NASCAR Busch Series
The NASCAR Busch Series is a stock car racing series owned and operated by NASCAR. It is NASCAR's second division, and is a proving ground for drivers who wish to step up to the organization's top level, the Nextel Cup. Each Busch Series race is usually held in the same venue as, and a day prior to, the Nextel Cup race scheduled for that weekend, encouraging fans to attend both events.
In December, 2006, NASCAR officials confirmed that Anheuser-Busch, parent company for Busch Beer, will not renew its sponsorship of NASCAR's No. 2 series after the end of the 2007 season.
The series emerged from NASCAR's old Sportsman division, which was formed in 1950 as NASCAR's short track race division. It was NASCAR's third series. The sportsman cars were not current model cars, and could be modified more (but not as much as Modified series cars). [1] It became the Late Model Sportsman series in 1968, and soon featured races on larger tracks, such as Daytona International Speedway. Drivers used obsolete Grand National (now NEXTEL Cup) cars on larger tracks. Grand National cars were required to be less than three years old. Short track cars with relatively small 300 cubic inch V-8 motors were used. Drivers used smaller current year models featuring V6 motors. The cars looked like smaller versions of Cup cars.
The modern-day Busch Series was formed in 1982, when Anheuser-Busch sponsored a newly reformed late-model sportsman series with its Budweiser brand. The series switched sponsorship to Busch in 1984. It was renamed in 1986 to the Busch Grand National Series. The V6 based cars left the series by the mid 1990s. The cars gradually changed to cars just like Cup cars. Grand National was dropped from the series' title in 2003.At the end of the 2007 Busch Series Schedule Busch Beer has said they will not renew their contract with NASCAR. The sport will change from Busch to a different name in 2008.