By The Commish

One thing Jeff Gordon has made very clear over the course of his Cup racing career: he doesn’t like to go backwards. Since he graduated to NASCAR’s senior circuit in 1993, Gordon has run only 11 races in the NASCAR Busch Series—- six in 1999 and five in 2000, when he was part-owner of a Busch team and had sponsor obligations to fulfill. Otherwise, Gordon has taken the high road, refusing to join the legions of Buschwhackers from the Cup series who have sought the lure of Saturday money and the advantage of extra track time to improve their Cup performances.

Most fans have noticed the shift of Cup resources back towards Busch. Since 1998, when DEI mounted a well-financed team for Dale Earnhardt, Jr., only one team without Cup affiliation has won a Busch Series championship. The number of Busch series races won by moonlighting Cup drivers was 11 in 1999, 2001, and 2002, jumped to 19 in 2004, and has soared since-— 17 in 2003, 19 in 2004, and 23 of 35 races in 2005. In 1999, Buschwhackers (and in this number I include fulltime Cup drivers like Joe Nemechek and Michael Waltrip who mount full- or almost full-time Busch campaigns) earned about 12 percent of the total Busch purse at just over $2.4 million dollars. In 2005, Buschwhackers earned more than $9 million dollars in the Busch series—or just over 24 per cent of the total purse.

This shift has significantly changed, and weakened, the Busch Series as a venue for driver and new team development, and now Busch sponsors are demanding Cup affiliation and Cup drivers to enter even at the lower level. For many smaller teams and new drivers, the dream of being part of NASCAR is being suffocated by the infusion of money, resources, and drivers from Cup teams. Busch Series veteran David Green said recently that "if I wanted to start a team today, it would be next to impossible" unless there were Cup affiliation. Many long-time Busch drivers are without fulltime sponsors or even rides, and developing drivers struggle to get seat time at the Busch level because the big boys are occupying their potential slots. It’s no wonder that some fans have taken to calling the Saturday races "Cup Lite."

What has driven Cup drivers down into the lower series? The money is decent, especially since Cup drivers finished in the top ten in over 43 per cent of their Busch starts. The exposure is good for sponsors, and most importantly, the Busch experience serves as a free test session for that race track, which was essential in 2005 given the impound rules, and is expected to be even more important in 2006 with the limitations on testing for Cup. While Busch cars have different wheelbases, engine, and spoiler packages than the Cup cars, they still run the same tires and suspensions and can provide useful test results for Cup teams. As a result, only four drivers who finished in the top 30 in Cup in 2005—- Gordon, Kurt Busch, Ricky Rudd, and Kyle Petty-— spent no time in a Busch car in 2005.

Gordon, to his credit, has insisted that it’s not appropriate for a Cup champion to step down a division and race against developmental drivers. That hasn’t stopped his competition, including Tony Stewart, Dale Jarrett, Bobby Labonte, and Rusty Wallace, from doing so, and one wonders how much longer Gordon will be able to make that argument. Clearly, sponsors want their drivers on television as much as possible. Teams want the maximum amount of feedback from their drivers to use in achieving Sunday success. And now that Gordon’s team has been on the outside of the Chase looking in for the first time, at some point (if not already), the idea of Gordon running Saturday races to gain information on tires and track conditions for the team will be raised this year.

Sadly, NASCAR has become too competitive for a team to throw away any opportunity to gain an advantage, even for principled reasons. While Gordon may prevail for now in his wish to stay out of the Busch series, if the #24 team struggles early in the season, it’s more than likely we will see him on the track during Busch events, at least in a limited capacity, before the season is over. His team and his sponsors expect a return to the front of the Cup Series in 2006 and they will expect Gordon to stop at nothing—not even at Buschwhacking—to get back where he belongs. For fans of Gordon’s, this will be a delight and a Good Thing. But for fans of the Busch Series, or at least for fans of what the Busch Series was meant to be, Gordon’s appearance in a Busch car will be one more sad step across the line to Cup Lite.

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