Two-Timers Busch becomes Cup proving ground

2006 NASCAR Season Preview
BUSCH SERIES
Two-Timers
Busch becomes
Cup proving ground
Story by Don Coble • Morris News Service
T
he Busch Series once gave stockcar racing’s upper-middle class a
place to race competitively.
Not anymore.
The Busch Series these days is nothing more than a dress rehearsal for several Nextel Cup operations.
Of the 35 winners a year ago on the
junior circuit, 34 were tied directly to a
Nextel Cup organization. Eight of the last
nine Busch Series champions were part
of a Nextel Cup team.
And it’s only getting worse.
A Busch team without the financial
and technical resources that are common
in Nextel Cup doesn’t have a chance
these days. That’s why the last few Busch
hold outs are giving up their independence.
“Statistically speaking, the Busch
Series is taking on a trend that the majority of Cup-backed Busch teams are dominant now,” Jon Wood said. “You have to
have some sort of affiliation with a Cup
team, it looks like, or you’re almost left
behind.”
Wood drives for JTG Racing, formerly
ST Motorsports, in the Busch Series. His
father, Eddie Wood, owns the famed
Wood Brothers Ford in Nextel Cup. It
didn’t take much for JTG and the Woods
to become one team and put their teams
under the same roof.
If you can’t beat them, join them.
“The decision was made at the end of
last year to start working with the Wood
Brothers a lot more closely, and now
both of our shops are under one roof,”
Wood said.
“Fatback (Michael McSwain, Wood
Brothers/JTG Racing race director)
may be working on a Cup car one day
and then he’s looking at my Busch car
the next. His influence, along with
everybody working in one direction,
seems to work so far. All of our cars are
totally redone, down to bare metal and
all brand new parts. That’s refreshing to
know. I think it’s going to be a really
good year for us. I think all of our cars
are going to be competitive.”
With the Nextel Cup teams come
Nextel Cup drivers. A series once considered stock car racing’s minor leagues
has become an extension of Sunday’s
main event. Nextel Cup drivers now
dominate the starting lineup, using 300mile races on Saturday as a way to learn
something that might help during the
500-mile Cup race a day later.
Of the 46 drivers that tested last
month at the Daytona International
Speedway in preparation for the seasonopening Hershey’s 300, 13 are full-time
Nextel Cup Series drivers. As many as
eight of them, including Carl Edwards,
See Busch, next page
PHOTO COURTESY OF NASCAR
Carl Edwards drove full-time on both the Nextel Cup and Busch Series last
season. He won four Cup races and five Busch races.