By Jeff Gluck
Associate Editor
Scenedaily
Thursday, June 05, 2008

COMMENTARY

This weekend, Kyle Busch will attempt to pull off a nearly unthinkable feat: Win a race in all three of NASCAR’s top divisions while running in three different locations.

That’s a great idea for Busch, who has become the story of the season by winning 10 races across the three national series. If the opportunity is there, Busch should take every chance he gets to show off his talent and collect more trophies.

However, it’s long past time that NASCAR take away that chance. Nothing against Busch, it’s just that drivers should not be allowed to race in multiple series.

As Busch would say: “Duh!”

The first column I ever wrote about NASCAR questioned why drivers can race in different series while driving full-time in another. That was hundreds of articles ago, and I still don’t get it.

Over the last few years, I’ve toyed with various views on this subject. Sometimes I understand why NASCAR allows drivers to run in both the Nationwide Series and the Sprint Cup Series.

One, they say it sells tickets and boosts ratings on the Nationwide side. Two, they claim sponsors would go away if Cup drivers weren’t driving Nationwide cars.

Certainly, those are valid points to some degree. But recently, I’ve come full circle to my original thought: Get the Cup guys out of the other two series.

The Craftsman Truck Series works well and is doing just fine because it has original personalities and different drivers. They usually don’t overlap into either of the other two series, except when Busch shows up.

But the Nationwide Series is a mess right now, and has been for the last few years. Cup guys swoop in and run away with the championship and the vast majority of the race trophies.

Think about the recent all-star race weekend for a minute. Perhaps the best thing about that night was the Sprint Showdown, where AJ Allmendinger held off Sam Hornish Jr. to transfer into the all-star event.

Why was it great? Because Allmendinger and Hornish don’t win every week – or ever, actually – and so it was refreshing to see someone else battling for the lead besides the usual suspects.

Look, it’s great if we see Busch, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin or Tony Stewart dominating races or ending up in victory lane. But do we have to see it two days in a row, every week?

NASCAR is probably right. The Nationwide Series does get a boost from the Cup drivers right now.

But there’s a reason: No one knows who the heck the Nationwide drivers are. Cup drivers grab all the headlines and the attention, so it’s hard for fans to get to know a Marcos Ambrose or a Jason Leffler.

That would completely change if Cup drivers were banned from the series. Take out every Cup driver, and David Stremme would have won last week’s Nationwide race at Dover, followed by Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski.

A week earlier, Keselowski would have been in victory lane, perhaps followed by Stremme and Ambrose.

Steve Wallace and Stremme would have led a 1-2 finish for Rusty Wallace Racing at Darlington, ahead of Jason Keller and Chase Miller.

Those would all be fantastic stories. Week after week, fans watching the races on ESPN would learn more about drivers like Keselowski, Ambrose, Wallace and Keller. Or Brad Coleman and Landon Cassill, who are two of the most outgoing personalities in the sport.

The character of these drivers would shine through – just like the Cup guys – and people would eventually start tuning in to see the Nationwide Series on its own merits, not just because Cup guys are involved.

Maybe drivers like Keselowski and Wallace would develop a rivalry worth tuning in for.

Instead, we see Hamlin lecturing Keselowski on how he should move over for Cup guys.

It’s frustrating, almost to the point of madness, that NASCAR has such a great opportunity for its second-tier series yet wastes it by allowing Cup guys to run the show.

Nationwide and ESPN, as partners, should step up and tell NASCAR it wants the series to have a unique identity and stop being Cup Lite when the Nationwide car of tomorrow arrives.

If it doesn’t work, everyone can always go back to letting Cup drivers in. Why not give it a try for a few years?

Sure, the idea might stumble at first, as fans try to learn the new drivers. But once the “no-names” start making headlines of their own, the series will thrive beyond anything it is capable of right now.

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Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!!
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