MOORESVILLE, N.C. — NASCAR announced this morning that they would be imposing, in my humble opinion, rather stiff restrictions on how many races that Cup regulars could run in the XFINITY Series and Camping World Truck Series, beginning in 2017.

I try to make my editorials as honest as I can when I write them, so let me say that the scream I let out when I read that news was so loud that the Eskimos in Timbuktu could probably have heard it.

The noise that escaped me was equal parts excitement, shock and, quite frankly, utter disbelief.

I never thought that we would actually get to this point — a point where we would be talking about an XFINITY Series season coming up that Kyle Busch wouldn’t (and now can’t) be running half or more of the races on the schedule.

Save for the Rowdy fans, I think I speak for most of the collective majority when I say we’ve all complained about this more than once in the last few years: (insert Cup driver’s name here) comes down to the XFINITY or Camping World Truck Series and “steals” a win (or wins) from the regulars who are racing for a championship.

Kyle’s not the only one who’s done it — Brad Keselowski has in the past, Joey Logano’s done it twice this year and Kyle Larson has stepped up his game as well with several XFINITY victories recently — but Rowdy has always been the most proficient at it.

He’s won 42 XFINITY races in the last six years. That’s more than Keselowski and Logano have combined during the same stretch.

But finally, the sanctioning body has heard the pleas of fans and stepped in. Starting next year, the above-mentioned stars (and anyone else with more than five years of Cup experience that’s running full-time at the top level) will be forced to pick just 10 XFINITY races during the regular season that they want to compete in.

Cup drivers are limited to seven starts for the Truck Series, but I’m not as worried about that series since truly, the only two drivers that have really cherry-picked that division recently are Busch (who ran four races this year) and Larson (who won at Eldora in July and usually only runs that race and maybe one more).

The Truck Series has its own identity. The XFINITY Series didn’t. It was simply ‘Cup Light’, for lack of a better term, until now.

NASCAR has always been hesitant to make a move like Wednesday’s for fear that team owners in the lower series “wouldn’t be able to market their seats” to younger talent, as some of those team owners have said.

I’ve always said that was a load of crap. Now NASCAR is finally agreeing and forcing the teams to put their money where their mouths (and younger talent) actually are.

After all, isn’t the XFINITY Series supposed to be the place “Where Names Are Made”?

Yes, there’s a caveat to this in that Cup drivers with less than five years of Cup experience can still run more than 10 races at the XFINITY level, or more than seven races at the Truck level, if they choose to do so, but I feel that is warranted because it allows those younger drivers to gain additional track time while they’re learning how to compete at NASCAR’s highest level. I’m okay with that.

What I’ve not been okay with is guys like Kyle, Brad, Joey and their friends who have been at the Cup level long enough to know better coming back and winning week after week after week … after week. It gets boring and frankly, it sucks and has sucked for a long time.

I’m also not okay with any Cup driver stealing a win from the series regulars in the elimination-format playoff era. Those guys need to be able to win and advance. Now they’ll finally be able to do so, and not just at the standalone races, either.

This rules change finally gives the XFINITY and Truck regulars a chance to build their own identities while still, yes, getting select opportunities to prove themselves against the best stock car drivers in the world. That’s a necessary part of growth as a young driver, too.

So will Busch go out and win 10 races next year in the XFINITY Series? I won’t say he’ll win all of his starts, but he’ll probably win six or seven of them, because that’s just what he does. And yes, Joey and Brad will probably win a race or two themselves.

But they likely won’t be stealing half or two-thirds of the wins from the series regulars during the year, and that’s a breath of fresh air I’m flat thankful to see happen. It’s not a perfect world, but it’s a huge step in the right direction.

And oh, by the way? Let me dispel one more rumor before it gets out of hand.

Wednesday’s announcement wasn’t a reaction made just because of Rowdy’s minor-league dominance. As our good friend The Orange Cone said on Twitter, “It’s a reaction for the health of the series.”

And as far as I’m concerned, it’s about damn time NASCAR made it so.

The opinions expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Race Chaser Online, the Performance Motorsports Network, Scorpion Radio Group, their sponsors or other contributors.

About the Writer

Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network.

Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.

The 22-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.

Email Jacob at: editor@racechaseronline.com

Follow on Twitter: @Speed77Radio or @JacobSeelman77

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