MORGAN: Xfinity Series Deserves Full Season Without Cup Drivers

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor

Over the past month, there’s been something different about the NASCAR Xfinity Series – no Cup Series drivers in the field.

Has anyone truly missed them? Because I sure haven’t.

Without the Cup drivers in the field, we’ve truly gotten to see the Xfinity Series reaching toward its true potential on track. No longer did we see a Cup driver easily taking the win, streaking across the finish line seconds ahead of the nearest Xfinity Series regular.

Instead, those that call the Xfinity Series home have been able to put on a show against their peers, running door to door, bouncing off of each other to score a win in NASCAR’s second tier series. The $100,000 Dash4Cash bonus could have played a part in that, but not having Cup drivers running away with the race definitely had a bigger role.

It all started at Bristol, when Ryan Preece was able to take home the win, followed by Christopher Bell at Richmond, Spencer Gallagher at Talladega, and Saturday’s race at Dover that saw JR Motorsports teammates Justin Allgaier and Elliott Sadler going all out for the win.

Up until the last month, all but one race had been dominated by Cup Series drivers and the same is likely to be seen until the end of the regular season and the playoffs when Cup drivers are once again prohibited from running in the Xfinity Series.

This year, NASCAR changed up the rules to only allow the Cup drivers to compete in a certain number of races, but that’s not enough.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’d sure like to see what we’ve seen over the last four weeks continue on for the rest of the season instead of more Cup driver dominance, so it’s time that we kick them out for good.

After all, this is the series with the tag line “Names are made here.” Let’s truly make it the series where drivers can make a name for themselves

Team owners and track promoters may decry the move, saying they can’t get sponsorship for their cars or people in the seats without Cup drivers being able to run, but after what we’ve seen on track the last month, this may be the shot in the arm the series really needs.

Make it an experiment that lasts a year or two and if it doesn’t become the success we all know it can be, revert back to the status quo. At least we can say we tried something.