Off-Topic Forum

Last I heard, a decade or more ago....

A driver was allowed 5 races in a season

before his Rookie year to qualify....

But the way Nascar changes rules, who knows....

I agree that Bubba did have a lot of speed last week. I hadn't back in this thread for a few days to see the messages. I do agree that Hamlin would have did the same for Bubba that Logano did for Harvick. I just thought it was somewhat interesting how Logano helped Harvick instead of his teammate when the opportunity came at the end for Blaney. Should be interesting today also. I think there is a good chance that Gibbs does end up in the #18 next season although Kyle Busch should be entitled to it if he wants it due to being in it for so long. Hopefully, Kurt can recover soon though. I was thinking the rule was 5 races also before for a driver was technically ROY contender.

Another race that goes by, without looking like a real race.....

And again, Chastain did what Chastain does.....

Coverage was really blah.... Almost half the race was done

before they did a side by side during commercials... Only a couple times after that...

Truck Race on Sat night, don't recall them (even once), showing the position run down past 20th....

Watched the first few interviews after the race and didn't get a run down of finishing spots...

I do believe that the 5 races prior to a Rookie Year in Cup has been moved to a higher number now. It's not a much higher number, but I still think it is above 5 races now. I think that started when NASCAR limited Cup teams to only 4 cars on a regular basis. Any Cup team can still field an extra car over their regular number for up to 5 races in a season for driver development. RCR is the most recent team to use that with the #33 car as they are trying to figure out who will replace Reddick after next season. JGR got lucky to not need that provision to get Ty Gibbs in a car due to Kurt's concussion, but they could have actually used 2 of them since they are affiliated with 23XI as well. Again, I'm not sure on the number and NASCAR doesn't really make it easy to find that info anymore. I do know that no Cup driver is allowed more than 5 races in the NXS or Truck Series now and I am glad they finally made that restriction several years ago. They also aren't allowed to race in any of the Playoff races for those series. I loved when that change was made, but nearly all the drivers that were taking advantage of being able to challenge for multiple titles have retired now. Only "Rowdy" and "Happy" are left now of the drivers that tried to win titles in multiple levels in the same years.

I'm going to throw out something that nobody is talking about yet with Kyle Busch. He knows that Ty Gibbs is coming to JGR and very soon. If JGR isn't going to lock up Busch for a few years, that might be the hold-up in contract negotiations. Busch might be looking to buy into another team to be an owner/driver like Stewart did in 2011 when he merged himself with Haas CNC. I really could see Kyle buying into Spire Motorsports if the sponsorship is there. Kyle easily has the money to buy into any team by now, but he's not stupid. Sponsorship needs to be there across the team for all cars in the team  He could also buy into Kaulig Racing. Their 1st year in Cup has been pretty competitive with the #16 and #31 cars. I would NOT be surprised to see Rowdy merge himself into either company and pilot the #16 or #77 cars next season. JGR seems to be dragging their feet with Kyle, but maybe he is working on something outside of JGR and making sure it will work before he commits to it or to JGR! What do you guys think about this???

I do think that Spire is a potential candidate for Kyle to go to since I have heard rumors that Rowdy Energy (Kyle's energy drink through Monster Energy) is a potential sponsor for the Spire team next season. Also heard rumors that Spire has purchased rights to the #51 car in Cup next season. Seems like a bit of a coincidence since that is one of the #'s Kyle Busch has ran for years in the trucks. Just my opinion, but I do not see Kyle Busch making a deal with JGR and expect him to explore his options to Chevrolet (much like he started his career when at Hendrick in the #5), especially since he has claimed that the Toyotas can't keep pace with Chevrolet this season and he feels they are the ones to beat every week.

I agree100% i have said for a few weeks now he will not be retruning back to Gibbs. Which is to bad but I think he is going to ownn some of the team much the same as Brad did. But till its annouced I guess we wait and see. 

I heard today that Kurt Busch will not only miss the race at the Glen this weekend but also the race in Daytona on the 28th. Sooooo, how does he make the playoffs now if there is a new winner in each race. He does have a playoff provisional from NASCAR due to the injury, but is that enough to keep him in the playoff picture if there are 17 race winners? He would certainly be out by points for the season for all single-race winners. Would they go by seniority and put him in while kicking Cindric out since he's a rookie?! Not sure what plan is in place for this scenario. Ty Gibbs has been announced as the driver of the #45 car for both races.

As for Rowdy, still no news, which leads me to think that he really is working on something elaborate. I say that Ty replaces him in the #18 for the 2023 season and Rowdy announces something along the lines of what I said earlier somewhat soon, probably right when the regular season ends. Ty Gibbs has certainly proved that he is ready for the Cup Series over the past month filling in for Kurt. I don't see why Joe would wait now since most of his stable is much older. Truex and Hamlin will not race for much longer and Hamlin has the option to switch to his own team if he wants to do so. Aside from Hendrick, lots of things will be changing with the teams over the next couple of years.

The Rookie limit changed when they made it you had to declare what series you are chasing points in. I'm not sure what the threshold is now and I'm not even sure there is one. It may just be the first year you declare for that series.  

"First year you declare" isn't it either. Chastain was not allowed to run for ROY due to too many starts over many years. Justin Haley was also not allowed to run for ROY for the same reason. He won a Cup race a couple of years ago and couldn't even get in the playoffs b/c he was declared for NXS so he earned no points. I said before that declaring for a single series is when the races-run limit changed, but we still don't know what that number is right now. I want to say that it is twelve races over a couple of seasons. I don't know the single season limit though. I guess we will find out when Ty Gibbs gets to Cup since he will have run at least 6 races this season before Kurt returns to the #45 car.

If a driver does run for ROY the year...

How many races are counted.... Used to be 15....

How are points given... Used to be highest finisher got 10.. plus 1 if finished in top 10 (up to 10 for a winner)....

Reports going around about rule changes to what can be covered with the film used on cars and something

about windshields.....