Jason Burgos
Veteran NASCAR Cup, Xfinity, and Truck Series driver and team owner BJ McLeod believes the only way to bridge the growing skill gap between Cup drivers and their counterparts is to let the top stars of the sport compete as much as they want in the Xfinity and Truck Series.
While Xfinity is doing well and has posted improved TV ratings in 2025, there is a growing problem. The divide between Truck and Xfinity, and Cup drivers continues to widen. And there has been a lot of debate on how to fix the problem. To help Truck and Xfinity stars have a more immediate path to success at the next level.
Some feel the growing gap comes down to the car or the talent of the driver. However, McLeod believes the problem actually starts with the level of competition Xifinity drivers face. In 2020, NASCAR imposed a new rule that limited Cup drivers to compete in Xfinity just five times a year. While that helped Xfinity racers win more, the co-owner of Live Fast and BJ McLeod Motorsports (as well as the Pigeon Forge Racing Coaster) believes it also hurt their development.
McLeod claims that if fans want to see Xfinity drivers be better prepared when they jump to the Cup Series, they need to face the best of the best often, just like they used to a decade ago. An idea that NASCAR is rumored to be considering.
“When you look back, and you had Cup drivers racing in Xfinity and Truck [without limits], when the drivers racing against them in Xfinity and Truck moved up, they were automatically better and quicker,” McLeod told Sportsnaut. “I believe the current rule, where Cup drivers are limited in the amount of races they can run, has really deterred a lot of [Cup drivers] away.
“I feel like that has hurt the talent level of drivers in Xfinity and Truck from being able to develop correctly and move to the Cup Series. If Kyle Busch wanted to come out of his $2.5 million bus and go risk his life on a Saturday for two and a half hours for our entertainment, let’s let the guy do it for as many races as he wants,” he added. “And let’s be thankful that someone as good as him has the passion to put on a show for us on Saturday.”
BJ McLeod: ‘Any racer in Xfinity, if you ask any of them, they want to race the Cup drivers’
Those who favor the race limits on Cup drivers would claim it has benefited Xfinity talent and the bank accounts of their teams. However, McLeod says that even if his team wins fewer races with more Cup stars competing in Xfinity, he believes their appearances not only improve driver development but the Series’ bottom line as well.
“Any racer in Xfinity series, any driver, I guarantee, you ask any of them, they want to race the Cup drivers,” says McLeod. “Because every real racer knows the only way you get to be the best is to race the best. When you start looking at the business side of it, yeah, it’ll take wins away from Xfinity drivers. It’s going to take a lot of wins away.”
:… It’s going to change who wins, but it’s going to elevate the whole series if they let Cup drivers come back [more]. When they come down and run more Xfinity and Truck, it brings more sponsorship dollars,” he added. “… Xfinity and Truck are very competitive right now. But it’s not like 10 years ago when you had 12 Cup teams racing in Xfinity with Cup drivers.”
