On Twitter, pretty much after every Nationwide race, I tweet "Remember when Nationwide-regulars dominated this season?". Well, with the 2011 Nationwide Regulars laps leaders in the works this season, I thought why not go back to the previous seasons to see how the non-Cup regulars have done in the Nationwide/Busch Grand National Series in the past. Some of the stats might be a surprise to some people.
To count as a Cup regular in these stats, any driver that made more than 20 Cup races will be counted as a Cup regular, will not count towards attempts. For example, if a driver made 22 attempts and missed 5 of them, they won't be counted as a Cup regular. Don't worry, it wouldn't have changed the stats that much, not many NNS/BGN regulars made that that many Cup attempts to count as a Cup regular in the season.
Lets look at the 2004 season (was called the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series back then), in which most people, including me, say is one of the last best Nationwide seasons. And you'll see why. This was the season where future Cup stars Kyle Busch (driving for Hendrick Motorsports) and Martin Truex Jr. (driving for JR Motorsports) were involved in. This was a 34 race season, and included a good hand full of race-alone events (such as Nashville, Gateway, Nazareth, and more). There were a total of 6684 laps that were completed in this season. Surprisingly, non-Cup regulars led 4028 of the 6684 laps, or about 60% of the season. Cup regulars led the other 2656 laps. On average, that was about 118 laps led per race for non-Cup regulars, the Cup regulars had 78. To add to the laps led dominance, each race this season had at least non-Cup regular led at least one lap. The amount of wins non-Cup regulars had were pretty amazing too, getting 16 wins out of the 34 races. Out of all the races this season, we had a non-cup regular finishing in the Top 3 in all but one race. That race was the Target House 300 at California Speedway (now called Auto Club Speedway), the best finishing non-Cup driver was Martin Truex Jr., who came in 6th that day.
Now lets look at the 2010 season, this was a 35 race season. This one compared to the 2004 season is very disappointing. With three road courses in the season, the amount of laps in this season dropped slightly to 6489 laps, but it didn't matter that much anyway. This was a Cup regulars season, they led 5849 of the 6489 laps that season (which is about 90% of the season), leaving just 650 laps led by the non-Cup regulars. How much did this change to the average laps led per race for non-Cup regulars? They dropped from 118 laps in 2004 to an average of a dreadful 18 laps per race in 2010. Cup regulars went up from 78 to an average of 167 laps per race.
How about the races? In 2004, at least one non-Cup regular led at one lap in a race. In 2010, a non-Cup regular failed to led a single lap in nine events. The most laps non-Cup regulars were able to led in was the 5-Hour Energy 250 at Gateway, which was 117 laps. This race, and a few other stand-alone events, pretty much saved the non-Cup regulars' average laps led in a race from being any lower. Out of the 650 laps non-Cup regulars led this season, only 410 came came Nationwide stand-alone events, leaving 240 laps led at the same track the Cup series were at the same weekend. Taking stand-alone events out of the equation this season, there were 4861 laps completed at tracks the Cup Series were at the same weekend. Non-Cup regulars led 240, which means they only led about 5% of all these laps in the 25 races. All this adds up to a very dreadful average of 9 to 10 laps a race. The other 10 races were at stand-alone events (where in 2004 had pretty much no Cup regulars in). There were 1628 laps completed in stand-alone events, with 410 led by non-Cup regulars. With usually just two to three Cup-regulars in these races, non-Cup regulars were able to get an average of 41 laps led per race, and were able to led about 25% of the stand-alone events.
Wins by non-Cup regulars didn't happen that much. We only saw just two non-Cup regulars win in the 2010 season, and both were their first career win in this series. First one being Justin Allgaier at Bristol in the Spring and Boris Said edging out Max Papis at Montreal much later in the season. In 2004, only once was the best-finishing non-Cup regular outside the Top 3. In 2010, it happened 21 times, with 10 of those races having a driver finishing in 4th.
Should Cup regulars be limited on their Nationwide rides? Depending on the circumstance, I think they should, but not to the point where they should be banned. Full-time Cup drivers that run competitively every week, such as Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch, should be limited to at least 5 to 10 races a year in the Nationwide Series. Drivers that are rookies in the Cup Series, such as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne, or drivers with limited funding in the Cup Series, such as Joe Nemechek, can run the entire Nationwide season if they want. This way some young drivers can show their talent in the field without any Cup guys spoiling the show for them.
The 2011 Nationwide is slightly better than the 2010 season, but it is pretty much hopeless that we will never see that perfect Nationwide season again, where the series regulars are the ones to beat, and not the ones to beat. And with Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards ending their full-time Nationwide ride next year, we might see that 2004 Season again, but only at stand alone events.
(Will add the laps led, best finishing non-Cup driver in a race, and extra statistics in a separate post later this week.)
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