zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Racing
/
NASCAR Further Limits Big-Name Drivers From Stealing Kids’ Lunch Money In Lower Series
NASCAR Further Limits Big-Name Drivers From Stealing Kids’ Lunch Money In Lower Series-January 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:11:21

Top NASCAR drivers are great at waltzing into lower levels of the sport and beating everyone so badly they’re almost in another zip code. NASCAR made rules to so the series could actually be competitive, and the sanctioning body Tuesday that it’s cutting down even more.

Cup Series drivers trickling into the lower levels to run races is kind of like LeBron James showing up at your local D-League basketball game and scoring more points by himself than the other team did combined. So, NASCAR made some new rules to combat that at the end of 2016.

The rules, which began this season, mandated that Cup Series drivers with more than five years of experience in that top level were only allowed 10 races in the lower-level Xfinity Series and seven in the third-tier Camping World Truck Series each season. For 2018, NASCAR announced that the new rules will cut it down to seven Xfinity races and five Truck Series races for that same group.

It doesn’t stop at just capping the races, either. Just like there are this year, there will also be rules on which races experienced Cup Series drivers can enter in the first place:

The rules also make the regular-season finale and playoff events for the XFINITY Series and Camping World Truck Series in 2018 off limits for any driver earning championship points in the Monster Energy Series, regardless of experience. That marks a change from this year’s guidelines, which stipulate that Cup drivers with five-plus years’ experience are barred from the season-ending eight-race stretch, save for the championship races, which will be exclusive to those series’ participants.

Additionally, the XFINITY Series’ Dash 4 Cash program, an incentive-based four-race stretch with bonus money offered to eligible series regulars, also will be off limits to any Monster Energy Series driver.

The announcement phrased the move as to “highlight its abundance of young talent” while also “limiting the number of lower-division races Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers may enter,” which basically means they’re trying to put the “race” part back into “racing” in the Xfinity Series.

And that’s a good thing. Before the new rules in 2017, the Xfinity Series got hard to watch because of Cup Series driver domination. It makes total sense for those drivers to run the lower-level races if they’re allowed, given that it pays purse money to finish well and they’ll do that, but it makes watching the race so terribly boring.

It also benefits race teams to have the more experienced drivers in lower-level cars, since teams compete for both driver and team championships. The owner championship goes to a race car rather than a driver, and any points scored by drivers in that car count toward the title that no one but the owners cares about.

For the past five years, without any type of race caps on Cup Series drivers, the Xfinity Series owner championship —Team Penske or Joe Gibbs Racing—that put top drivers into their lower-level programs.

In only one of those five years, 2016, did a full-time Xfinity driver’s car win the owner’s championship. All of the others went to the Gibbs No. 18 or the Penske No. 22, which were cars shared by multiple drivers or driven nearly full time by Cup Series regulars during the Xfinity season.

As you can tell, it was getting pretty easy to predict who would win the second-tier Xfinity races every weekend— than Lewis Hamilton on the 2016 F1 grid, and that’s saying something. It was hard to enjoy as a viewer, no matter how much those drivers and teams enjoyed their victory cash.

It was a good move by NASCAR to limit these drivers in the first place, and it’s even better that they’ve cut the strings again. It’s against Cup Series competitors every once in a while, but watching them get pounced on every weekend is a bore.

These are we can all get behind.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Racing
The Best Acura NSX Race Liveries
The Best Acura NSX Race Liveries
Honda has been racing the NSX for about ten thousand years in SUPER GT and the associated paint schemes have been legendary. Above is what the NSX concept is currently running, but there are so many amazing Takata Raybrig, Epson and whatever other liveries out there that I felt like...
Jan 1, 2026
What Would A Chip Ganassi Ford GT Look Like?
What Would A Chip Ganassi Ford GT Look Like?
It's widely accepted that Ford has taken the 3.5L turbo V6 from the Chip Ganassi Daytona Prototype and stuffed it in a road car to make the Ford GT. Chief Engineer Jamal Hameedi admitted as such yesterday. So, here's what the Ford GT would look like in Ganassi's DP livery....
Jan 1, 2026
Watch The Save Of The Millennium From Inside The Car
Watch The Save Of The Millennium From Inside The Car
Back in 2011, Mikko Hirvonen was thisclose to catching up to the Citroëns ahead of him at the Acropolis Rally of Greece. Thisclose, man. So, he started pushing it through Stage 10—perhaps a bit too hard. Here's the onboard view of . Welcome to , a feature where we spend...
Jan 1, 2026
FIA May Un-Screw Honda And Allow In-Season Development Of All F1 Engines
FIA May Un-Screw Honda And Allow In-Season Development Of All F1 Engines
All the non-Mercedes-powered teams in Formula One breathed a huge sigh of relief over a which allows them to keep developing their 2015 engines throughout the year—except Honda, who actually had a named due date for their design. Now the FIA is looking to let Honda develop their engine all...
Jan 1, 2026
The Revolving Door Of Nürburgring Ownership Just Lost The F1 German GP
The Revolving Door Of Nürburgring Ownership Just Lost The F1 German GP
For the past few years, Hockenheim and the Nürburgring have agreed to alternate hosting the Formula One German Grand Prix. 2015 should be the Nürburgring's turn, but the don't have a contract with F1, so the grand prix goes to Hockenheim this year instead. Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone told...
Jan 1, 2026
Watch A Dakar Motorcycle Skip Like A Rock On A Puddle
Watch A Dakar Motorcycle Skip Like A Rock On A Puddle
You know you're really flying when your entire bike skips like a giant rock on the water. Sure, this bike goes down a little in the splash, sure, but he really just seems to bounce over the deepest parts of it. This footage is from an earlier stage a couple...
Jan 1, 2026
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved