Before his Nextel Cup victory on Saturday night, Kevin Harvick’s victory Friday in Phoenix made it the 20th of the past 21 Busch Series races won by a driver also competing full time in NASCAR’s top series.

The only exception since Aug. 13 was Clint Bowyer’s win in October at Memphis. Bowyer runs in the Cup series now, but last year he ran only one Cup race while doing a full-time Busch schedule for Richard Childress Racing.

It understandable that many fans object to this “downstream dominance” of NASCAR’s second-tier series by drivers and teams who seemingly stoop to conquer a lower level of competition.

Shouldn’t major-league hitters feast on Class AAA pitching, they reason, or wouldn’t the NBA’s worst team mop the floor with a team from the developmental league?

By that logic, drivers like Harvick, Kurt Busch, or Greg Biffle ought to win every time out in the Busch Series. These Cup drivers have more experience, better equipment and more resources in a sport where all of those factors are critical to success on the track.

This dominance, however, has stripped any stand-alone identity for the Busch Series. And that’s a real problem in many ways, even beyond the distaste fans have developed for this trend.

Beginning next year, ESPN has broadcast rights for the Busch Series.

The cable giant plans to concentrate Busch coverage on ESPN2 and give the series its own on-air look and feel. Can that actually be achieved if it continues to morph into “Cup Lite?”

Then, of course, there’s the developmental question. Most of today’s Cup regulars gained at least some level of experience in a Busch car before jumping into the deepest end of the pool. The drivers who’ve won the past eight Busch championships and the series’ past seven rookie of the year awards are currently in Nextel Cup rides.

The Busch series is where good drivers go to get that valuable “seat time” that has several younger drivers like Reed Sorenson and Denny Hamlin running both Cup and Busch schedules this year. But it’s also where they go to learn to win. If full-time Busch teams can’t win, then only drivers who’ve managed to hitch their wagons to Cup teams that also have Busch operations will get that experience.

Here’s an idea that could solve a lot of these problems.

No Busch Series driver points should be awarded to anyone currently in the top 35 in the Nextel Cup standings. That doesn’t keep Cup drivers from entering races – and make no mistake, track operators who have to sell tickets want Cup drivers racing in Busch shows, too.

No owner points should be awarded, either. If a car owner puts a Cup regular in his Busch car, he does it with the understanding that car has to make the race on speed every week.

That might encourage more potential team owners, ones not quite ready to tackle the challenge of Cup racing, to find the Busch Series financially viable again.