Getty Zane Smith prepares for qualifying at Talladega Superspeedway.
The traditional path to the NASCAR Cup Series has gone through the Xfinity Series. This may no longer be the case due to the uniqueness of the Next Gen car and how it handles specific tracks.
The hosts of “Door, Bumper, Clear” were the first to make this point. They explained in their post-Martinsville episode that the Xfinity Series no longer prepares drivers for the Cup Series like it did in the past. There are just more similarities in how the Craftsman Truck Series entries and the Next Gen cars handle dirty air.
Reigning Truck Series champion Zane Smith agreed with this sentiment, and he went a step further by comparing the level of competition to that in the Xfinity Series. He indicated that the Truck Series is actually tougher in 2023.
“I mean, I totally agree,” Smith said at Talladega Superspeedway. “And, I mean, you hear people talk about — competition-wise — but I feel like from the past four years that the Truck Series is on par with and even been tougher than the Xfinity Series.
“You see a lot of guys in the Trucks that can’t win, and they go to Xfinity and win a couple so I don’t think that’s the case. And I feel like the Cup car’s so far apart from anything, but I feel like if it’s going to be closest to anything it’s gonna be the truck.”
Front Row Motorsports Embraced This New Path
GettyTodd Gilliland waves to fans at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Having drivers go straight from the Craftsman Truck Series to the Cup Series is not normal. Kurt Busch did it back in 2001 after a four-win season in a Jack Roush-owned truck, but the normal path for drivers has gone through the Xfinity Series.
Front Row Motorsports has taken a different approach in recent seasons. The team moved Todd Gilliland directly from the Truck Series up to the Cup Series ahead of the 2022 season. He has since delivered five top-10 finishes and one top-five. The team has also put reigning Truck Series champion Zane Smith in the No. 38 for several Cup Series races.
What is the driving force behind these moves? Is there a tangible benefit to moving drivers directly from the Truck Series, or were they based on the lack of an Xfinity Series program at Front Row Motorsports?
One answer is due to the newness of the Next Gen car. FRM knew that there would not be as steep of a learning curve for Gilliland because he would be learning the new car at the same time as the other Cup Series drivers.
“That is interesting, because, I mean, that was exactly our mindset, right?” Gilliland said at Talladega Superspeedway. “When [the new car] came out, it was like, ‘This is completely new.’ I guess we didn’t know how it was gonna race. But for us, that’s what, I guess, our strategy was.
“And it’s worked out. I feel like you’re learning at the same time as everybody else. And now we talked about the superspeedways are like trucks, the mile-and-a-halfs at times. So I feel, honestly, like I didn’t really miss out on anything necessarily by not running the Xfinity cars except that they look really fun.”
“I don’t know if that was their plan, but it’s worked out,” Smith added. “So they definitely got a good program going, and I think some of the future things that they want to do, it’ll work out.
“Who knows what package NASCAR is going to choose to go with for the future — I feel like it’s always changing — but as of right now, I feel like they’ve got a solid foundation and program of how you can run a truck and hopefully one day be in the Cup car.”
There Is Another Potential Reason for This Truck to Cup Path
The conversation about the path from the Truck Series to the Cup Series has focused on the aero packages and how different drivers can control the air to block drivers behind them. However, Brad Keselowski presented another reason why the Xfinity Series was so important — the competition.
“I think I see things that make it easier to go from Truck to Cup,” Keselowski said. “You know, it used to be you had to run the Xfinity Series because you needed to race against Cup drivers to get better. But now that the Cup drivers barely participate, you’re not getting that out of that series anymore so it’s not as important.
“As far as the correlation to the vehicles, eh, you could probably argue either way. But it’s probably more about not racing the Cup drivers in Xfinity has really leveled the two series.”
To Keselowski’s point, there is not as much crossover between the series. The Hendrick Motorsports drivers make limited starts in the Xfinity Series, primarily at road courses, while Busch makes five starts each year in the Craftsman Truck Series. He also added five Xfinity Series starts to his schedule in 2023.
This is a far cry from the days when Kevin Harvick, Keselowski, Joey Logano, Busch, and many of their peers would make several starts in the Xfinity Series. Busch, in particular, even won the 2009 Xfinity Series championship while competing full-time in the Cup Series. He did so by beating out Carl Edwards, who ran full-time in both series.
There are multiple potential reasons why certain teams would choose to move drivers directly from the Truck Series to the Cup Series. The true answer will likely remain unknown, but there is a possibility that this trend could continue in coming seasons if Front Row Motorsports begins regularly contending for top-10 finishes and top-fives.