Anheuser-Busch has been the title sponsor of NASCAR's No. 2 series the past 25 years. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

Track Smack: Head for mountains of change?

Is it a big story that Anheuser-Busch won't be back as lead sponsor of the Busch Series in 2008?

Ryan Smithson: I was way more surprised that A-B only doled out $10 million a year for the title sponsorship. That sounded incredibly low to me, and NASCAR has got to be happy about the increase it is bound to get from it.

Mark Aumann: It really comes at a perfect time if NASCAR and ESPN want to make radical changes to the series. New sponsor, new car models, new points format. It will all fit together nicely.

Duane Cross: Yeah, it's a big deal -- it's the title sponsor for NASCAR's second-largest series. I mean it's not like the AFL2 is bringing big coin for its naming rights. NASCAR is in a prime position to make a statement with this sponsorship deal.

Dave Rodman: Anytime anyone leaves after such a long period, it's a sad day, but economics always rules. I don't think it's that big a deal -- if the lead series can so easily shed a 30-year tag, the minor's issue is minor league, for sure.

Mark Aumann: Plus, it continues NASCAR's evolution from the cigarettes and beer good ol' boy sport to something much more marketable to the masses, especially women and children.

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Ryan Smithson: Aumann, you really think the series needs a new points format?

Mark Aumann: I don't necessarily think the Busch Series needs any changes. But this would be a perfect time for NASCAR to make them, if it wanted.

Ryan Smithson: The first thing it has got to do is fix the engine program for this series. There is no excuse for teams to have to spend $2 million a year for motors.

Dave Rodman: The Busch Series teams are kind of hurting enough as it is, so whatever they do to adjust the series in 2008 will be pretty critical. They ought to do something akin to what the Grand National East and West are doing -- composite bodies and spec engines.

Duane Cross: I'd be for changing anything in the sport that makes it tougher for these guys to run both Cup and Busch. And if a change to the bodies and engines is the best way to do it, so be it.

Ryan Smithson: NASCAR's silence on the Car of Tomorrow when it comes to the Busch Series is a good thing. The Truck Series will continue to groom the Cup drivers, though, not the Busch Series.

Dave Rodman: I wonder if the current Busch stuff could be farmed down to the Hooters Series if NASCAR changes the bodies?

Mark Aumann: That's the key. If teams have to write off millions in useless rolling stock, it won't happen.

In this corner ... Credit: Autostock / Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images

Duane Cross: If everyone is clamoring over the Cup Series' points -- Busch are the same; change one, change the other. Does that make sense only to me?

Ryan Smithson: You can't use the Chase in the Busch and Truck series, Duane. The trucks do not have 50 full-time teams. It is not a template that can be matched.

Duane Cross: I didn't say anything about the Chase. I said if we're tweaking the Cup points, it makes since to do it in Busch -- if that's the issues everyone has: points. The Chase is another argument -- and a system that I'd just as soon see go the way of the Edsel.

Dave Rodman: Does it make sense to do a Chase in the Busch Series -- but eliminate from contention anyone who runs more than, say 75 percent of a higher series?

Ryan Smithson: No, Dave, then you'd have Steve Wallace vs. Brad Coleman.

Dave Rodman: Yeah. And is that such a bad thing?

Ryan Smithson: You can't be serious. You're kidding, right?

Mark Aumann: Well, if they're running 24th and 25th, I think it would be hard to explain the reasoning behind such a rule. I wonder how much input ESPN and the new sponsor will have on future championship points systems.

Ryan Smithson: Rodman is officially advocating a system in which the 17th- and 18th-best drivers fight it out for the title.

Dave Rodman: They could make the most radical change I've heard lately -- cut off at race 26, then cut again at race 31. Five guys go five races with a re-set point table. I don't have the points in front of me to see what exactly it would mean -- but if you're talking about a "Busch" champion -- it should be a "Busch driver," no?

Duane Cross: Forget all this cut-off crap and race the schedule. The man with the most points wins. Stick-and-ball sports have playoffs. Stock-car drivers run races. Add up the points at the finish line and call it a championship.

Dave Rodman: Mark, that would be OK if there had never been a Chase -- but we're in that swamp, so I don't feel like we need to turn back -- and I think everyone would agree the Chase has been a good thing.

Ryan Smithson: The Busch champion should be the driver who scored the most points, period. Like Duane, I am getting sick of the Chase.

Duane Cross: And why can't the Cup champion be the same way, Ryan?

Ryan Smithson: Duane, before you throw me under a Greyhound, I am agreeing with you.

Duane Cross: OK, so by Dave's logic with the Chase, if we're ever lost in a swamp and have only walked 10 feet from dry land, it'd be best to keep walking -- instead of turning around and getting back to basics ...

Dave Rodman: Duane, just think of all the mosquitoes you could kill on the way. Ouch. I guess I just backed you up, didn't I?

	Kevin Harvick clinched the Busch Series so early in 2006 he had two post-race celebrations. Credit: Darrell Ingham/Getty Images
	BUSCH GOES FLAT Runaway champion Kevin Harvick has a few ideas on how to improve the Busch Series, but don't expect them to happen.  •   Complete story, click here Anheuser-Busch will not renew its sponsorship of the Busch Series after 2007, so NASCAR will team with ESPN to find a new sponsor.  •   Complete story, click here

Duane Cross: Yep. Thank you very much.

Ryan Smithson: The Chase has done more bad than good for sponsors. The sponsors that don't make it get all mad.

Mark Aumann: Kevin Harvick pretty much wipes out the field in 2006, no matter what changes you make to the points. It's much like Matt Kenseth's runaway win in the Cup Series back in 2003. Sometimes, a guy just stinks up the show.

Dave Rodman: Doesn't make him any less of a champion -- or make it any less worthy of a series format.

Duane Cross: Exactly -- and I wish folks would remember that: The old points system worked. Sometimes, though, a guy was a buzz saw and had the field covered from can 'til can't. It happens.

Mark Aumann: I still think you've got to solve the issue of limiting the damage from bad races. The point system is set to penalize poor races much more than credit good ones.

Dave Rodman: Has anyone gone to the effort to put a F1-type point system to the Chase? I don't have the energy to compute a season based on points for 1-30, with no Chase.

Ryan Smithson: You do, but it would take you two years.

Duane Cross: And Mark, that's where a point system changes comes in -- not a "playoff" scenario. The Chase is a gimmick -- and those just don't stand the test of time.

Mark Aumann: Well, you wouldn't hold a Super Bowl between your champions and have the other 30 teams on the field. That's what makes the Chase such a crap shoot. You're not "racing" against the other nine teams as much as trying to keep from getting run over by the other 33.

Dave Rodman: It's quite a lot of both, actually, and I think Jimmie Johnson's title this year proved that.

Mark Aumann: It's made the racing conservative, which is the exact opposite of what NASCAR has always been about.

Ryan Smithson: I am starting to think that the hardcore fans are starting to leave when NASCAR hasn't been able to attract enough new fans to replace them. Although that might be the "duh" statement of the year. What can do we do to get the Chase system recalled?

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Duane Cross: Hardcore fans are doing more than "starting" to leave; they've left. The ones who are jetting now are those who go club-hopping each time some celeb opens a new restaurant.

Mark Aumann: It's like an espresso machine in the middle of a dive bar.

Duane Cross: Ryan, my friend, the Chase isn't going anywhere. As long as there can be manufactured excitement, it'll be the law of the sport. And no one is going to challenge the sport to change it. Not ... gonna ... happen. Bottom line: Fans don't make those decisions. And as long as NASCAR is selling TV rights for just more than Dave Rodman's annual salary, it's not gonna change.

Ryan Smithson: Well, how can we keep it out of the Busch and Truck ranks?

Mark Aumann: The Truck guys don't seem to have any problems with the current points.

Dave Rodman: The Truck Series definitely doesn't need it. It has had plenty of drama the last few years without any sign of a Chase on the horizon.

Mark Aumann: But that's 25 races and 36 trucks, which makes a big difference.

Duane Cross: I don't think the Chase will come to Busch or Trucks; it's a Cup-centric deal and will remain so.

Mark Aumann: Funny that the tracks are selling Busch race tickets because the Cup regulars are racing and the fans are buying them. It's just us poor media folks who make a big deal about it.

Ryan Smithson: Gosh, everyone is starting to call it Cup Lite now.

"Shotgun!" Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Dave Rodman: Give the full-time Busch teams a 300-pound weight break on each of their cars.

Ryan Smithson: That is a good idea. Seriously. It means they can't hire Jimmy Spencer, though.

Mark Aumann: What, they have to carry a member of the media in the car?

Dave Rodman: That would be a hell of a caution when they got tossed out.

Ryan Smithson: Exactly, Aumann, they should make the Cup regulars carry a 300-pound reporter in the car with them. Automatic disadvantage.

Mark Aumann: All that hot air might overload the cool suits.

Duane Cross: Danica Patrick could race Robby Gordon head-up under that scenario!

Ryan Smithson: I'd like to see Danica race at Dover without any power steering. Not because she can't handle it, but because she'd be all covered in sweat afterwards.

Mark Aumann: I'll volunteer to ride with Danica Patrick, although my wife might complain.

Ryan Smithson: Why? She'd want to ride first?

Duane Cross: As the immortal Ryan Seacrest says: Out!

The opinions expressed are solely of the participants.