Jon Wood is looking forward to the challenge of more Cup regulars running full Busch Series schedules in 2006. Credit: Autostock

Busch Series regulars ready for Cup onslaught

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Competing in the Busch Series has always carried the load of competing against teams with higher affiliations, but the price of playing in NASCAR's No. 2 tour may go even higher in 2006.

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An unprecedented number of drivers -- as many as eight -- may compete full time in both series this season. Numerous other Busch teams also have connections to Nextel Cup operations, and as usual, Cup drivers will cherry pick a number of Busch events.

But one group of Busch regulars polled Saturday during the penultimate day of Preseason Thunder testing at Daytona International Speedway, in effect said "bring it on" to the best the Cup garage has to offer.

"The more the better is the way I look at it," Jon Wood said. "I'm not planning on making a career out of the Busch Series, so if you can race against the best of the best, you'll end up being the best."

Wood himself will more than likely make his limit of Nextel Cup starts later this season, to preserve his rookie status for a probable move to that series in 2007. He is also opening the season driving a truck for his owners and his family's new business venture.

ST Motorsports owners Tad and Jodi Geschickter operated a pair of Busch teams for Wood, who drives the No. 47 Ford and teammate Stacy Compton in the No. 59 Ford last season.

By the end of 2005, the Geschickters took the competition and marketing alliance to its ultimate by merging their operation with the Wood Brothers' Nextel Cup team, forming Wood Brothers/JTG Racing, which is fielding a total of five teams in NASCAR's three national tours.

"The Busch Series has taken a turn where the Cup-backed Busch teams are dominant," Wood said. "You have to do something to keep up, so the decision was made to join with the Wood Brothers, and our shops are now under one roof."

Johnny Sauter most recently drove for James Finch's Phoenix Racing, along with stints at Brewco Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing, so he definitely has toured both sides of the fence.

"The Busch Series is a little tougher than it was a couple of years ago, obviously with the influx of all the Cup teams," Sauter said. "It makes it tough for the independent and I know that for a fact after last season -- it's tough.

"If you talk about these [Cup] owners having five teams, it's not just a point of them having five teams. They have 300 or 400 people back at the shop and they can build things twice as fast as we could."

But Sauter, who this season is driving the No. 00 Chevrolet, said that makes success -- as he registered last year with a victory in Finch's No. 1 Dodge -- all the sweeter.

"To be able to beat those guys made you feel real good," Sauter said. "And obviously, it should have, because this is really big business and it's all about the money. I hate to say that, but that's what it's become."

That's part of the reason why five drivers who competed full time last season in Busch will do so in both series this season. Reed Sorenson, Carl Edwards, J.J. Yeley, Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer are in that group.

They are expected to be joined by Kyle Busch, who ran a partial Busch schedule in 2005 while winning Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors in Nextel Cup, Kevin Harvick, who won the Busch title in 2001 when he was Cup rookie of the year and Kenny Wallace, who said during testing he would do a full Cup schedule with a new team fielded by Barney Visser.

"There's no more satisfaction than to beat Greg Biffle, and to say I beat one of the guys who's in contention every week in the top level of competition in NASCAR," Wood said. "The more you can learn from these guys, ultimately the better you'll be one day down the road."

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Sauter is enthused because not only does his Haas CNC Racing team have an affiliation with the Hendrick Motorsports conglomerate to get cars and engines, it also has its own Nextel Cup team with driver Jeff Green.

"Hopefully, this year will go as well as I think it should," Sauter said. "As I say, our alliance [with Hendrick] is good for us."

Regan Smith is seen as one of the brightest new talents in the sport, and from that perspective he sees things from both sides. Smith will compete in the full Busch Series in Team Rensi Motorsports' No. 35 Ford.

"I kind of agree with Jon, in that it's important to have those [Cup] guys out there, if you're eventually going to get to that level and you're going to be racing with those guys," Smith said. "You've got to be here beating those guys and competing with them to gain their respect.

"But from the opposite side of what Johnny talked about, we don't have any Cup affiliation -- Team Rensi is a two-car Busch team -- so it's tough.

"We've got to rely on whatever information is within our shop, from our own people or from people that we've hired and they've learned from past experience."