12/01/02……… The 2002 Busch Series ended up similar to the Winston Series in that there were a lot of changes due to the emergence of the young guns working their way up through the ranks of NASCAR racing.

One of the biggest surprises was Scott Wimmer, driver of the sponsor-less No. 23 Bill Davis Racing’s Pontiac. Wimmer ran 33 races in 2001 without a win and the team lost their sponsor. Wimmer only had two top fives and eight top tens in 2001, and it’s really hard to say what prompted Bill Davis to stay with him, but Davis kept the team alive in 2002 without a sponsor. As a result of Davis’s confidence, Wimmer scored four wins, 11 top five, and 17 top ten finishes in 34 races. The team was still sponsor-less at the end of the 2002 season. Wimmer, who finished third in driver’s points, completed 6,200 laps, led 191 laps, and won $898k in purse money. Wimmer will be moving to the Winston Cup Series in 2003 driving for Bill Davis Racing.

Another young gun, Greg Biffle, the 2002 Busch Series Champion, also garnered four wins, 20 top five, and 25 top ten finishes in 34 races. It’s no wonder he easily won the championship. He also had Mark Martin’s old No. 60 Roush Racing Fords to help him in his quest, Martin smoked up the track with those cars when they had the Winn Dixie logo on them. Biffle completed 6,077 laps, led 1,151 laps and won $1.25 million in purse money. Biffle will be driving for Roush racing in 2003 Winston Cup Series competition, competing for Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors.

Jason Keller isn’t what you’d call a young gun. He was in his ninth full season in 2002, but he kept up with the rest of the winners. He scored four wins, 17 top five, and 22 top ten finished in 34 races. Keller finished the season second in driver’s points, but completed more laps than Biffle. Keller completed 6,269 laps, led 786 laps, and won $1.146 million in purse money.

Another young gun who made a big splash this season in the Busch Series was Scott Riggs. The 2002 Busch Series Raybestos Rookie of the Year winner was a sensation last season in the Craftsman Truck Series. Riggs finished the truck season last year fifth in driver’s points and five wins to his credit. Riggs won the rookie honors this season in the Busch Series by scoring two wins, eight top five, and 13 top ten finishes in 34 starts. He completed 5,733 laps, led 415 laps, and won a little over $1 million in purse money.

While we’re covering the young guns, we certainly can’t forget Jamie McMurray. The young star managed to turn heads a lot during the 2002 season, especially by being tagged by Chip Ganassi Racing to sub for the injured Sterling Marlin in the No. 40 Coors Light Dodge. McMurray ended up fifth in driver’s points, scoring two wins, six top five, and 14 top ten finishes. He completed 6,166 laps, led only 87 laps and won $769k in purse money. His big claim to fame was winning a Winston Cup race before winning in the Busch Series. McMurray will be driving in the 2003 Winston Cup Series competition for Chip Ganassi Racing.

12/15/02……… The announcement earlier this month concerning Debbie Renshaw has left a slew of unanswered questions. After the wreck at Charlotte that ended Eric Martin’s life and put Renshaw in a cast following surgery, Team Bristol owner Rick Goodwin stated that he was standing by Renshaw and that she would drive his No. 54 Busch Series entry in 2003 as planned.

The next thing we know, the deal is off, and neither party will come forward to elaborate on the reason. All anyone can do at this point is to speculate. When speculating, or trying to figure out problems that arise these days, it’s usually appropriate to use the age old adage, “Follow the money!”

The money starts with sponsorship. Team owners are usually in the sport to make money. Yes, racing may be the love of their life, but even the wealthiest of owners have sponsors to cover their constantly expanding bills. The latest approximate figures that have been compiled show that it takes $3 to $4 million annually to support a Busch Series team.

When a sponsor contracts with a team, it hopes to garner the most advertising out of the venture for the dollars invested. Therein lies the problem. The wreck at Charlotte was left in a cloud of speculation, nothing was really settled as to whom, or if, anyone was actually to blame. This casts a shadow over the surviving driver and owner of that team. The media and the Auto Racing Club of America that sanctioned the event that the fateful practice was for, has just let it fade away.

This has left a stain on Team Bristol and Renshaw alike. A corporate sponsor would have to think twice about having their name and future success in business world riding on the speculation that would follow that team throughout its racing career. Hence, the split between Renshaw and Goodwin was inevitable.

There are a lot of people that were there, and were privy to what actually happened. I heard from one crew chief that asked not to be identified, and he feels like a lot of other folks feel, Team Bristol had time to shut their car down and avoid the accident, but for some reason or other, it just didn’t happen. Renshaw kept running a fast bonsai lap to test her qualifying speed, hell bent for leather, and Eric Martin. “You don’t stop a horse in the middle of a race,” is an old saying that rang true at Charlotte October 9th, 2002.

Regardless if anyone can actually be put at fault; those are how the cookies crumble in the business world or racing. Hopefully Renshaw can find a team and sponsorship to run the limited schedule in ARCA that she is now planning for 2003.

We all knew that when Ricky Hendrick stepped out of the racecar and proclaimed that he was heading into the business end of racing that he would soon be a car owner. Hendrick Motorsports has made Ricky the owner of the No. 5 Chevrolet team, which is the team he used to drive for. He announced recently that he has hired Brian Vickers to pilot the No. 5 in 2003.

The young star Vickers had a decent rookie year, competing in 21 of the 34 Busch Series events scoring one top ten and six top fifteen finishes. Vickers will have a solid team to work with in Hendrick Motorsports. We all know that they have all of the latest technology available and are one of the premier organizations associated with NASCAR.

Vickers started his racing career in 1993 and scored over 80 wins with the World Karting Association. He then moved up through the Allison Legacy cars, the NASCAR Weekly Series, and the Hooters Pro Cup Series where he had two wins and three poles while finishing second in driver’s points in 2001.

12/30/02……… The big talk around the Busch Series last season was the money disparity between it and the Winston Cup Series. For those of you who are new fans to the sport, it’s the same old story. The continuous carping goes on every year and at the end of a season it is hoped that the next one will be more profitable for the Busch Series teams.

Well, when all of the apples and oranges are counted, the purse money does go up every season for the Busch Series, just as it tends to rise a certain amount for all of NASCAR’s series. But the disparity between the two series will always be the same. The Winston Cup Series is the top series in stock car racing, and it isn’t any surprise to anyone in racing that it pays the most money. Whereas, the Busch Grand National Series is second in the scheme of things and it shouldn’t be any surprise that it doesn’t pay as much money.

Where the problem lies is the disparity in the amounts. Last season’s Daytona 500 paid $1.4 million to winner Ward Burton. The day before, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Busch race at Daytona and it only paid $79k and change to the winner. Now, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the top series paid 14 hundred thousand and that the number two series paid less than one hundred thousand. Is something wrong here?

The Busch Series team owners contend that it takes the same amount of money to build a car for both series. It takes the same amount of money for parts, engines, tires, transportation costs, hotel and motel rooms, food and necessities while traveling. Naturally, the employees of the Busch Series teams don’t make as much money as their Cup counterparts do, but they do the same work.

I think one of the main problems with the financial disparity comes from the small gate that a lot of the Busch Series brings. Ticket prices are not as high to begin with, and to top that off, no where as many fans attend the Busch Series races as do events associated with Winston Cup. When both series are at the same venue on the same weekend, the Busch Series draws a little more of a crowd.

When the Busch Series races at places like Pikes Peak and Memphis, the crowds are somewhat smaller. One would think that the purses would be larger because that’s the only NASCAR racing that the fans get, but it doesn’t work that way. The tracks don’t have as much seating, and race sponsors don’t pay out as much for their sponsorships. These are just some of the things that need to change.

Don’t look for any changes in the Busch Series anytime soon. It’s going to take nearly a boycott in order for NASCAR to do anything to help out the Busch Series teams. NASCAR has a penchant for letting a sleeping dog lie. As long as the teams keep on building racecars and showing up at events every week, then NASCAR will let things slide as they always have.