NASCAR Building to Future with New 2018 Participation Guidelines

Posted on August 1, 2017
NASCAR Logos
(Logos courtesy of NASCARmedia.com)

NASCAR has announced new 2018 Participation Guidelines that put an emphasis in building to the future of the sport.

Recently some of the biggest names of the stock car racing world have hung up their driver’s suits for the top division in NASCAR. Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards have all retired in the past few years. At the end of this season Dale Earnhardt Jr. will retire from full-time competition in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

That has and will leave open seats that need to be filled by young drivers that can become the future stars of the sport. It appears that NASCAR sees the need to make sure those future stars a re getting the chance to get the experience needed in the lower divisions of the sport.

Many of the top drivers in the cup series have taken over a car in the lower division races for many of the race weekends across the nation. While there is advantage to having the bigger names in those cars for fans to watch, it takes seat time away from the drivers who need the experience and laps to eventually move up to the top division with NASCAR.

In the official press release about the new guidelines for the 2018 season, Jim Cassidy, senior vice-president of racing operations says, “Fans have made it clear that they want to see the future stars of the sport racing against their peers in the NASCAR XFINITY Sereis (NXS) and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS). These guidelines achieve that and preserve limited opportunities for developing drivers to compete against the best in motorsports.”

What are the new guidelines? Here are the bullet points of the 2018 NASCAR Participation Guidelines…

Full-Time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Drivers with 5+ Years…

  • CANNOT Run More Than 7 NXS Races
  • CANNOT Run More Than 5 NCWTS Races

ANY Full-Time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Drivers

  • CANNOT Compete in Dash 4 Cash Races
  • CANNOT Compete in NXS and NCWTS Playoff Races

The press release states that the new guidelines will, “further highlight the young talent battling for championships in the NASCAR XFINITY Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.”

What do you think about the new NASCAR Participation Guidelines for the 2018 season?

By: Buck Stevens

Headlines