Last week NASCAR made an announcement that would limit Sprint Cup drivers with more that 5 years experience in the Sprint Cup Series from competing in the regular XFINITY Series and Camping World Truck Series season, and prohibit them all in the NXS and CWTS Chase races.
The NASCAR limitation for those Sprint Cup drivers would be that they would only be allowed to compete in a maximum of ten (10) race in the NXS and a maximum of seven (7) races in the CWTS.
On the surface that seems to be the way to put a curtail on a few of the “double dippers”, most notably Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, as well as Brad Keselowski from dominating and winning a majority of the XFINITY and Truck Series races, just to name a few drivers. In the Truck Series that seems to limit Kyle Busch from running away with the victory in most of those races!
But let’s examine that limitation more closely. If a sponsor wanted one or more Sprint Cup drivers in their car there is a way around the limitations.
Let’s just use the JGR No. 18 NXS Toyota as an example. That car, over the years, has been primarily driven by Kyle Busch and sponsored by NOS Energy Drink. With the new limitation of ten races, Busch could drive for the first ten races and abide by that new ruling. Then JGR and NOS could put Denny Hamlin in the seat for ten races, again all within the new rules. Then JGR and NOS could put Matt Kenseth and/or Carl Edwards for the remaining races, minus the Chase races, and still be within the new guidelines!
The end results could be that, with this new ruling a single driver is limited to ten races in the NXS, however the car owner and sponsor could easily sidestep/bypass the intent of the limitation and staff the car with a Sprint Cup driver for most of season!
For the CWTS the limitation is seven races and the above example could easily be installed there as well!
Having illustrated the possible side-stepping of the intended restriction, it is WOMR’s hope that sponsors as well as the race teams will live up to the spirit of this new ruling. It was designed to allow the spotlight to shine on the full-time XFINITY and Truck Series drivers, to promote these up-and-coming young guns of NASCAR and allow them to develop their craft!
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
