David Reutimann spent the last three seasons in the Truck Series full time and will make the jump to the Cup Series in 2007. Credit: Autostock

Trucks feed Cup more, but talent matters most

2007 Nextel Cup rookies have more experience in Truck Series

Traditionally the Busch Series has served as the feeder system for drivers to polish their skills for Sundays.

However, 2007 won't be a traditional year.

	David Ragan has only seven career Busch starts, yet Jack Roush will put him in the No. 6 Ford. Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers Experience for '07 Cup rookies Driver Busch Truck Juan Montoya 4 0 Regan Smith 85 12 Jon Wood 72 91 David Ragan 7 29 David Reutimann 31 75 A.J. Allmendinger 0 3 Total 199 210

Three of the six drivers who'll for sure be considered rookies in Nextel Cup next season came directly from the Truck Series and will all be full-time drivers in big-time sponsored cars.

Of the other three who are moving up from the Busch Series, only Juan Montoya will run the entire Cup season. His prior Busch experience amounts to four races.

Regan Smith and Jon Wood are other two Busch-to-Cup drivers. They both ran the entire Busch schedule last season, but neither will drive full time in the Cup Series in 2007 -- Smith will be sharing the No. 01 Chevrolet's seat with veteran Mark Martin, while Wood will share the No. 21 Ford with veteran Ken Schrader.

In contrast, David Reutimann was hand-picked from the Truck Series by Michael Waltrip to drive the No. 00 Toyota in 2007 after spending the past three years driving Darrell Waltrip's truck. In his truck career, Reutimann got a victory at Nashville and last year collected 19 top-10s to finish third in the standings.

Reutimann, however, has just 31 Busch starts on his resume, 15 of which came in 2006 (12 for Michael Waltrip).

"I love the Craftsman Truck Series and the people," Reutimann said. "It's such a great series and I've learned a lot. It's taught me how to be smarter and taught me a lot of things I didn't know. Drivers like Ted Musgrave, Mike Skinner and so many others have helped me out when I was doing lots of things wrong."

That's because Musgrave and Skinner -- as well as several others -- have already been there, done that.

Musgrave spent nine and a half years in the Cup Series before moving to trucks for the last six seasons. Skinner won the inaugural Truck Series championship before moving to Cup full time in 1997, where he spent seven full seasons. He's run a full truck schedule the past three years.

But the advice wasn't always coming to Reutimann in a nice manner.

"He thought he had to go 200 mph all the time, hold his position all the time and block people left and right," said Truck Series director Wayne Auton of when Reutimann first started in NASCAR. "We had had him in the trailer trying to teach him that he can give up a position in this turn but get it back in the next turn. He wrecked more times because he thought he had to hold his spot."

	ALSO •   Top Stories •   Top Finishes •   Top Moments •   Honors •   By the Numbers • Top Paint Schemes First-time champTodd Bodine celebrates his 2006 Truck Series title Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

David Ragan's pathway is very similar to that of Reutimann.

Ragan will take over Jack Roush's No. 6 Ford in 2007 after a whirlwind battle for the coveted seat. Some questioned the decision after Ragan made two Cup starts late in the season and became a pinball. He crashed at Dover and finished 42nd, and he was involved in multiple incidents at Martinsville before rebounding to finish 25th on the lead lap.

The reason the 20-year-old won out over Roush's stable of young Busch drivers -- his work in the truck.

"We were brought up racing 110 percent every lap," Ragan said of his short-track days. "We couldn't give an inch or we had to drive that much harder. In the Truck Series, you can catch Dennis Setzer and it seems like he moves right on over to let you buy. You think, 'Wow, that was pretty cool.' But when Ted Musgrave is on your bumper and has a faster truck, you better move over. It's that way times 10 in the Cup Series."

Two years ago he ran 10 truck races for Tom Eldredge with not-so-great results. This year, however, driving half the season in Roush's No. 50 and the other half in the No. 6 truck (when Martin wasn't in it), Ragan had eight top-10s in 19 starts, got a top-five at Kentucky and won the pole at O'Reilly Raceway Park. He finished on the lead lap in all but six races, and his average finish over his final five races was 11.2.

His experience in the Busch Series, however, totals a whopping seven races with a best finish of 18th. But with Martin in his corner, he succeeded.

"The old saying that you become like the people you surround yourself with -- that holds true in the Truck Series," Ragan said. "Obviously I will be experiencing things this year that I haven't -- road courses, longer races and tougher competition. It's a different world in the Cup Series, and it's tough to say the trucks prepare you 100 percent because the Cup drivers are the top level in all of motorsports."

Said Auton: "I think David Reutimann and David Ragan are two of the up-and-coming Nextel Cup stars because of the relationships they formed in learning when it's time to go and when it's time to give"

The third rookie -- Champ Car-turned-NASCAR driver A.J. Allmendinger -- readied himself for Team Red Bull by making three Truck Series starts in 2006 for Bill Davis Racing. He finished 13th in his debut at New Hampshire and fifth at Talladega. At Atlanta, the same weekend he was set to make his Nextel Cup debut with Red Bull (DNQ), he started on the front row before crashing 13 laps in and finishing 34th.

Allmendinger has never raced in a Busch car.

	After a year of truck racing and five years in Cup, Kurt Busch made his Busch Series debut in 2006 at Texas -- and won. Credit: Autostock
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"There's nothing set in stone that a driver has to compete in the Busch Series before moving to Cup," said Busch Series director Joe Balash.

As the prime example, Roush Racing has never been shy about using the Truck Series as a breeding ground while using the Busch Series as a Cup playground.

Kurt Busch drove Roush's No. 99 truck during the 2000 season and, with four victories, finished second in the standings to teammate Greg Biffle. He ran seven Cup races that year, and the following season was moved to the senior series full time.

His fourth season in Cup he was crowned champion. Busch never made a start in the Busch Series before this past season.

Carl Edwards mirrored Busch's progression, driving the entire 2003 and '04 seasons in trucks and collecting three victories in both years. Two weeks before his third truck win of 2004, Roush put Edwards in a Cup car and has kept him there ever since.

Edwards' Busch Series experience prior to being promoted to Cup: two races.

Aside from Edwards and Busch, the recent leapfrog from trucks to Cup, however, is just that -- recent.

Since the Truck Series' inception in 1995, only Skinner, Kenny Irwin Jr. and Kevin Harvick won rookie of the year honors in the Cup Series with more experience in the trucks than Busch while the other nine drivers -- including the last five -- had significantly more experience in the Busch Series than the Truck Series.

"We have migrated to stopping at the same type of tracks that the Cup Series races on, so that prepares drivers in that our tracks are the same style," Balash said of the series that began racing on tracks like Hickory, South Boston and Langley -- all defunct Cup stops.

"Drivers are also introduced to longer races than they've been exposed to in their careers. Some of the short-track racers are used to 30- and 50-lap sprints. But with the longer races, it teaches them to conserve their equipment and it is more of a physical constraint."

The advantage the Truck Series may have over the Busch Series is competition.

In the Truck Series -- which doesn't always pair itself with Cup weekends -- Martin was the only Cup driver close to running routinely, starting 14 of the 25 races, earning six victories and finishing 19th in points. The only other Cupper with more than three truck starts was Kyle Busch with seven.

"The trucks are closer to the same chassis as the Nextel Cup cars in that they have a longer wheelbase. Trucks are 112 inches, while Busch is 105 and Cup is 110." - Wayne Auton

While the majority of Busch drivers enjoy competing against Cup regulars, when the final tally is done, there is no competition. Cup drivers took eight of the top 10 positions in the final Busch standings and won 33 of the 35 races.

"The best of the best compete in the Busch Series, and then the cream of the crop move on to the Nextel Cup Series." Balash said.

Auton said it's more about learning in the trucks.

"The trucks are closer to the same chassis as the Nextel Cup cars in that they have a longer wheelbase," he said of why the series does a good job of preparing drivers for Cup competition. "Trucks are 112 inches long, while Busch is 105 and Cup is 110. So there's little difference between the trucks and the Cup cars because of the body style."

Machinery and preparation aside, it's agreed that what's behind the wheel is the aspect that makes or breaks a career.

But when the two best Busch-only drivers have an average finish of 16.9 (Paul Menard) and 18.7 (Johnny Sauter) and nine top-fives among them, it's tough to get noticed.

Said Balash in response to whether the Busch Series is not producing enough Cup drivers: "It's all based on the driver's talent."