1/4/04…….. As the Busch Series season opener at Daytona gets closer, some of the team are beginning to make announcements of their limited schedules for 2004 hoping to garner more sponsorship.

Those who are set up for a limited schedule at this time are Joe Nemechek’s Nemco Motorsports No. 87 Chevrolet, PPC Racing’s No. 57 Ford driven by Series championship contender Jason Keller, and also the No. 10 Ford. Braun Racing is planning a limited run with its No. 19 Dodge, as well as Michael Holigan Racing with the No. 50 Enzyte car to be driven in 15 races by former Truck Series star David Starr.

Nemco Motorsports has once again teamed up again with Cellular One which has contracted to back the No. 87 for 14 races beginning with the Hershey’s Kisses 300 at Daytona in February. Morgan McClure Racing has set up the No. 04 Chevrolet with sponsorship from “I Can Learn” to run eight to ten races in the Busch Series and maybe a half dozen ARCA races to give young Eric McClure some on-track experience.

The Outdoor Channel has returned to BACE Motorsports and will back the No. 74 Chevrolet for BACE, to be driven again this season by Damon Lusk, for at least 17 races beginning with the series opener. The rest of the limited teams in the series are really too numerous to mention in one writing.

Other teams have been fortunate enough to find full time sponsorship, but very few. Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse has been rumored to be backing Kyle Busch in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 Chevrolet for the season, while Charter Communications (cable company) have been rumored to have signed with Roush Racing to sponsor the No. 60 Ford for Greg Biffle for the entire season.

Tim Fedewa and Casey Atwood will return to Fritz/Bradshaw Motorsports, with Fedewa driving the No. 12 SuperCuts Chevrolet and Atwood piloting the No. 14 US Navy Chevrolet. The US Playing Card Co. will also back the No. 12 for a few races this coming season. The privately owned company has been manufacturing and distributing playing cards since 1867 under the names of Bicycle, Aviator, Bee, and Hoyle.

The Busch Series rookie class for the 2004 season doesn’t appear to be very exciting at this point. The main only standout being Kyle Busch, and he’s really just a promising thought because of his name, being the younger brother of Kurt Busch, driver of the Roush Racing No. 97 Rubbermade Ford in the Cup series. As stated above, the rookie Busch will be piloting the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports with sponsorship from Lowe’s and Carquest Auto Parts.

Word came down earlier this off-season that Menards Racing from the open wheel ranks has bought into Andy Petree Racing. Rookie driver Paul Menard is scheduled to drive either the No. 33 or 55 Chevy for Petree with Menards Home Improvement Warehouse as the major sponsor.

Donnie Neuenberger is another rookie candidate for 2004 in the No. 52 Moy racing’s Ford with possible sponsorship from the University of Maryland. From what I’ve seen listed, this entry may only be set up for a limited schedule, so the run for the rookie crown can’t be considered to be serious.

The same can be said for rookie Billy Parker in the new No. 66 Dodge entry from Rusty Wallace’s new Rusty Wallace Inc.Racing venture. Wallace is only planning on running 17 or 18 events, so a serious run for the rookie crown by Parker is only speculation at this point.

I’m afraid that this may be the problem with the entire Busch Series this coming season. Very few teams seem to have the capital or the backing to run the full season. The 2004 Busch Series Champion may just come from a part time team.

You can rest assured that the Cup drivers who enter the Busch Series events have more solid backing than the regular Busch Series drivers do. It has become all about advertising in the Busch Series, with racing taking a back seat to major corporations hawking their wares with a successful Cup driver at the wheel of their logo carrying racecar. The way the 2004 season is shaping up with all of these limited schedules, the end of the Busch Series as we’ve known it may be close at hand. You can blame it all on NASCAR’s greed. The sanctioning body has been asked to do something for several years about the Cup drivers interloping into the Busch Series, but NASCAR has ignored it over the corporate money flowing into its coffers.

1/18/04…….. It’s kind of amusing to hear that NASCAR has reverted back to the “dirty air” aerodynamics for the Hershey’s Kisses 300 Busch Series opener at Daytona on Valentines Day. The sanctioning body has gone to great lengths to upgrade the Busch Series cars to make them almost equal to a Cup car. The dirty air idea didn’t work with the Cup cars, so what makes them think it’ll work with the Busch cars?

At any rate, the Busch Series drivers are embracing the idea just as the Cup drivers did a couple of years ago when NASCAR tried it with them. The minute differences between the different cars could make for a better Busch race. Drivers claim that during testing this past weekend, they were actually able to pass and not lose the draft when they had to slow down some to get back in line.

These are the same utterances we heard from the Cup drivers when they were testing and practicing with the new “dirty air” aerodynamics at Talladega and Daytona. When it came down to the actual racing it became a different story, as I assume will be the case in the Busch Series.

The three roof strips are similar to those formerly used in the Cup Series. The two outside strips are mandated to be 1.5 inches high while the center strip a half an inch high. The wicker, a metal strip that is perpendicular on top of the rear spoiler, is 1.5 inches wide. The only rules difference between the cars will be those used with the 2002 Pontiac. Some of the teams haven’t been able to get their new Chevrolets ready for the season opener, so they’re relegated to using last year’s Pontiac model until their Chevrolets are ready. The Pontiac spoiler is 7.25 inches high compared to the other models which are 6.5 inches high, with all models having their spoilers set at 70 degrees.

David Green and Johnny Sauter will both be piloting Brewco Motorsports Pontiacs, with Green driving the No. 37 and Sauter driving the No. 27. Hermie Sadler will be driving the No. 02 Pontiac and although Joe Nemechek tested a Pontiac, it’s doubtful that it will be in the race as his No. 87 Chevrolet set the top testing speed for the weekend.

The dirty air tended to slow the cars down and gave the drivers more control, but it made the cars more unstable in the draft. The dirtier the air, the more side to side movement by the cars when they’re being buffeted in the wind created by the cars ahead of them. The dirty air aerodynamics system pokes a much larger hole through the air which creates a much larger and more powerful wake in the lead cars path. This makes it more difficult for cars in the line beside the cars in the lead. Being stuck in the middle with dirty air aerodynamics is not where a driver wants to find himself. The middle lane of cars in the draft is practically eliminated with dirty air aerodynamics.

We should keep these things in mind: Media hype about aerodynamics isn’t racing. Practicing and testing isn’t racing. The proof will be in the pudding after the green flag waves in the breeze over the start/finish line at Daytona on February 14th.