What If...

NASCAR recently announced they were thinking about limiting Sprint Cup drivers in the Nationwide Series.  No one exactly knows how they will do this, or if they will at all.  After all, the Cup drivers put the butts in the seats and the big stickers on the cars.  But they also have taken away seats from young drivers looking to make names for themselves.

The series (called the Busch series until 2007) was designed to develop young drivers.  Cup drivers have always competed, but mostly only 5-10 races a year, and it wasn't for their Cup owners.  The Cup stats mostly drove for small, independent teams.  Throughout the 90s, more Cup teams expanded to include Busch teams.  But they didn't run their Cup stars full time.

Busch Series in 1982

That all changed in 2001.  Following Dale Earnhardt's death, Richard Childress decided to but his young Busch driver, Kevin Harvick, in the Cup car.  Instead of removing him from his Busch ride, he ran both series, which had never been done before.  Harvick dominated the Busch series that year and won the title.  In addition he had a stellar rookie year in the Cup series, winning two races.  This showed all drivers and owners that the "double" could be pulled off successfully.  Since then, Cup drivers have basically dominated the series, including winning the last four (soon to be five) championships.  And they've done it driving for the same team they drive for in the Cup series.  The smaller, non-Cup affiliated teams don't have a chance.  The last to win the championship was Ppc Racing in 2000 with driver Jeff Green.

Darrell Waltrip - Nashville 1995

So what if NASCAR had eliminated full time Cup drivers from competing this year?  Here's what the points would look like:

1.   Justin Allgaier
2.  Trevor Bayne
3.  Steve Wallace
4.  Jason Leffler
5.  Brendan Gaughan
6.  Michael Annett
7.  Brian Scott
8.  Reed Sorenson
9.  Tony Raines
10.  Mike Bliss

Jimmie Johnson's first start - IRP 1998

Only Allgaier has a victory this year, coming in the spring race at Bristol.  Here's what the win totals would be with full time Cup drivers removed from the race results:

Justin Allgaier - 5 wins
Reed Sorenson - 5 wins
Jason Leffler - 4 wins
Trevor Bayne - 3 wins
Brendan Gaughan - 2 wins
Ron Fellows - 2 wins
Aric Almirola  - 1 win
Jason Keller - 1 win

Jeff Green leads in 2003

Boris Said - 1 win
Brian Scott - 1 win
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. - 1 win
Steve Wallace - 1 win

Only Allgaier and Said have actual wins.  All the rest have been won by Cup regulars.  Imagine Jason Keller scoring an upset win at Talladega in an unsponsored car.  Or better yet, how about Braun Racing, winless in 2010, dominating with ten total wins.  How about Steve Wallace finally breaking into victory lane?  These would all be great storylines.

This is just something to think about, vote of the Tailpipe Poll with your opinion!