BGN too profitable to be mere training ground

The series will continue to feature Winston Cup drivers as long as they keep packing in the fans and the sponsors

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 18, 2000

The question comes up every so often: Why not make the Busch Grand National Series a true stepping stone to Winston Cup?

BGN drivers would not be allowed to drive Cup races until they meet a certain criteria of success or put in a certain amount of time. Winston Cup drivers would not be able to drive BGN and take spots away from up-and-coming drivers.

It's an idea car owner Robert Yates loves.

"I have had experiences with drivers that are not so pleasant from a learning standpoint," Yates said. "Let someone else train them, and we'll have them after that. You should have to compete through Busch for a one-, two-, three-year program. Then you're much safer to go places and race like the Daytona 500."

Sounds plausible.

But with the the advantages Winston Cup teams gain by driving BGN races when both series are at the same track, and considering the current marketing push that promotes the crossover, the idea has been relegated to the back burner.

But that doesn't mean the debate has stopped.

"The series needed it 10 years ago," BGN driver Randy Lajoie said of the invasion of Cup drivers. "But we can put 100,000 people in the stands in Texas. They want to see a good race, and we can give them that. If they want to see Jeff Gordon race Mark Martin or Jeff Burton, that's for Sunday. Let's have Saturday for ourselves."

Said Jeff Fuller, who is jumping from BGN to Winston Cup this season: "I don't know how, legally, NASCAR can say to a Cup driver, "You can't run in the Busch Series.' Maybe they will come up with something, but in a lot of ways it's neat that the Cup drivers come down and get their butts stomped. It just shows you they put their pants on the same way anybody else does."

Jerry Nadeau wishes he had more of that knowledge before becoming a full-time Winston Cup driver in 1997. Nadeau drove just five BGN races in 1995 and got most of his experience in the open-wheel Skip Barber Eastern Series and the Formula Opel European Union Series.

"When I jumped to Winston Cup, it was a whole new deal. All these race tracks were new to me," said Nadeau, who drives for Hendrick Motorsports. "New cars, new race tracks. I had a lot to learn and had to learn the hard way."

Learning and marketing is what the BGN-Winston Cup coupling is really all about.

BGN drivers gain valuable track knowledge when they run at venues that also stage Cup races. And Winston Cup teams can gauge car set-ups for Sunday by driving BGN on Saturday.

"There's no better way to be a Winston Cup driver than to go through Busch," driver Dave Blaney said. "It teaches you the tracks. My (open wheel) World of Outlaws days taught me how to race, but it doesn't teach you how to drive a Cup car at Darlington."

"Seat time," said BGN driver David Green, who ran both series last season. "Ask (Cup drivers). They will pay you to do it. It's two hours of extra track time, two hours of practice. It makes sense."

It makes sense for NASCAR as well. When drivers like Martin, the all-time BGN leader in victories with 40, Gordon and Burton decide to race BGN, the series gets a publicity boost.

At the recent BGN preview in Charlotte, Anheuser-Busch announced it extended its contract with NASCAR through 2002, helped increase the BGN points fund to $1.7-million and unveiled a television commercial that trumpets the participation of Cup drivers.

"We don't want to lose that association," said Nick Leininger, Busch's brand manager. "Anheuser-Busch loves it."

And if Anheuser-Busch loves it, so does NASCAR.

"When you have as many combination weekends, it's natural for drivers to go back and forth," NASCAR chief operating officer Mike Helton said. "It has worked well. It's something we're going to monitor ... but that's where we are in 2000."

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.