11/2/03……….. In view of the current economic situation that’s choking the country these days, Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI), has taken a different approach to obtaining sponsorship. I’ve been following this effort from DEI for some time now, since I first heard about it a couple of months ago.

With major corporations cutting back on their advertising budgets, it seems to be getting harder and harder for race teams to come up with a major sponsor who is willing to pay out the several million dollars that it takes to get their name on the hood of a race car for the entire season.

DEI has been searching for sponsorship for its No. 1 Chevy that as been sporting the Pennzoil banner, and also for the No. 8 Chance Motorsports Busch Series Chevy, co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his stepmother Teresa Earnhardt. What they have ended up doing is offering the sponsorships on the cars to several different companies for a limited period of time. One corporation would have the major sponsorship for the first five races of the season, then another corporation would take over for the next five races, and others would take over after that. By not having to spend the several million to advertise on the car for the whole season, the corporations can get their advertising for a limited time for a limited amount of money. DEI spokesmen state that they have both cars lined up with sponsors for almost the entire 2004 season. By the time the season starts, they profess that they will have everything set up.

With several teams looking for major sponsors to support their 2004 efforts, this may end up being the sponsorship solution of the future. I see a potential problem when it comes to the sales of souvenirs. If a car has six or seven different sponsors during the season, how many die-cast cars will they have available for sale? The same thing can be said for caps, T-shirts, and the rest of the fan oriented merchandise that is sold annually at races and through catalogs and Internet sites. With a crimp in these sponsor oriented merchandise sales over the past three or four years, the crimp may get worse when there are so many different sponsors to choose from backing one particular team. We’ll have to keep a close eye on this to see how things will end up shaking out. It seems to provide more potential problems than successful solutions.

Bobby Hamilton Jr. managed to stay ahead of Cup driver Kevin Harvick to win the rain delayed and rain shortened Basha’s Supermarket 200 at Phoenix. Harvick was the spoiler in the truck race, taking valuable points away from the regulars, and he tried to do it for the Busch race, but Hamilton bested the Buschwhacker in fine fettle.

The win was Hamilton’s fourth of the season and the fifth of his Busch Series career. Following Hamilton across the finish line showing the caution and checkers were Kevin Harvick, Brian Vickers, Joe Nemechek, Ron Hornaday, Scott Riggs, Scott Wimmer, Casey Atwood, Johnny Sauter, and Greg Biffle. The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Kevin Harvick -- No. 21 Chevy – finished 2nd
2. Greg Biffle -- No. 7 Chevy – finished 10th
3. David Stremme* -- No. 1 Dodge – finished 13th
4. Bobby Hamilton Jr. -- No. 25 Ford -- finished 1st
5. David Green -- No. 37 Pontiac – finished 16th
6. Brian Vickers -- No. 5 Chevy – finished 3rd
7. Scott Wimmer -- No. 23 Chevy – finished 7th
8. Mike Bliss -- No. 20 Chevy – finished 20th
9. Kasey Kahne -- No. 38 Ford – finished 27th
10. Casey Mears -- No. 19 Dodge – finished 21st

No one was surprised to see the driver’s point’s standings switched around again. It seems that every race brings a new leader and a new order to the top five in the standings. Scott Riggs moved up one spot to take the lead with 4373 points. Ron Hornaday moved up two spots to second and is now listed with just -17 points out of the lead. Brian Vickers moved up two spots to third and is now listed just -21 points out of the lead. David Green dropped three spots to fourth, now listed with a -22 and Jason Keller dropped two spots to fifth listed with a -60. Bobby Hamilton Jr.’s win moved him up into the picture. Although he is still mired in sixth place, he is now only -125 points from the lead and has a golden opportunity to move up into the top five next week if his luck prevails. Hamilton has had six top five and two top ten finishes in his last ten starts. One of the top five drivers who have been shifting around in that area stand a good chance of losing a position to Hamilton.

In my opinion, NASCAR blew the call to hold Kasey Kahne in the pits a lap for rough driving. I saw the incident and saw all of the replays. I have even played my tape of the race several times and I don’t see where Kahne did anything wrong. Stacy Compton drove in front of him and he had to move over to the right. Then Compton moved over to the right into Kahne, causing Compton’s car to spin into the wall. Kasey Kahne didn’t do anything wrong, actually, he moved over to the right to try to avoid contact with Compton, and then Compton moved over into him. NASCAR really blew that call, they need to get rid of some of their bias when it comes to drivers and make the calls according to what really happens on the track!

Next week the Busch Series moves to the North Carolina Speedway along with the Cup Series for the next to the last race on their 34 race schedule. The Target House 200 is scheduled to be aired on the TNT channel at I p.n. eastern, Saturday, November 8th. Qualifying for the event will be aired on the SPEED channel Friday, November 7th at 1:30 p.m. eastern.

Last season’s winner of the fall Rockingham event was Jamie McMurray. He was followed across the finish line by Greg Biffle, Randy LaJoie, David Green, Stacy Compton, Jeff Green, Michael Waltrip, rookie Shane Hmiel, Kenny Wallace, and Jack Sprague.

Jeff Green won the Bud pole award with a speed of 153.355 miles per hour. There were five caution periods for a total of 22 laps out of the 197 laps on the 1.017 mile oval.

11/9/03……….. Reality TV is the big thing these days, and it’s no surprise that a race team is slated to become a part of it. Michael Holigan, a Dallas, Texas based home builder who used to sponsor the Hendrick Motorsports No. 25 Chevy driven by Jerry Nadeau, has formed Holigan Racing. Why sponsor a team when you can buy and build your own?

Holigan has purchased a Craftsman Truck Series team, TKO Motorsports, which is based in nearby Fort Worth, Texas, and plans to use the facilities to field a Busch Series team and AMA Motorcycle teams for the 2004 season. The Busch Series entry will be driven by Craftsman Truck Series driver David Starr, who hails from that area, and his crew chief will be Todd Meyers, a veteran crew chief in the truck series.

Spike TV, a network oriented especially for men, will air the entire 16-race Supercross schedule, the entire 12 event AMA Outdoor Nationals, and 15 Busch Series events. The Busch Series team will be sponsored by Lifekey Health Care Inc. and its Enzyte brand of natural sexual enhancement for men. Spike TV, coined as the first network for men, is a division of the MTV network and has access to approximately 86 million homes.

The network plans to feature the Team Enzyte Busch Series team in a segment each week on a show entitled “The Reality of Speed.” The 52 week variety show will be debuting January 3rd at 10:30 a.m. eastern. It plans to follow the lives of drivers, riders, and team members of both the Busch Series and AMA Motorcross teams as they make preparation for competition on their individual racing circuits. If you live in an area that gets Spike TV, check it out!

Eric McClure, the 24-year old son of Jerry McClure made the race at the Rock for Morgan McClure Motorsports in the No. 05 Chevy sponsored by the I CAN Learn education system. The young driver has competed in an ARCA event and has also been testing cars for Morgan McClure during the spring and summer.

With 53 cars vying for starting positions, it was a feather in McClure’s cap to win a 22nd starting position in his first effort at Busch Series qualifying. A lot of times we see these young drivers have their debuts thwarted by not being able to make the field. Getting a ride and a sponsor in a Busch Series or Cup Series ride is one thing, but being able to qualify for the race is where the bear goes through the buckwheat. Other times we have also seen a lot of these young up-and-coming stars get thwarted by the weather. When the qualifying trials are rained out, the field is set by the regular competitor’s owner’s points and the new blood trying to make the race gets sent home.

The Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings for the Busch Series are as close going into Rockingham as the championship standings. As we are all aware, Chad Blount started out the season atop of the rookie charts for quite a few races until his team fell apart, and he was out of a job. That also happened to Todd Bodine when he was leading the rookie standings in the Busch Series.

After Blount took his tumble; Coy Gibbs emerged as the apparent leader of the pack until David Stremme came into his own and started to move up the charts. As it stands going into the Rockingham race, Stremme leads Gibbs by a mere four points. Stremme is listed with 211 while Gibbs is listed with 207.

At the stage in the competition with just the Rockingham and Miami races left, third place driver Joey Clanton is pretty much out of the picture with his listing of 176 points, as is Chad Blount who is listed in fourth with 172 points.

With 32 race in the books, Stremme has been listed rookie of the race 13 times. Coy Gibbs has been listed in the top spot nine times. At this point, either driver is capable of winning the coveted rookie crown. As the Target House 200 event has just completed, I’m happy to write that Stremme once again will receive the Rookie of the Race award with his highest rookie finish of fifth.

Martin Truex Jr. was the highest finishing Busch Series driver (part time) in the No. 8 Chance II Motorsports Chevy which carried the Ralph Earnhardt tribute paint job. He was followed by Busch Series drivers Bobby Hamilton Jr. (3rd), rookie David Stremme (5th), Brian Vickers (6th), Kyle Busch (7th), Johnny Sauter (9th), and David Green (10th). The top five starters and how they finished:

1. Brian Vickers -- No. 5 Chevy – finished 6th
2. Greg Biffle -- No. 7 Chevy – finished 11th
3. Jeremy Mayfield -- No. 79 Dodge – finished 4th
4. David Stremme* -- No. 30 Dodge -- finished 5th
5. David Green -- No. 37 Pontiac – finished 10th
6. Michael Waltrip -- No. 99 Chevy – finished 41st
7. Martin Truex Jr. -- No. 8 Chevy – finished 2nd
8. Jamie McMurray -- No. 1 Dodge – finished 1st
9. Todd Bodine -- No. 48 Chevy – finished 19th
10. Scott Riggs -- No. 10 Ford – finished 38th

Although Cup driver Jamie McMurray won the race, he’s credited with winning the last three races at the Rockingham facility. Of course, I should note that this was the last fall race for the North Carolina Speedway, as The Rock lost a race to California on the 2004 schedule. McMurray should be credited with the three-peat because he was still a regular Busch Series driver when he won the first of the three.

The Busch Series championship is going to be decided in the last race of the season at Miami. Brian Vickers moved up two spots to take the lead again and is now listed with 4507 points. David Green also moved up two spots and is now in second listed with a -22 down from Vickers. Ron Hornaday dropped one spot to third and is now listed with a -39. Jason keller moved up one spot to fourth listed with a -70, followed by Scott Riggs who dropped four points, now listed with a -85. Bobby Hamilton Jr. is still in the sixth position and is now listed with a -89. Scott Wimmer, the seventh place driver is listed with a -494 and completely out of the championship picture.

With all due respect allotted to the top six, I feel that only the top three stand a rational chance to win the trophy. Sure, the other three in the top six have an outside chance, but the top three have a spread of only 39 points, and it’s evident that one of them should be the ones to take the championship win. If the top three mess up and/or have bad luck, then the last three in the top six are so close that either of them coule move into the top spot. The past race will indeed have everyone on the edge of their seats, fans and teams alike!

What’s even more of a stickler in the Championship situation is the new design of the Miami-Homestead facility. For the most part, the track is going to be new to all of the drivers who are competing for the championship, so they’ll actually all be competing on an even keel. They’ll have the tough job of having to learn the newly configured track while constantly trying to improve their positions in the last race of the season!

You can also rest assured that the Cup Buschwhackers will be the spoilers for the Busch series drivers who will be trying to gain good positions and points for their championship. One would think that NASCAR, out of respect for Busch Series drivers and teams, would prevent the Cup drivers from ruining the championship race for the Busch Series competitors. It has become grossly evident that NASCAR doesn’t have much respect for anyone or anything, aside from the almighty dollar.

Next week brings race No. 34 of the 34 race 2003 schedule. This is the race that they have been racing all season to arrive at. The Ford 300 will be aired by the NBC Network at 12 p.m. eastern on Saturday, November 15th. Qualifying for the event will be held on Thursday, November 13th at 2:45 p.m. I have no information at this time as to any TV network airing the Busch Series qualifying.

Last season’s winner of the Ford 300 was Scott Wimmer. He was followed across the finish line by Hank Parker Jr., Joe Nemechek, Greg Biffle, Bobby Hamilton Jr., Randy LaJoie, Michael Waltrip, Jimmy Spencer, Ashton Lewis Jr., and Jeff Green.

Jeff Green won the Bud pole award with a speed of 152.031 miles per hour. There were four caution periods for a total of 19 laps out of the 200 laps on the 1.5 mile oval.

11/14/03……….. Richard Childress Racing (RCR) clinched the owner’s points championship last week in the Busch Series. I’m sure you’re all aware of it by now, and I’m sure you’re all aware of how important owner’s points are in any NASCAR series.

As we saw repeatedly this past season, when qualifying for an event is postponed due to inclement weather or any other reason, the field is lined up for the start of the race according to the current owner’s points. When a new season begins and there aren’t any owner’s points registered yet for that season, the previous season’s owner’s points are used for the first four point’s events in that particular series.

Owner’s points are garnered pretty much the same way as driver’s points, but there is a minor difference. There have been times where the leaders of the owner’s points and driver’s point’s team have been different. Matt Kenseth is the leader of the driver’s points for 2003 and Mark Martin, listed as the owner, is the leader of the owner’s points for 2003, but, it could be, (and has been) that the owner of the driver in second place in the driver’s points can be first in the owner’s points.

One of the differences in the awarding of driver’s points as opposed to owner’s points is that an owner is awarded points for attempting to make a race where the driver isn’t. If an owner’s driver has the highest non-qualifying speed, he gets 31 points, which is three points down from the lowest driver’s point’s award for the driver who finishes in the 43rd position. The non-qualifying owners points are awarded downward using the same increment scale with the number one (1) being the lowest owner point awarded.

Cup driver Kevin Harvick started out driving the No. 21 Pay Day Chevy in the Busch Series for RCR with the idea of winning the Owner’s Points Championship. With Harvick’s quest realized, RCR went into the NASCAR record books as being the only Busch Series owner in NASCAR’s history to have won the Owner’s Point’s Championship with two drivers in one season. Johnny Sauter drove the No. 21 Chevy in place of Harvick when the Busch Series was racing at a different venue than the Cup Series at that particular weekend.

Robby Gordon announced today that Robby Gordon Motorsports will field a Busch Series car for the 2004 season. The No. 55 Chevy will be driven by Gordon in 24 races next season and will be sponsored by Fruit of the Loom underwear. Gordon’s shop will be based out of Huntersville, NC, with the new team scheduled to make its debut in the season opener at Daytona.

11/15/03…… Brian Vickers became the youngest driver to ever hold a NASCAR championship as he won the 2003 Busch Series title at Homestead-Miami. The race was a bit odd, with the championship lead switching back and forth like a pendulum. The 20 year old driver fought hard and long for his title, coming back from being a lap down to finish 11th, just 14 points ahead of second place driver David Green who finished 9th.

Ron Hornaday finished third in the championship standings, missing the mark by a mere 46 points. Fourth place finisher, Bobby Hamilton Jr. moved up two spots in the standings, missing the mark by 49 points. Jason Keller rounded out the top five in the driver’s point’s standings missing the mark by 109 points. Scott Riggs, who started the race in contention for the brass ring, whacked the wall early in the race and ended up finishing sixth in the standings, 175 points off of the mark.

The championship was a big accomplishment for Vickers, who is moving up to Cup racing full time next season as the driver of the No. 25 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy. The move will make the youngest Busch Series Champion the youngest full time Cup driver in the history of the sport.

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Greg Biffle -- No. 7 Chevy – finished 13th
2. Bobby Hamilton Jr. -- No. 25 Ford – finished 3rd
3. Kasey Kahne -- No. 38 Ford – finished 1st
4. Kevin Harvick -- No. 21 Chevy – finished 6th
5. Jamie McMurray -- No. 1 Dodge – finished 20th
6. Brian Vickers -- No. 5 Chevy – finished 11th
7. David Stremme* -- No. 30 Dodge – finished 14th
8. Joe Nemechek -- No. 87 Chevy – finished 19th
9. Martin Truex Jr. -- No. 8 Chevy – finished 2nd
10. Dave Blaney -- No. 31 Ford – finished 16th

Kasey Kahne was the race winner, marking his first Busch Series victory. The 23 year old former open wheel racer and USAC Champion has been a Ford development driver for a number of years. His decision to race in NASCAR was also backed by Ford. His first year in the Busch Series driving for Robert Yates Racing was rather tumultuous to say the least, but in the latter part of this season driving the No. 38 Great Clips Ford, Kahne has come into his own. Hopefully, next season will prove to be a break through year for Kahne and he’ll make a solid run for the championship. He’s proven that he’s learning how to handle the larger stock cars and can race to win in the Busch series.

David Stremme was named the Raybestos Rookie of the Year award winner by NASCAR officials during the Homestead-Miami event. Be sure to come back next week for more Busch Series news and commentary!

11/22/03……….. Reports have surfaced again involving USAC Silver Crown Champion J.J. Yeley’s (Christopher Beltram Hernandez Yeley) joining up with Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) in 2004. It appears that Yeley will drive for a JGR Busch Series and ARCA team. No particular amount of races has been set and no sponsor has been named for either team. There’s even some talk circulating around Yeley entering a couple of Cup races in a JGR car.

News reports have Yeley testing Gibbs cars at Kentucky with the help of Mike McLaughlin. Why McLaughlin is getting involved again with the Gibbs organization after getting dumped in favor of Coy Gibbs is beyond me. More on this continuing story as it develops…….

Yeley has been driving for Tony Stewart in the USAC Silver Crown Series, and Stewart has been acting as sort of a career mentor to him. When and if Yeley makes the permanent move to JGR, Stewart will be able to continue to mentor him as a teammate.

Kasey Kahne has been in the news a lot lately following his first Busch Series win in the season finale at Homestead-Miami. Kahne drove the No. 38 Great Clips Ford for Akins Motorsports during the 2003 Busch Series season. Since then there have been lots of major changes in the organization.

Brad Akins, owner of Akins Motorsports has partnered up with Doug Stringer and both have partnered up with Ray Evernham Motorsports for engines and technical support. Their main goal is a championship in 2004 fielding Dodge cars and motors from Evernham Motorsports. As most of you have heard by now, this leaves Kasey Kahne in a precarious position. Kahne is under contract to drive Fords, and has been a Ford developmental driver since his career began. Ford has been paying the bills for Kahne to travel around the country to race at different venues in all different types of series.

The move to Dodge by Akins doesn’t seem to upset Kahne, who is trying to get out of his contract with Ford to drive the Dodge for Akins. Kahne also claims to be planning to drive the No. 9 Dodge Dealers Dodge for Evernham in the Cup Series. News hasn’t yet been released as to the status of Bill Elliott with Evernham Motorsports in Cup. After his near win in the Cup season finale, Elliott didn’t seem to feel that he was ready to retire. The future plans of Elliott and Kahne’s are yet to be decided. This is another news story that I’ll be watching intently.

Brian Vickers is now the official 2003 Busch Series Champion. Vickers raked in nearly $2 million during the 2003 season, including the $855k allotted to the champion from the Busch Series driver’s point’s fund, and $20k for a couple other minor awards. The 20 year old became the youngest champion in Busch Series history, and gave Hendrick Motorsports its first Busch Series Championship.

David Stremme is now the official 2003 Busch Series Raybestos Rookie of the Year. Stremme ended the season with a 22 point lead over second place Coy Gibbs, and 62 points over third place Joey Clanton. Chad Blount, who led the standings most of the spring of 2003 before he lost his sponsor and quit his ride, end up fourth, 70 points down from Stremme. An interesting slant to the rookie battle is the number of races that the contestants ran. Stremme and Clanton both had just 18 starts out of the 34 races on the 2003 Busch Series schedule, while Gibbs started all 34. Fourth place Chad Blount started 19 races.

Richard Childress shared the head table at the championship awards ceremony as winner of the 2003 Busch Series Owner’s Championship, marking the first time in the history of Busch Series racing that the driver’s championship team owner didn’t win the Owner’s Championship. As I believe I also stated in last week’s article, it was the first time that the Owner’s Championship had been won a team sporting two different drivers during the season.

11/29/03……….. Richard Childress Racing (RCR) has signed another up-and-coming driver to aid Kevin Harvick in his quest for a third Busch Series Owner’s Championship for RCR.

Childress has hired NASCAR Weekly Racing Series Midwest Region Champion Clint Bowyer as the fill-in driver on the No. 21 Payday Chevrolet at venues where the Cup Series isn’t racing.

Johnny Sauter was Harvick’s teammate on the No. 21 team last season, but Sauter has been signed for a full time Busch Series ride with Brewco Motorsports in the No. 27 Kleenex sponsored Chevrolet.

Bowyer was the 2003 NASCAR Weekly Racing Series Midwest Region Champion and scored 10 victories and 18 top five finished at the USA International Speedway in Lakeland Florida to win the championship. The 24 year old driver has also won track championships at the paved I-70 Speedway at Odessa, Mo in the Late Model division and in the Modified Division on the dirt track at Lakeside Speedway at Kansas City, Mo.

PPC Racing’s No. 10 Ford, a team that has had quite a lot of success over the last couple of seasons with Scott Riggs in the driver’s seat, is looking kind of grim for the up-coming 2004 season. Not only did they lose Nestles as their primary sponsor, but now it seems as though they have lost their pit crew as well

Riggs is moving to the Cup Series in 2004 as the new driver the MBV Motorsports No. 10 Chevy, replacing Johnny Benson. MBV has announced that Doug Randolph has been named as his crew chief on the No. 10 Cup car. Randolph has been his crew chief with PPC Racing. The press release also suggested that Randolph was taking his Busch Series team with him to the Cup Series to continue working with Riggs.

This leaves PPC Racing with a big problem for their 2004 Busch Series campaign. At this time there’s no mention of a sponsor for the No. 10 Busch Series Ford, and now they don’t have a team or a driver. To make matters worse, PPC Racing’s other entry, driven by former championship contender Jason Keller, is also without a sponsor for the 2004 season. At this time Keller’s career is kind of up in the air. He isn’t under contract to drive for a team, and he doesn’t know if he’ll have a ride in 2004 or not. I’ll be keeping a close eye on the PPC Racing fiasco. Check back next week for more news and commentary….