This past offseason, NASCAR loosened restrictions on what was once known as the "Kyle Busch rule", which focuses on limiting how many O'Reilly Auto Parts Series races and Craftsman Truck Series races full-time Cup Series drivers with at least three years of experience can run each year.
The annual five-race O'Reilly Series limit was lifted to 10, and the five-race Truck Series limit was lifted to eight.
However, based on the exact wording of that announcement from the fall, it was our understanding that all O'Reilly Series and Truck Series action would have concluded for all Cup drivers by this point in the 2026 season, including Cup drivers who don't yet have three years of Cup experience.
Specifically, "NCS drivers [are] ineligible for NOAPS Cut-off, Playoff Races and Championship", and "NCS drivers [are] ineligible for NCTS Cut-off, Playoff Races and Championship race".
These rules are notably not exclusive to drivers with at least three years of experience.
The wording seems fairly clear.
We're not the only ones who read it in what is literally only possible way it could have been read. RACER.com reported that "NASCAR will keep certain restrictions in place, though. In the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, Cup drivers remain ineligible to compete in the regular-season finale and postseason races. The same restrictions also continue to apply for those Truck Series races."
There is only one race remaining on the O'Reilly Series regular season schedule at Daytona International Speedway next weekend, and while the entry list for that race hasn't been released, our focus is on this weekend's Truck Series regular season finale at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
There are three Cup drivers on the entry list for this race, even though, because it is the regular season finale, this is not a race in which Cup Series drivers were initially allowed to compete.
John Hunter Nemechek is set to drive the No. 5 Tricon Garage Toyota, Christopher Bell is set to drive the No. 62 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota, and Connor Zilisch is set to drive the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
Even if drivers with fewer than three years of Cup experience were allowed to compete, only Zilisch, of this trio, would be able to.
This inconsistency was first hinted when Bell missed this past weekend's race at Richmond Raceway. He had been slated to drive the No. 62 truck in this race but was unable to do so after the race needed to be pushed back by a day due to weather, and the team announced that he would compete at Loudon instead, even though it's the regular season finale.
Don't get me wrong; we've always been fans of Cup drivers in lower series races. But what is going on here? Why even change the rule if you're not going to enforce it in year one? Not to mention the fact that this particular rule was actually already in place from (many) past years.
The NASCAR entry list report does state that "It’s the final race of the season in which Cup Series drivers can compete." So it remains true that Cup drivers will be ineligible to run Truck Series playoff races.
But the regular season finale was initially included in those restrictions, yet somewhere along the line, it was dropped.
If NASCAR fans needed any more evidence of inconsistency and the sanctioning body making it up as they go (which, even if there was a silent rule change at some point this year, is literally exactly what this is), I'm not sure you can find a better example. Or maybe you can.
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