Although Sprint Cup drivers have won 25 of 32 Nationwide Series races this season, don’t expect NASCAR to enact rule changes to curb the practice of Cup drivers double-dipping in the Nationwide and Truck Series.
NASCAR Homestead 2013: NASCAR president gives state of sport update
Expect to see Sprint Cup drivers continuing to run Nationwide Series races, and a shakeup of the Cup schedule could be on the horizon, according to NASCAR president Mike Helton.
Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports
NASCAR president Mike Helton reaffirmed that it’s the sport’s “best interests to have an open model for its three national series and not restrict who participates in them.” This is in spite of current Nationwide points leader Austin Dillon having yet won a race, while Sam Hornish Jr., who is ranked second, has just one victory this season. Overall. seven of the top-10 drivers in the standings are winless.
Johnson, Kenseth, Harvick keep things friendly
An air of friendliness hangs over the three championship challengers with one race to go in the NASCAR season. “Our general philosophy is to make our products be competitive and open,” Helton said. “And we want to have the best competition if it’s for 400 miles or 300 miles and the guy who ends up in Victory Lane is the guy who deserves to be there. If the guy that wins the championship deserves to be the champion, whether he has a win or not, the emphasis was on him earning the championship as opposed to earning a win.”
Helton made his remarks during the traditional press conference held the Friday of championship weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
During the question-and-answer session with the media, Helton touched on a variety of topics. Chief among them, changes to the Cup schedule could be forthcoming for 2015, which coincides with NBC taking over television coverage from ABC/ESPN of the second half of the season.
Helton wouldn’t elaborate specifically, but did appear open to overhauling a schedule, which many feel is bloated with races on intermediate-sized tracks. Kevin Harvick suggested Thursday he would like to see a road course added to the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup.
“We’re always anxious, as well as some of the promoters are anxious, to mix it up, if you will, to make it work better,” Helton said. “But as we go forward I couldn’t sit here and tell you what ‘15 definitely would look like other than to take ‘13 and ‘14 as a basis and then see what happens.
“When we first started the Chase, we said that we weren’t going to change the schedule to fit the Chase, but that was 10 years ago. Things change, and you never know what may or may not happen. While we may not think it needs to be tweaked or changed, others have influence on our decision to make it better. And certainly we keep an open mind of that.”
Other topics covered by Helton Friday:
- NASCAR is happy with the Generation 6 Car, which was introduced this season. However, the sanctioning body would like to see improvements in how the car races on intermediate tracks and will continue working teams to find the right aero package.
- The fallout from Michael Waltrip Racing manipulating the outcome of the Richmond race was “a defining moment.” And Helton reiterated that NASCAR acted properly and “we’re confident in what we did.”“Certainly because of the uniqueness of having a 13th competitor in the Chase, it made a difference on the 2013 Chase format,” Helton said. “We did it with a lot of thought and engagement by a lot of people in the business to make sure we took the next step correctly to decide what we needed to do and then go on, but I think we’ve moved on.”
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