After another thrilling Xfinity race at Dover which saw Justin Allgaier and Elliott Sadler side-by-side and trading paint for the win, and a $100,000 bonus, out of turn four on the final lap we have concluded the Dash-4-Cash portion of the Xfinity Series season. Many people argued that not having the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup competitors in these events would water them down and make them less appealing. I don’t know about you, but to me that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series are both going through a resurgence due to the lack of Cup driver involvement. The Dover race was the 10th race on the 2018 calendar for the Xfinity Series and we have 10 different winners. Cup regulars were eligible to race in the first six events of the season, prior to the Dash-4-Cash races. They won five of those six events with the only non-Cup regular win coming at Daytona. In fact, aside from the Daytona race, there were 713 total laps ran at Atlanta, Vegas, ISM, Auto Club, and Texas and Cup regulars led over 80% of the laps in those events.
The past four weeks have felt refreshing to see what the Xfinity competitors are capable of doing without Cup driver involvement. It can be argued that the past four races were the best four of the season, without a single Cup driver in the field. You’ve saw young drivers getting a shot they otherwise may not have received and trying to make the most of it. Drivers pushing the cars to the edge, and sometimes over the edge. I’ve watched more bump-and-run’s over these past four events than I have the past few years. What you are seeing is hungry drivers with something to prove racing against one another and not trying to beat top level MENCS drivers.
The Xfinity Series is off for two weeks, before returning to Charlotte on May 26th for the Alsco 300. With Cup regulars back in the mix, will we go right back to Cup drivers winning most of the companion events? Would you rather see the Cup drivers race in these Xfinity events, even if they win most of the time? Or would you rather watch races like we’ve saw over these past four weekends?
yes we finally get to see what the lower running teams can do and i like the excitement of the young teams can do. the racing was more exciting because they were racing not playing follow the cup driver
Bonnie, thanks for your comment. I agree 100%. I think we’ve saw that we don’t have to have Cup drivers in the field to have great racing. In fact, the racing has been better without them IMO!
I really enjoy the xfinity races without the monster energy drivers not in there, I don’t believe any monster energy drivers should be allowed in any division, let the new guys have a chance. Thank you
Bill thanks so much for your reply. I agree with you. I know back in the day there were Cup guys in Busch but they didn’t run on the budgets these guys do now. And when Earnhardt and Waltrip were doing it they were mostly running their own developmental stuff. Now you are putting top level Cup guys in the best Xfinity equipment and you see what happens – they lead over 80% of the laps. We don’t see NFL players dipping down on Saturday’s playing for their old college teams.