Beyond the Flag
Fansided

Should NASCAR hold an annual draft for upcoming drivers in the sport?

By Tyler Callaway

CONCORD, NC - NOVEMBER 07: The 2018 NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Development Class was announced to the media and those drivers are from left, Nick Sanchez, Ryan Vargas, Isabella Robusto, Chase Cabre, Erni Franis, Jr. and Ruben Garcia, Jr. on November 7, 2017 in Concord, North Carolina. (Photo by Bob Leverone/Getty Images)
CONCORD, NC - NOVEMBER 07: The 2018 NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Development Class was announced to the media and those drivers are from left, Nick Sanchez, Ryan Vargas, Isabella Robusto, Chase Cabre, Erni Franis, Jr. and Ruben Garcia, Jr. on November 7, 2017 in Concord, North Carolina. (Photo by Bob Leverone/Getty Images) /
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CONCORD, NC – NOVEMBER 07: The 2018 NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Development Class was announced to the media and those drivers are from left, Nick Sanchez, Ryan Vargas, Isabella Robusto, Chase Cabre, Erni Franis, Jr. and Ruben Garcia, Jr. (Photo by Bob Leverone/Getty Images)
CONCORD, NC – NOVEMBER 07: The 2018 NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Development Class was announced to the media and those drivers are from left, Nick Sanchez, Ryan Vargas, Isabella Robusto, Chase Cabre, Erni Franis, Jr. and Ruben Garcia, Jr. (Photo by Bob Leverone/Getty Images) /

The most exciting event in the NFL or NBA offseason is the draft. Could NASCAR hold their own draft and allow a better opportunity for drivers and teams?

For years, NASCAR has been a maverick in the sports world, always doing things their own way and not falling to usual sports tropes.

However, slowly they have succumbed to the peer pressures of other sports and started implementing more classic sports concepts like playoffs to their divisions.

No longer are the championships only simply based on points accumulated during the whole year.  Now, elimination rounds similar to those in the NFL and NBA are implemented to mixed reviews in the NASCAR fandom.

Up to this point, the good seems to outweigh the bad and NASCAR has fully embraced the playoff lifestyle.

The similarities aren’t stopping there. Last week, Racing Team Alliance founder Rob Kauffman spoke about his involvement in attempting to implement a cap budget that NASCAR teams would follow in order to help balance competition.

The crusade to make NASCAR a more balanced sport shouldn’t stop there.

Nowadays, it’s a modern marvel when a relatively new and small budget team not only wins a race but even comes close to winning a championship. Furniture Row Racing laid out a blueprint that all small teams are trying to copy.

What if NASCAR implemented a system that is used by almost every other professional sports league in the world? A prospect draft.

Each full-time Cup team would receive one draft pick per year to be used on a select group of prospects and would then have the contract rights to the drivers they selected.

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