Smack Me in the Face With a Dead Carp…
… and call me Nostradamus… NASCAR Nostradamus, definitely shaken and stirred into making idiotic predictions.
But not this time.
Word floating around the hallowed halls, and hollow minds, of NASCAR HQ is the Series formerly known as Busch will turn to fielding a Pony Car line-up consisting of Chevrolet Camaros, Dodge Challengers, Ford Mustangs and an as-yet-to-be named Toyota model.
Reportedly the change will happen for the 2009 season when the retro-themed Camaros and Challengers will be first offered on dealers showrooms.
Okay, so maybe this isn’t such a bad idea.
Keep the American car buyer familiar with the sheet metal (or fiberglass or graphite composites) of the emerging muscle car retro models.
Will this encourage or discourage Cup drivers from slipping into Busch races and dominating the fields? After all, there won’t be as much benefit for getting a feel for the track or cars with a completely different model type and the CORN.
Then, what does it do for developing drivers for Cup? As was pointed out here at Full Throttle recently, why and how do the older drivers keep hanging around and making it into races.
I’ve gotta believe that one of the reasons is there just aren’t that many younger drivers getting the laps in Busch to hone and prove their skills. In part because too many Cup drivers take up valuable opportunities in Busch races.
Just me .02 worth on that whole thing.
Most definitely. There will always be a few, they are RACE drivers that’s what they do, but the Pony Cars will make running the day before Cup worthless as a test bed.
As far as the young drivers go I don’t buy it. ARCA is full of young drivers, if memory serves 5-6 rookies have won events this year and they had a lot last year.
Also Busch North East & West is full of talent.
It’s not a matter of a dearth of drivers it’s having enough owners willing to take a chance at the higher levels.