experienced drivers to compete - an opinion borne out by this year's Cup-dominated numbers.

Cup drivers cite a number of reasons for participating in the Busch series, including increased seat time at particular tracks, especially since NASCAR has scaled back test sessions this season.

Some drivers say it is simply the love of racing that brings them to Busch.

Earlier this season, NASCAR President Mike Helton stated that changes were in the works for the Busch series in 2007, but emphasized that the races would remain open to all comers: "I don't think NASCAR is going to change its philosophy on the Busch series or the truck series being open to whoever wants to participate in it," Helton said. "We're not going to change that philosophy, I don't think, in any short term. But what we do need to pay attention to is how we can make the rules and regulations and the operational procedure issues that NASCAR can control … so that the Busch series can learn from the involvement from the Cup participants and not be damaged by it."

Helton may have been alluding to one of several proposed solutions to the Buschwhacking controversy, such as limiting the number of Busch races that a Cup driver can compete in, restricting the total number of Cup entrants per race, or creating a separate points system for the Busch series regulars so that they are not overshadowed by their stronger and wealthier Cup counterparts.

Despite the growing outcry, Kevin Harvick feels he has no reason to apologize to the Busch racers for his success this season.

"They need to quit griping and start learning how to win," Harvick said. "That's what all of us had to do. This is not something that's new. It's just something that's more widespread through the media."

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.