Usage
The term originated in an argument Craig Witkowski had with another user "Tinadog" in the Usenet newsgroup rec.autos.sport.NASCAR in May 1997. Tinadog was against Dale Earnhardt and liked Mark Martin, and Witkowski the reverse. He was especially critical of Martin using his Winston Cup team and resources to beat up on the drivers in the lower Busch Grand National Series. The old western term of "bushwhacker" was morphed into "Busch Whacker".
The term continued in use among the regulars on rec.autos.sport.NASCAR ("rasn" for short), referring now to any driver whose primary ride is in the Cup series and cherry-picks Busch races. The term was picked up by Fox Sports broadcaster Mike Joy, who also participated in the group. After Mike Joy used the term in his broadcasts, it was picked up by other members of the media and found its way into common use. Mike gave credit on the air on lap 64 of the Fox telecast of the Hershey's 300 Busch Series race at Daytona International Speedway in 2005.
Fox later discontinued the use of the term on its telecasts. This may have been done to save face among the critics of this practice, or perhaps because few of the leaders were non-Sprint Cup Series drivers anymore.
The newer term was first used by Fox broadcaster Larry McReynolds initially, as Nationwide is an insurance company, he dubbed the Sprint Cup invaders as "Claim Jumpers", punning off the term of an insurance claim and mining rights.
The practice of Cup drivers who compete in Truck Series events has been referred to as "tail gating", and the drivers referred to as "tail-gators", although this usage is not common.
Read more about this topic: Buschwhacker
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