Taking a
look at the Busch Grand National Series points standings it is obvious that Carl Edwards is running away with the championship and basically has already wrapped
it up only a third of the way into the season. Edwards is an astounding 433
points ahead of second place Kevin Harvick, a fellow Buschwacker, who won the
Busch Series championship the previous season. Following Edwards and Harvick in
the standings are David Reutimann, Dave Blaney, Matt Kenseth, and David Ragan in
positions third through sixth. Every driver in the top six positions in the
Busch Series standings is essentially Buschwacking as they are all attempting to
run the full Nextel Cup season.
This might
seem crazy, but it turns out that the “true” Busch Series leader is a little
known, Busch Series veteran with five series wins, and a failed previous attempt
at a Nextel Cup job. Bobby Hamilton Jr., driver of the McDonald’s #35 Team Rensi
Motorsports Ford is 706 points behind Edwards for the points lead, stuck in
seventh place, but he is actually the first Busch Series regular in the
standings.
Hamilton
Jr. has been around racing for years and comes from a racing family. His father,
Bobby Hamilton, who recently passed away of cancer is a former NASCAR Craftsmen
Truck Series champion. Hamilton Jr. has competed full-time in all three NASCAR
series. Hamilton Jr. hasn’t run up front much this year and has compiled just
one top ten finish in the Series first twelve events, but with all of the
drivers coming over from the Nextel Cup Series for their leisurely Saturday
drives Hamilton Jr. really hasn’t had the chance to drive up front very often.
It really is a testament to the toughness of Hamilton Jr. and his team as they
and Regan Smith (who is running a partial Nextel Cup season) are the only Busch
regulars in the Busch Series top ten. The Busch Series top twenty in the
championship standings only includes six Busch Series regulars: Hamilton Jr.,
Smith, Marcos Ambrose, Mike Wallace, Stephen Leicht, and Jason Leffler.
This is a
exactly why NASCAR should mandate a rule that limits the number of races a
Nextel Cup driver can compete in the Busch Series. Some propose that Nextel Cup
drivers should be limited to ten or less Busch Series races a year, but it would
be a big boost to the Busch Series if NASCAR limited the Nextel Cup drivers to
as many as twenty Busch Races a year. Even if a Buschwacker were to run twenty
Busch Series races a year there would be no way possible for them to win the
championship, thus letting the Busch Series regulars shine in their series.
If NASCAR
is going to continue letting this many Nextel Cup drivers run full Busch Series
schedules than it would also make some sense to hand out two trophies at the
season’s end to celebrate the season of the champion and the “true” Busch Series
champion. If things continue the way they are going this season than Bobby
Hamilton Jr. would indeed be the “true” Busch Series champion, but no one would
know it.
By: Julian
Spivey (SNL)