Silly Season 2024

StandOnIt said:
Probably should read the rules. Drivers with less than three seasons can run the lower series at will. But again if designated as a cup driver...see below.

NASCAR has once again reduced the pool of Cup Series drivers eligible to compete in Xfinity and Trucks and the number of races in which they may participate.
Beginning next season, drivers with more than three fulltime seasons in the Cup series will be limited to five races each year in both Xfinity and Trucks.
In addition, any drivers earning points in the Cup series are barred from running in the regular-season finale and all playoff races in each series as well as the Xfinity Series Dash 4 Cash races and the three races which comprise the Triple Truck Challenge.
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I was aware of the rules…….. thanks for the reminder?
 
The Nature Boy said:
The boys over at Reddit are still convinced that SVG is going to take Suarez's ride.
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Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson dueling it out on a 1.5 miler in the Xfinity car sounds like good stuff but the fans know all about Sam Mayer & Sammy Smith & Chandler Smith!

Idk, my opinion. Everyone gets a participation trophy when your sponsors & business CEO is bringing in $$$.
 
The Nature Boy said:
There's no Silly Season 2025 thread, but people over there are convinced that SVG is going to be in Cup in 2025 and Suarez is going to be out. There's no real basis for the rumor, just wish fulfillment from the SVG fanboys.

I was trying to steer the thread towards Silly Season talk.
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Confusing, I was just reading a Suarez thread and not a word about SVG was mentioned. :idunno:
 
StandOnIt said:
Confusing, I was just reading a Suarez thread and not a word about SVG was mentioned. :idunno:
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Scroll further down. There’s literally a thread where one guy posits that Trackhouse hiring additional drivers puts Suarez on the hot seat and another where someone asks why keep Suarez when SVG is right there.
 
The Nature Boy said:
Scroll further down. There’s literally a thread where one guy posits that Trackhouse hiring additional drivers puts Suarez on the hot seat and another where someone asks why keep Suarez when SVG is right there.
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Yeah Suarez is locked into the playoffs guaranteed at least a top 15 overall for the year, that's money owners points. Some really don't know the sport very well.
 
The Nature Boy said:
The boys over at Reddit are still convinced that SVG is going to take Suarez's ride.
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Suarez looks to be in better shape right now but I don’t think it’s as simple as being locked in for the future after one win at a drafting track. Hopefully he keeps making noise across the rest of the schedule and can advance at least a round in the playoffs.

Also depends a lot on how much development SVG and Zane show over the course of their campaigns.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Suarez looks to be in better shape right now but I don’t think it’s as simple as being locked in for the future after one win at a drafting track. Hopefully he keeps making noise across the rest of the schedule and can advance at least a round in the playoffs.

Also depends a lot on how much development SVG and Zane show over the course of their campaigns.
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Locked in for this year. ;)
 
FLRacingFan said:
Suarez looks to be in better shape right now but I don’t think it’s as simple as being locked in for the future after one win at a drafting track. Hopefully he keeps making noise across the rest of the schedule and can advance at least a round in the playoffs.

Also depends a lot on how much development SVG and Zane show over the course of their campaigns.
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I think Zane gets at least a couple of years in the 71 (and I think it's likely that Trackhouse brings that team in house at some point). SVG is such a huge wild card right now since we know virtually nothing about his talents on ovals. He could ace it right out of the gate or there could be a huge learning curve. Given the difficulty that even guys who dominate Xfinity (like Cindric, Briscoe, or Custer) had with transitioning with Cup, I would think he'd need at least 2 years in Xfinity to get a handle on it. The learning curve to Cup seems EXTREMELY steep. The jump in quality of competition is huge.

I could be wrong and SVG is a savant who picks up oval racing immediately but I would think he'd need a couple of full time Xfinity seasons before jumping up.
 
racingfan7 said:
No, it’s not like football at all. Nobody ever said these Xfinity & Truck drivers can’t race these Cup drivers extra hard.

I don’t hear other drivers whining about Kyle Larson driving sprint cars.
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Once again, anybody that whines about Larson would probably get tarred and feathered. You also seemed to misread my football analogy. It has nothing to do with racing Cup drivers hard, t's about getting your ass handed to you by Cup drivers and having to pretend you like it. I honestly don't know how much anybody learns from Kyle Busch being in Track races, because he is usually in a different Zip Code than the rest of the pack. I guess you learn what a Silverado back bumper looks like when it's three seconds in front of you.
 
The Nature Boy said:
I think Zane gets at least a couple of years in the 71 (and I think it's likely that Trackhouse brings that team in house at some point). SVG is such a huge wild card right now since we know virtually nothing about his talents on ovals. He could ace it right out of the gate or there could be a huge learning curve. Given the difficulty that even guys who dominate Xfinity (like Cindric, Briscoe, or Custer) had with transitioning with Cup, I would think he'd need at least 2 years in Xfinity to get a handle on it. The learning curve to Cup seems EXTREMELY steep. The jump in quality of competition is huge.

I could be wrong and SVG is a savant who picks up oval racing immediately but I would think he'd need a couple of full time Xfinity seasons before jumping up.
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And nobody knows what Justin Marks is going to do with either of them. Out of all of the owners, Marks is the least predictable. He has both Smith and SVG under some kind of convoluted contracts, who knows if he can hold on to either.
 
Formerjackman said:
Once again, anybody that whines about Larson would probably get tarred and feathered. You also seemed to misread my football analogy. It has nothing to do with racing Cup drivers hard, t's about getting your ass handed to you by Cup drivers and having to pretend you like it. I honestly don't know how much anybody learns from Kyle Busch being in Track races, because he is usually in a different Zip Code than the rest of the pack. I guess you learn what a Silverado back bumper looks like when it's three seconds in front of you.
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Yeah Kyle’s Mr. Golden Horseshoe to his fans with blind loyalty sometimes. 🙄

I never said drivers need to like it, but drivers make a name for themselves more often when they beat Cup Series drivers.
 
racingfan7 said:
Yeah Kyle’s Mr. Golden Horseshoe to his fans with blind loyalty sometimes. 🙄

I never said drivers need to like it, but drivers make a name for themselves more often when they beat Cup Series drivers.
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It has never been predicated that a truck driver has to beat a cup driver to get anywhere. They mostly don't when Kyle Busch is in the race. It was even worse when the truck series was clogged with cup drivers driving for cup teams. The count was down, smaller teams couldn't afford to compete. People have short memories.
 
Formerjackman said:
Once again, anybody that whines about Larson would probably get tarred and feathered. You also seemed to misread my football analogy. It has nothing to do with racing Cup drivers hard, t's about getting your ass handed to you by Cup drivers and having to pretend you like it. I honestly don't know how much anybody learns from Kyle Busch being in Track races, because he is usually in a different Zip Code than the rest of the pack. I guess you learn what a Silverado back bumper looks like when it's three seconds in front of you.
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It’s about optics. This is about promoting top tier Xfinity & Truck racing and not demoting yourself as a minor league product. They had the right idea with the Bounty deal in 2020.

Also the Tennessee Lottery 250 in 2021 was a memorable race between Justin Allgaier in the 7 & Kyle Busch in the 54, btw.

Kyle Busch HAS been getting beat by Truck Series drivers:

2022 (1/5 wins)
2nd to Chandler Smith - Las Vegas
3rd to Zane Smith - COTA

2023 (2/5 wins)
2nd to Zane Smith - COTA
2nd to Corey Heim - Martinsville
7th to Grant Enfinger - Kansas
 
All I know, I personally enjoy the lower series races without cup guys in it more. Yeah it’s cool when they beat the Cuppers, but I honestly rather watch the people racing for points and championships, be the ones winning the races. Everyone’s entitled to feel how they wanna feel, and this is just my personal preference.
 
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Blaze said:
All I know, I personally enjoy the lower series races without cup guys in it more. Yeah it’s cool when they beat the Cuppers, but I honestly rather watch the people racing for points and championships, be the ones winning the races. Everyone’s entitled to feel how they wanna feel, and this is just my personal preference.
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Those are valid points, but it’s been turning into the Smith’s Series.
 
racingfan7 said:
Yeah Kyle’s Mr. Golden Horseshoe to his fans with blind loyalty sometimes. 🙄

I never said drivers need to like it, but drivers make a name for themselves more often when they beat Cup Series drivers.
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Yeah, if it actually happens, but seldom does. Usually if the Cup driver gets beat, it's because they some issue too great to overcome, which proves nothing.
 
Racing against drivers with a greater talent set than your own is absolutely an important learning tool.
 
Old 97 said:
Racing against drivers with a greater talent set than your own is absolutely an important learning tool.
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Yes and you prove you are good enough to earn the opportunity to learn against them by beating those on your level first. Not by them coming to your level.
 
kkfan91 said:
There's smoke behind Hendrick and Caruth, I know I heard Rick was calling him after races. Wouldn't not surprise me if he ends up at JR Motorsports in the next couple years.
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One thing is for sure, I'm not aware of ANY car owner that has done more to support drivers that don't even drive for him, or support teams he doesn't have an ownership stake in than Rick Hendrick has. Back on topic, I like Rajah, and hope he can continue to progress forward. I hope he DOES end up at JRM.
 
I was listening to Marshall Pruett’s weekly IndyCar podcast this morning and he sounds pretty confident Honda will be announcing they’re joining NASCAR imminently.

I know the fourth manufacturer has been teased for what seems like forever but he’s usually pretty well-sourced and has good relationships with people at HRC US.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I was listening to Marshall Pruett’s weekly IndyCar podcast this morning and he sounds pretty confident Honda will be announcing they’re joining NASCAR imminently.

I know the fourth manufacturer has been teased for what seems like forever but he’s usually pretty well-sourced and has good relationships with people at HRC US.
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If that happens, I'll be very curious to see what teams align with Honda. I would imagine they would grab one or two existing teams, and we could possibly see a new team as well.

I really wish NASCAR would expand to 40 charters. If they determined an "expansion fee" for a new charter, and that money was split amongst all existing team owners, would anyone have a problem with that?
 
2 Sweet said:
I really wish NASCAR would expand to 40 charters. If they determined an "expansion fee" for a new charter, and that money was split amongst all existing team owners, would anyone have a problem with that?
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Only the same people who already don't like the charters anyway.
 
2 Sweet said:
If that happens, I'll be very curious to see what teams align with Honda. I would imagine they would grab one or two existing teams, and we could possibly see a new team as well.

I really wish NASCAR would expand to 40 charters. If they determined an "expansion fee" for a new charter, and that money was split amongst all existing team owners, would anyone have a problem with that?
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I think the existing charter agreement has a mechanism for NASCAR to create new charters in the instance a new OEM joined, and I’d imagine it would be the case for the next agreement as well.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I think the existing charter agreement has a mechanism for NASCAR to create new charters in the instance a new OEM joined, and I’d imagine it would be the case for the next agreement as well.
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Great point. Right now it sure seems like the demand is outweighing the supply, which is a good problem to have. And expanding seems like a logical move if another OEM joins.

I miss the days of 43-car fields.
 
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