Amanda Vincent: ‘One series only’ rule continues making strides

It was about this time a year ago that NASCAR announced its “declare one series” rule, a rule that would prohibit drivers from going after championships in multiple series in the same season. According to NASCAR, one of the reasons for the rule was an attempt to place more focus on drivers that were primarily Nationwide Series competitiors.

The new rule went part of the way toward that goal in its first year of implementation, as the series, of course, saw its first Nationwide-only driver in quite some time claim the Nationwide Series champion’s trophy after seasons of Sprint Cup interlopers claiming the Nationwide title.

Approaching year two, it looks like “declare one series” is about to move the spotlight even more onto the Nationwide-only drivers. Why is that? Well, it looks like, probably in large part due to the aforementioned rule, that there aren’t going to be any full-time double duty drivers in 2012.

Both Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards continued to race full-time in the Nationwide Series in 2011, even though they weren’t eligible for the series championship, as they both elected to collect championship points at the Cup level. One of the reasons both drivers gave for the decision to race both Nationwide and Sprint Cup cars full-time in 2011—they had already committed to both full Nationwide schedules by the time the “declare one series” rule was announced.

This time around, though, both drivers headed into the Nationwide-or-not decision for 2012 fully informed of what could and couldn’t be accomplished.

With all the facts, neither driver is opting to race full-time in both series this year. Edwards even went so far as to announce recently that he has no plans at all to race at the Nationwide level in 2012. Keselowski, though, will still show up in Nationwide races here and there, sharing the Penske No. 22 car with Parker Kligerman.

It looks like as this rule embarks on year two, NASCAR is going to get what it was hoping for. Maybe it’s somewhat of a Nationwide Series of old—kind of a reminder of the old Busch Series days. You remember, the days when Cup drivers showed up to race in the series here and there, but they didn’t go so far as to take it over.

Aaahhhh, the good ‘ole days.

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