Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. is making the jump from the Campingworld Truck Series into the Bu-, Na-, I mean, Xfinity Series next season. The jump is well warranted. While Bubba didn’t win the Truck Series Championship he racked up some impressive stats. He finished third in the championship standings with four wins, nine top fives, 14 top tens and two poles. With stats like that Wallace making the move to the next level isn’t the story here. Who he will be racing for is.
All of his Truck Series success came racing for Kyle Busch Motorsports while under contract for Joe Gibbs Racing. However next season Wallace will be racing for the Jack Rousch owned #6 in the Xfinity Series, not for JGR. Gibbs couldn’t find sponsorship for Wallace and when he asked to be released from his contract to explore other options Gibbs granted that request.
Darrell Wallace Jr. “Buschwhacked” Out of JGR
So how does one of the most promising prospects in the NASCAR ranks get overlooked for sponsorship dollars on one of the most successful teams in the NASCAR garage? Buschwhackers. JGR ran three cars last year. They have the #54 which was run primarily by Kyle Busch except for seven races when Sam Hornish Jr. took the reins. The #20 was a revolving door of drivers but Matt Kenseth saw the majority of the seat time getting 20 races while Cup Series teammate Denny Hamlin took one race and the remainder were split between the development drivers, Daniel Suarez, Michael McDowell, Sam Hornish, Jr., Kenny Habul, Erik Jones, Justin Boston, and Wallace himself ran Talladega and the July Daytona race. The #11 was the only car that was piloted by the same driver for the whole season, Elliott Saddler. Interestingly enough Saddler is also going to Roush Fenway Racing next season to drive the #1 car. As of now that also leaves the seat to the #11 open but apparently there is still no room at the inn for Wallace.
Taking the #11 out of the equation since it was the only Gibbs entry running for a Drivers’ Championship there were 66 available races between the #54 and the #20. Out of those 66 races 47 of them had a full time Cup driver in the seat. That only leaves 19 races to split between everybody else. With all that opportunity for a major company to sponsor a car with a big name driver in it, who will most likely challenge for the win, why would you bother sponsoring a guy who is just trying to gain experience and is going to be fighting a learning curve throughout the season?
If teams like JGR, Penske and RCR would simply limit their Cup drivers to a few races a season it would show these companies that there can be success in sponsoring guys who are still trying to make a name for themselves in the sport. It can’t be done in a way where more than 50% of the seat time is given to guys who are racing below their pay grade. You can’t let talent develop that way. Buschwhacking is diluting the sport. You might say that it’s necessary. The big name drivers bring in the sponsorship dollars and the crowds to the tracks for the races in the lower series. I’m not saying NASCAR needs to boot them out completely, but limit them to five, seven, even ten races a year in the lower series to give the guys who are the future of the sport a chance to gain experience and a following so that when they do make a move to Cup they have a better chance of success, and thus putting on a good competitive show.
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