NASCAR increases races for Cup drivers in lower divisions, lowers age limit

NASCAR has announced a change in policy ahead of the 2026 season, which will allow Cup drivers to run more races in the lower divisions

After years of Cup drivers ransacking the lower divisions for race wins and championships, NASCAR introduced a policy limiting Cup drivers to a maximum of five races in Xfinity and five in Trucks, while also forbidding drivers from racing for multiple championships.

On Saturday, NASCAR revealed that they will actually double the number of races from five to ten for the 2026 NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts season (currently called the NASCAR Xfinity Series). Just as the current rule states, this applies to any Cup drivers with three or more years of experience, and these drivers cannot run any playoff races, cutoff races, or the championship finale.

In Trucks, the number has been increased from five to eight races with the rest of the rules remaining the same as the O'Reilly Series.

Ross Chastain, the only driver to run the maximum number of races in both Xfinity and Trucks in 2025

Photo by: James Gilbert / Getty Images

The push for limiting Cup stars in the lower division followed years of the sport's biggest stars dominating the development series, with a special focus on Kyle Busch. He was notorious for it, and he won often, which caused him to be the face of the push to limit Cup drivers. The policy has also been called the 'Kyle Busch rule' by some because of it.

This year, fulltime Cup drivers won five NASCAR Xfinity Series races (Kyle Larson, William Byron, Daniel Suarez, and Shane van Gisbergen), while they won just three Truck races (Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, and Carson Hocevar). Additionally, Ross Chastain was the only driver to run the maximum number of races in both divisions this year.

Additionally, NASCAR has lowered the minimum age in the O'Reilly Series from 18 to 17 years old for all road courses and tracks measuring 1.25 miles in length or less. You must still be 18 or older to race at tracks larger than that.