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Debbi Willis, Daw613@bigfoot.com

BIG FISH-little fish

Once, there was a day when advancement and promotion was a sign of better skill and the ability to compete among the higher ranks or more aptly put, swim among the BIG FISH and not be eaten! Nascar seems to have regressed in this area. Bringing that thought to mind ever so clearly is Winston Cup drivers in Busch Grand National. Now, I like the Cup drivers (at least, most)! I would just prefer to see them run with their own instead of cleaning house in the lower ranks of racing. When struggling BGN teams go home without the experience and exposure they seek and NEED to advance, the lifeblood of the future of the sport is being cut short. This is almost akin to inbreeding. Cup teams have sunday to race, whereas, without saturday, a BGN team goes home empty-handed with alot of expense incurred for naught.

"Lower ranks of racing" is a time honored manner of advancement, from the short tracks to the big time in any form of racing competition! Some Champs will drive Sprints but those are really seperate divisions of their own with their own fan base. Winston Cup is the grown up version of Busch Grand National though. Both divisions cars are similar but there is much more money, car power and sponsorship responsibilities in Winston Cup. The BIG FISH are in their BIG POND versus the little fish in their little ponds, (and the "ponds" are not the size of the tracks, but the amount of investment and support).

It's no feat of accomplishment or skill for a Cup driver to outrace the average Busch driver. Honestly if he doesn't, something is seriously wrong with the equipment or the driver, or the team is just playing in the little pond! So, when the saturday venue is the second round of qualifying, happy hour and the Busch race and the Cup drivers fill nearly half the field of the BGN and several competitive BGN teams don't get to race, who is being served here? The fans? Not really, they don't get to see the new talent on the horizon and the variety of different divisions. The BGN teams? Nope, they have to answer to their sponsors for not qualifying. Seems to me, the sponsors might figure if they have to spend more to get out there, they might as well just go with a Cup team. Won't this make it more difficult for the BGN's to keep sponsorships?

There's good reason for this natural order: it works! This order feeds Winston Cup its next crop of rising stars on a regular basis, keeping the field fresh with new blood coming in regularly. With this order, the BGN drivers get to grow into Winston Cup if they wish (just like the little fish grow up into BIG FISH!) Randy LaJoie is one of those exceptions who chooses to stay in the BGN, according to his priorities and is very good there, too! The fans get to see fresh new talent breaking into BGN and later into Winston Cup. Sounds like a win/win situation to me! If it works, why muddy up the waters?

All in all, the only thing the Cup drivers in the BGN races serves is the promoters who want the big names and the Cup teams themselves for an "advantage" on Sunday's race. I suspect Mark Martin's success last year with his season overall is being credited to his BGN time on the tracks, when in reality, Mark has just become much more competitive. So far this year, I haven't seen any real advantage for Winston Cup drivers running BGN in comparison to their sunday cup results. Perhaps, Nascar could consider alotting 5 slots to the Cup drivers that all who want to run, must qualify for and those 5 slots are always last in the lineup. Reason being of course, that they are more experienced and capable of moving through the pack. Leave the rest of the race and positions to the young guns of the BGN and let them earn all the points they deserve for their committment to their teams. Let their sponsors get their money's worth of them just like the sponsors for the Winston Cuppers get theirs. And, when a BGN driver moves up to the Winston Cup, let him run BGN for two more years along with his Cup ride if he's sponsored so, after that, he would be subject to competing for one of the 5 slots.

I want to see the Busch Grand National grow but it won't if the process is inverted and the Winston Cup drivers continue to infiltrate the "lower ranks"! Granted, it may only be part of the season, however, if given the choice of not running half their season, would a Winston Cup team agree? Certainly too, it would not serve a Cup sponsor well, were their driver injured on Saturday and unable to run on Sunday! BIG FISH in little ponds is very unbecoming of the great Winston Cup drivers we enjoy watching every week.... wouldn't it be nice to let the little fish grow up like they always have before?

Footnote: I realize not all the drivers decide to drive BGN themselves, they are hired and their owners decide to compete. Some BGN teams though ARE driver owned and run....which just seems a little backwards!

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