King Nationwide sets himself apart from the rest: The Bashas 200 Review

Kyle Busch led every lap on his way to victory. I think he proved his point.

Nascar’s new point systems only seems to be screwing young drivers out of Rookie of the Year and a possible Chase, but the main reason for the switch was to “set apart the Nationwide Series”. I feel that is not happening here. Until you officially ban Cup drivers from racing week in and week out this is what your going to get. A boring follow up to an exciting race. There is a reason that seats are empty at tracks.

Even Kyle Busch fans don’t want to pay that much to watch him dominate. While Busch’s car was one of the best looking paint schemes of 2011, it wasn’t enought to keep this hardcore fan invested in this race.

Five of the top six drivers were Cup drivers, with Reed Sorenson again notching a top five finish. Sorenson is making his case for Nationwide Champion. While it’s great to see Sorenson doing well, he should have won this race, but there is no way he can keep up with Joe Gibbs, Roush, and Harvick - all cup drivers with well funded teams. Even Ryan Newman couldn’t beat them as Sorenson’s teammate.

It baffles me that guys like Scott Speed and Scott Lagasse are without a Nationwide ride while Busch, Edwards, Logano and Keselowski are still driving in races they have no business driving in.

Something has to change, or the Nationwide Series will be in trouble, and I’ll be out of a writing gig.
Results, Points and more after the Jump!

Carl Long, Kevin Lepage, Kelly Bires, Brett Rowe and Justin Marks were start and park drivers for this race. Seven drivers start and parking and a short field. Maybe Phoenix doesn’t belong on the schedule any more. It’s just a thought, but when most of your fans are screaming for more short tracks and less mile, and mile and a half tracks maybe you should listen to them.

On to my new favorite part of these posts; Nationwide driver points. No more Cup guys dominating the top spots. Here’s the battle for Nationwide Champion:

Reed Sorenson is our point leader. Could there be a better Nationwide Point Leader? Stenhouse and Leffler right now are the two best challengers for Sorenson. Danica Patrick is forth, but is not running the full season. The other big name Nationwide challengers are eighth place Justin Allgaier, eleventh place Trevor Bayne, sixteenth place Elliott Sadler, and seventeenth place Steve Wallace. It’s been a bad two weeks for Rusty Wallace Racing.

We only have three more races before we switch to this years top 30 in owner points. Here’s the battle:

It’s been rough going for the non-defending Champion Brad Keselowski. I would be surprised if Keso doesn’t bounce back next week, but this may cause Penske to rethink his chances at a Owner’s Championship.

Next week we head to Las Vegas for the Sam’s Town 300! Enjoy!