After years of Cup drivers ransacking the decrease divisions for race wins and championships, NASCAR launched a coverage limiting Cup drivers to a most of 5 races in Xfinity and 5 in Vans, whereas additionally forbidding drivers from racing for a number of championships.
On Saturday, NASCAR revealed that they are going to really double the variety of races from 5 to 10 for the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Elements season (presently referred to as the NASCAR Xfinity Sequence). Simply as the present rule states, this is applicable to any Cup drivers with three or extra years of expertise, and these drivers can’t run any playoff races, cutoff races, or the championship finale.
In Vans, the quantity has been elevated from 5 to eight races with the remainder of the principles remaining the identical because the O’Reilly Sequence.
Ross Chastain, the one driver to run the utmost variety of races in each Xfinity and Vans in 2025
Photograph by: James Gilbert / Getty Photographs
The push for limiting Cup stars within the decrease division adopted years of the game’s largest stars dominating the event sequence, with a particular deal with Kyle Busch. He was infamous for it, and he gained typically, which triggered him to be the face of the push to restrict Cup drivers. The coverage has additionally been referred to as the ‘Kyle Busch rule’ by some due to it.
This 12 months, fulltime Cup drivers gained 5 NASCAR Xfinity Sequence races (Kyle Larson, William Byron, Daniel Suarez, and Shane van Gisbergen), whereas they gained simply three Truck races (Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, and Carson Hocevar). Moreover, Ross Chastain was the one driver to run the utmost variety of races in each divisions this 12 months.
Moreover, NASCAR has lowered the minimal age within the O’Reilly Sequence from 18 to 17 years outdated for all highway programs and tracks measuring 1.25 miles in size or much less. You need to nonetheless be 18 or older to race at tracks bigger than that.
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