6/7/03……….. Sponsorship woes continue to plague the Busch Series, as well as the paltry race purses and inferior race promotions compared to the hoopla surrounding the top flight Cup Series.

The top team in the series, Herzog Jackson Motorsports which fields the No. 92 driven by series point’s leader Todd Bodine, has been searching for solid sponsorship all season, and has yet to find a permanent deal.

Herzog Jackson was up in the air about making the Nashville race, but a last minute closure of a deal by Monster Inc. a corporation with its roots in the employment industry, and is currently one of the leading Internet job seeking services available. This marks the first time the huge company with worldwide affiliation has used NASCAR as a marketing tool. Mike McLaughlin filled in with practicing and setting the car up for Bodine due to the fact that Bodine was busy at Pocono.

The deal made with Herzog Jackson is only for three races, leaving NASCAR insiders to consider wondering if the axe has really fallen on the Busch Series. When the top point’s leading team can’t secure a long time arrangement for sponsorship, what does that say about the lesser teams? There are a few solid sponsors in the Busch Series, but a lot of them are associated with Cup teams and/or Cup drivers. There are very few major corporations willing to support teams with lesser known and lesser experienced Busch Series drivers.

The No. 43 Curb/Agajanian team with driver Kevin Grubb missed the Nashville race due to sponsorship problems, as did the No. 19 Braun Racing team due to driver Casey Mears scheduled to run the rained out ARCA race at Pocono.

The Trace Adkins Chrome 300 is in the books with Scott Rigs winning his second race this season while taking the lead in driver’s points. Riggs dominated the race, leading 160 of the 225 laps, gaining the point’s bonus for most laps led. He also became the first Busch Series driver to win twice at the Nashville track while racking up his fourth overall series victory. His other victory this season was the Gateway race last month. It’s readily apparent that Riggs isn’t suffering the dreaded sophomore slump that ends up affecting former rookies who had a great rookie season.

Riggs was followed across the finish line by David Green, rookie David Stremme, veteran Randy LaJoie, and Bobby Hamilton Jr. Positions six thru ten were: Ashton Lewis, Stanton Barrett, Scott Wimmer, Jay Sauter, and Brian Vickers.

The top ten starters due to owner’s points and how they finished:

1. Johnny Sauter -- No. 21 Chevy – finished 11th
2. Todd Bodine -- No. 92 Chevy – finished 26th
3. Scott Riggs -- No. 10 Ford – finished 1st
4. David Green -- No. 37 Pontiac -- finished 2nd
5. David Stremme -- No. 1 Dodge – finished 3rd
6. Mike Bliss -- No. 20 Chevy – finished 33rd
7. Ron Hornaday -- No. 2 Chevy – finished 16th
8. Jason Keller -- No. 57 Ford – finished 14th
9. Brian Vickers -- No. 5 Chevy – finished 10th
10. Shane Hmiel -- No. 48 Chevy – finished 34th

Scott Riggs and David Green both moved up one spot in the driver’s points. Riggs’ win gave him the lead for the first time in his career with 2056 points, with Green now in second place just -18 points down. Former point’s leader Todd Bodine had car troubles and dropped down two spots to third and is now listed with -24 points out of the lead. It’s still a tight point’s race and anyone of the three could take the lead in any given race. Ron Hornaday moved up one spot to fourth with a -144 while Brian Vickers moved up to spots to round out the top five with a -175.

Jason Keller is still in sixth place and is now listed with a -176, followed by Mike Bliss who dropped three spots to seventh with a -188. Bobby Hamilton Jr.’s finish moved him up two spots to eighth with a -223 followed by Johnny Sauter who is still in the ninth position and is now listed with a -247. Shane Hmiel dropped down two spots to round out the top ten with a -280.

Next week the Busch Series moves to the Kentucky Speedway for race No. 16. The Meijer 300 will be televised live by the FX channel at 7:30 p.m. eastern on Saturday, June 14th. The race should be free of most of the Buschwhackers as the Cup Series will be at Michigan that weekend.

Last season’s winner of the June Kentucky race was Todd Bodine. He was followed across the finish line by Greg Biffle, Tony Raines, rookie Scott Riggs, Scott Wimmer, Jamie McMurray, rookie Kerry Earnhardt, Ricky Hendrick, Kenny Wallace, and Shane Hmiel.

Rookie Scott Riggs won the Bud Pole with a speed of 174.831 miles per hour. There were 8 caution periods for a total of 32 laps out of the 200 lap race on the 1.5 mile oval.

6/14/03……….. The new 2004 Cup schedule race alignment will bring a new California race date to the Busch Series. There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that the series desperately needs any lift it can get. The new market in the west for the struggling series may possibly open the door to some new sponsorship, even though the Cup drivers will be riding herd on the series, taking away the top money and points.

We’ve all heard the run-around from NASCAR again stating that they are going to do something to improve the financial woes in the Busch Series. Haven’t we already heard that from them several times over the years? NASCAR likes the Busch Series just the way it is, and you can rest assured that there won’t be any changes made unless they will be beneficial to making more money for the sanctioning body.

I’m not ashamed to say that I’m upset with taking the traditional Labor Day Southern 500 away from Darlington, but what can we do. The sport has to stay afloat, and even though I think the schedule realignment is geared more to appeasing the TV networks and putting money into the pockets of the France family, there are some good points that can be gleaned out of the deal for the fans as a whole.

The starting lineup for the Kentucky race happily looked like a Busch Series who’s who. Missing was the usually ever present slew of Buschwhackers who can’t win in Cup so they trounce the Busch Series drivers to keep their egos in tune. There’s even a Busch Series rookie in the top ten for a change. It’s a breath of fresh air, there’s no doubt about it.

What is even more impressing is the track record speed of 176.384 miles per hour set by Stacy Compton, close to a full two miles per hour over the next qualifying speed of 174.402 by Bobby Hamilton Jr. who won the outside front row starting position. It was Compton’s first pole, breaking the record set last season by rookie Scott Riggs of 174.381 miles per hour by over 2 miles per hour. Compton has given future Busch Series competitors at the Sparta, Kentucky facility a serious milestone to attempt to surpass.

Bobby Hamilton Jr. won his first race of the 2003 season in the Meijer 300 at the Kentucky Speedway. Hamilton was featured in a promo in the pre-race show fishing at a nearby pond with Hank Parker Jr. Not only did Hamilton catch a nice large mouth Bass, but he took the checkered flag too. I’m surprised that they didn’t have a checkered flag insignia on the fish……….

Following Hamilton across the line after letting him pass by were Jason Keller, Ron Hornaday, Stacy Compton, Scott Wimmer, Brian Vickers, Ashton Lewis, David Green, Casey Atwood, and rookie David Stremme. It was good to see Atwood have a good finish, he wasn’t much of a competitor in the Cup series, maybe some more seat time with the Busch Series will be beneficial to his future as a race driver. Stremme was no doubt the rookie of the race with a top ten start and finish.

Speaking of rookies, we are all aware that Chad Blount was the series point’s leader when his team folded and he asked to be released. I don’t have any solid figures for the rankings after the Kentucky race, but as of the Nashville race, Blount had fallen down to second at 122 points with Coy Gibbs taking the lead with 157. Regan Smith was third with 113 and David Stremme listed as fourth with 85 points. With Blount out of the picture and falling every week, Gibbs will be chased by Smith and Stremme. Gibbs finished 15th at Kentucky and Smith finished 32nd which means that Stremme gained on both of them and at this rate will soon be taking over the second spot from Smith. Stremme will still have a tough row to hoe if he wants to catch up with Gibbs. If his past performance of late is any indication of the rest of his season, Stremme may just give Gibbs a solid run for the brass ring.

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Stacy Compton -- No. 59 Chevy – finished 4th
2. Bobby Hamilton Jr. -- No. 25 Ford – finished 1st
3. David Green -- No. 37 Pontiac – finished 8th
4. Ron Hornaday -- No. 2 Chevy -- finished 3rd
5. Scott Riggs -- No. 10 Ford – finished 30th
6. Shane Hmiel -- No. 48 Chevy – finished 19th
7. Kasey Kahne -- No. 38 Ford – finished 11th
8. *David Stremme -- No. 1 Dodge – finished 10th
9. Davis Reutimann -- No. 87 Chevy – finished 37th
10. Scott Wimmer -- No. 23 Chevy – finished 5th

Scott Riggs had some bad luck and wrecked out of the race allowing David Green to gain 46 points on him in the driver’s standings. Green now leads the group with 2180 points. Todd Bodine and Ron Hornaday are still in third and fourth positions with a -72 and a -98. Jason Keller moved up one spot to round out the top five with a -125. Positions six thru ten are: -1 Brian Vickers at -149; +1 Bobby Hamilton Jr. at -162; -1 Mike Bliss at -242; Johnny Sauter at -254; +2 Scott Wimmer with a -293.

Next week the Busch drivers have a weekend off. Following that week they will travel to Wisconsin to race on the famed Milwaukee Mile….. Please check back next week for news, commentary, and info on the upcoming event.

6/29/03……….. Johnny Sauter ended up starting from the pole for the GNC 250 on the Milwaukee Mile. Driver’s point’s leader David Green had to settle for a second place start. Qualifying was rained out and Richard Childress racing is leading the owner’s points, so Sauter, who is driving a part time schedule in the No. 21 PayDay Chevy got to start from the lead spot.

This made the fourth time this season that the Busch Series lined up to start their events according to owner’s points. Another problem teams and especially drivers faced at the Milwaukee track was the lack of practice, also due to the constant inclement weather. Some of the teams felt they were ready for the race while others had serious doubts of what they would face when they put their unpracticed racers on the track that has been cleaned off by the torrents of rain.

The Milwaukee Mile was tamed by Jason Keller, crossing the finish line for the first time this season. The victory marked the tenth career win for Keller, a 33 year old South Carolina native who has been working hard the past few seasons to win the Busch Series Championship.

The checkered flag at Milwaukee also marked the half way point of the 2003 Busch Series Schedule, and the end of the FOX broadcasting stint for 2003 in NASCAR.

There were a lot of controversial moves during the race, but nothing to cause rivalries or long lasting problems. Shane Hmiel was black flagged for rough driving (go figure) when he tangled with Ron Hornaday. Actually, neither driver is any saint when it comes to on track aggressiveness. At any rate, NASCAR officials figured that Hmiel needed to be toned down a peg or two and made him come in and sit in his pit box for a lap. Hornaday managed to come back to fourth place, mainly because of a decision to come to the pits during a late race caution to get four fresh tires. NASCAR had allowed Hornaday an extra set of right side tires because the fracas with Hmiel had ruined one.

The rookie David Stremme was driving the No. 1 Yellow Freight Dodge for James Finch this week because Jamie McMurray was off. Stremme managed to finish third, capping off a string of five top tens in eight Busch Series starts in the first half of the 2003 season.

Brian Vickers looked like he was about to win his first race of his NASCAR career, but his pit crew let him down during a late race stop. Jason Keller and Scott Riggs put on a great show battling for the lead with Vickers hot on their heels. Riggs fell off with his No. 10 Nestles Ford and Vickers moved into second with the No. 5 GMAC Chevy, but wasn’t able to catch the No. 57 Albertson’s Ford driven by Keller.

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Johnny Sauter -- No. 21 Chevy – finished 13th
2. David Green -- No. 37 Pontiac – finished 6th
3. Scott Riggs -- No. 10 Ford – finished 7th
4. David Stremme* -- No. 1 Dodge -- finished 3rd
5. Todd Bodine -- No. 92 Chevy – finished 8th
6. Ron Hornaday -- No. 2 Chevy – finished 4th
7. Jason Keller -- No. 57 Ford – finished 1st
8. Brian Vickers -- No. 5 Chevy – finished 2nd
9. Bobby Hamilton Jr. -- No. 25 Ford – finished 10th
10. Mike Bliss -- No. 20 Ford – finished 21st

The top seven spots in the driver’s standings are the same with David Green holding on by a mere 45 points over Scott Riggs with 2335. Todd Bodine -80, Ron Hornaday -88, Jason Keller -100, Brian Vickers -129, Bobby Hamilton Jr. – 183. Johnny Sauter moved up one spot to ninth and is now listed with a -280 while Mike Bliss dropped down one spot to round out the top ten with a -297.

Next week the Busch Series travels down south to Florida for race No. 18, the Winn Dixie 250. The event is scheduled to be broadcast by the TNT channel on Friday, July 4th at 8 p.m. eastern. Qualifying for the event is scheduled to be broadcast by the SPEED channel on Thursday, July 3rd, at 3 p.m. eastern.

Last season’s winner of the July Daytona Busch Series race was Cup driver Joe Nemechek. He was followed across the finish line by Greg Biffle, Kevin Lepage, Jason Keller, Jamie McMurray, rookie Johnny Sauter, Mike McLaughlin, Jimmy Spencer, Kevin Grubb, and Stacy Compton.

Joe Nemechek won the Budweiser pole award with a speed of 185.793 miles per hour. There were seven caution periods for a total of 28 laps out of the 250 mile 100 lap race on the 2.5 mile high banked oval.