NASCAR considering further restricting Cup drivers from competing in Xfinity Series races

NASCAR is considering further limiting Cup Series veterans from competing in Xfinity Series races, series director Wayne Auton said Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The proposed limit could restrict drivers with more than five years of Cup experience from entering more than five Xfinity races per a season -- none of which can be during the seven-race playoffs or any of the four Dash 4 Cash races. Currently Cup veterans are permitted to make as many as 10 starts per season in non-playoff or Dash 4 Cash races.

“We have been in talks with teams about even limiting the number of races more or stay where we’re at,” Auton said. “Those conversations are ongoing. Stay tuned. I think some announcements will be coming out here pretty soon on what the garage area has asked us to look at.”

The race cap was enacted this season in Xfinity and the Camping World Truck Series to provide younger drivers greater opportunities to compete and contend for wins. But despite the limitations the results have been mixed, with Cup drivers still routinely winning Xfinity races, including 13 of 17 races this season.

“There are limitations we set forth this year and I think everyone accepted them,” Auton said. “We want to make sure we have 40 race cars on the track every week and 40 competitive cars every week.

“I’m very proud of how our Xfinity drivers have held up this year. They are really driving hard this year to make sure they have a chance to get in the playoffs and go down to Homestead [Miami-Speedway] and get that championship.”

Cup veterans Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch have each recently spoken out on the proposed rule change. Both cited the sponsorship aspect where often companies will only with teams to sponsor a young driver if they can in return get the chance to sponsor a well-known Cup driver in a handful of races.

The sponsorship collected by the likes of Stewart-Haas Racing (Harvick’s team) and Joe Gibbs Racing (Busch’s) also allows those organizations to flourish and continue operate teams in NASCAR’s junior circuit.

“Most of those sponsorships are tied to a Cup guy,” Harvick said Tuesday on SiriusXM Radio. “If they dropped these races to five races like they’re talking to next year, we’ll have to cut two races. There’s probably a million dollars tied to those two races in sponsoring the race, associates on the Cup car, personal services contracts -- a lot of money on the line.

“We need to be very, very careful about cutting all the Cup ties to the series out of (Xfinity) because there is a lot of sponsorship that really probably won’t show up until you get two, three or four years down the road, when these sponsors say, ‘Well, if I can’t have Kyle in the car, I’ll put the money in the Cup car. We’ll just use the Cup car and that will be it because that is what will happen because the price point is becoming increasingly closer as we go through the years from one series to another.”

When Busch was asked about the rule change Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, site of this weekend’s Cup and Xfinity races, the 2015 Cup champion preferred not to discuss the subject further.

“I don’t think that’s a battle that I’ll ever win,” Busch said, “so I’m best off keeping my mouth shut.”