Amanda Vincent: Will 2010 be the last year of a Cup driver as a Nationwide title holder?

Over the last several seasons, there have been complaints from fans of the NASCAR Nationwide Series regulars and independent teams with no Sprint Cup ties and no Sprint Cup drivers behind the wheels of their race cars about the ever growing number of Sprint Cup drivers competing in the Nationwide Series.

Pretty much since the series began back in 1982, there’s been at least a small handful of Cup drivers that have competed at least occasionally in the Nationwide Series, but in recent years, the number has grown and many of those Cup drivers have added even more Nationwide events to their driving schedules.

There really didn’t seem to be much of an issue years ago when a few drivers like Mark Martin and Jeff Burton ran the occasional Nationwide event here and there. Actually, these drivers were then welcomed with opened arms, as the regulars of the series relished in the opportunity to show their wares and see how they stacked up against the drivers in NASCAR’s top series.

That all changed when more and more Cup drivers invaded the Nationwide garage, and became even more of an issue when some of these Sprint Cup drivers started running full-time or nearly full-time in the Nationwide Series.

Independent Nationwide teams with Nationwide-only drivers began to complain that they couldn’t compete with what were basically Cup teams competing at the Nationwide level, especially ones that also had Cup drivers behind the wheel.

As a matter of fact, one has to go back to 2005 to find a Nationwide Series champion that wasn’t also a full-time Sprint Cup competitor that same season. As for this year, it looks to be more of the same, with two Sprint Cup Series drivers—Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards—as the two frontmen duking it out for the champion’s trophy to be awarded at the end of the season.

It seems as if NASCAR has finally heard the independents’ pleas and is looking at options to end the dominance of what was once referred to as the Buschwhackers back when the series was called the Busch Series.

Word has it that NASCAR is looking at taking measures to make it impossible for a Sprint Cup driver to win the Nationwide Series championship, but how? Of course, it’s not for certain whether or not NASCAR will follow through and actually make it impossible for Cup drivers to win the Nationwide title, but if something is done, perhaps the easiest option would be to just not award Nationwide Series points to full-time Sprint Cup drivers.

Of course there’s still the money issue of Sprint Cup Series-backed teams like Roush Fenway Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing in the Nationwide Series taking purse money away from independents like Braun Racing, Jay Robinson Racing, etc. But that’s a completely different can of worms.

As far as drivers go, this would surely eliminate the phenomenon of Cup drivers running full-time in both the Cup and Nationwide Series, especially on race weekends when the two series are at different tracks. But will it help when the two series race companion events at the same track? After all, it’s that kind of weekend that makes up a majority of race weekends on the Nationwide schedule. Maybe not, but it could put a dent in the perceived problem.