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NASCAR and its team owners are failing to develop new talent
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All of my regular readers will know that I have serious concerns about where the Nationwide series is headed. What its identity will be and how to keep the series itself relevant within the world of NASCAR. It is an issue that plaques me almost daily as this series use to be my favorite of all NASCAR series.
While browsing the internet I cam across this article over at On Pit Row. Written by Chris Leone it deals with ways to improve NASCAR by first improving the Nationwide Series.
Chris has a lot of ideas like limiting Cup driver by an “all or 8 rule.” This rule would limit cup drivers not running the full Nationwide schedule to 8 races in that series. Drivers who want to run the full schedule are welcome to do so. For the most part I would like a rule like this, but the assertion that the Nationwide Series is or could be a developmental series is highly questionable at best.
Since 1982 the nationwide series, and its predecessor the Busch series, have only produced one series champion that has gone on to win a Cup series championship. That being Bobby Labonte 1991 Busch Series champ an 2000 Cup series champion.
On top of that only two drivers Johnny Benson and Greg Biffle have won a truck series championship, and then won a Nationwide Series championship. Of course Benson did his in reverse first winning the 1995 Busch title and then winning the Truck title in 2008.
This seems to indicate that winning a series title in a series other then cup is not an indicator of future cup success. In fact three two time Nationwide/Busch series Champions have failed to make a large impact on the cup series. Randy Lajoe, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Martin Truex have all won two titles in NASCAR’s number 2 series while having limited to no Cup series success. Remember we are talking about race wins and points titles.
All of the Dale Junior fans can save the time to write me a comment, the simple fact here is Dale’s Cup series stats are very comparable to one Matt Kenseth and not a single race fan would argue that Kenseth was or is the best cup series driver.
The truth here is that NASCAR and its team owners are not developing the talent to lean NASCAR into a new generation. By the time these drivers gets to one of the three national series it would seems that they have reached the plateau of their driving ability.
The Question then become how does NASCAR fix this fundamental problem? Well they made a good first step by limiting the ago of drivers in the top three division to 18. To further help the nationwide series NASCAR should raise the minimum age of Cup drivers to 21. That would force owners looking to bring along new talent to operate team in the Nationwide Series. After a good three years there they could move up to the cup series.
I would take this one step further. Instead of the all or 8 rule that would blanket the Cup series, I would not allow driers in the top 15 in Cup points to drive part time in the Nationwide series. This robs the spotlight of a national race from more deserving talents.
If a driver is in the top 15 in cup points thee is no need for him to be running a partial Nationwide schedule taking a spot away from either a cup driver who could use the practice or a younger driver trying to make a name for themselves.
The simple fact remains that NASCAR must do something to make the Nationwide series a more viable motor sports option or get rid of it entirely and focus on making the cup series all that it can be.
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