How to fix the developmental series

Here's my fix:

For the national touring series, there need to be stricter limits on competition for Cup-related individuals. In the Xfinity Series, in an effort to keep spending lower and get more new teams involved, I'd institute a cap of 3 cars per team (keep it at 4 for Cup.) I'd change the schedule so that there were no companion events, and only about half of the races are even run on Cup tracks. The rest would be run on different tracks (mainly short tracks) around the country, in potentially untapped markets. Next, I'd make a rule that any individual could not compete in two national touring series events on the same weekend. That means no driver, owner, crew chief, pit crew member, etc. could be in 2 series on the same weekend. I'd eliminate drivers having to declare a series for the whole year, but I would make them choose each weekend. They could run half the Cup races and half the Xfinity races and earn points in both series, though. In the trucks, I'd make a 2-truck cap per team, and would have no companion events with Cup or Xfinity. About 1/3 of the races would be on Cup tracks, and another 1/3 would be on tracks that host Xfinity but not Cup races. The other third would be at truck-only tracks (again, mainly short tracks) around the country. The same rules would apply for trucks as for Xfinity.

For the regional series, I'd make it 1 "series" with 4 divisions: North, South, East and West. Each team would be capped at 1 car per team. The same rules would apply here in terms of who could compete in each series. Also, a driver could not compete in more than 1 regional/international series event per weekend. Since these races aren't usually televised live, I wouldn't mind them being companion events to Cup, Xfinity or Truck races, so that those drivers could get more exposure to fans. I'd make about 1/4 of the races Cup companion events, 1/4 Xfinity companion events, 1/4 Truck companion events and 1/4 standalones.

In would also expand the international series. I'd keep the same rules as for the regional series, but there would be 7 international series: Canada, Mexico/Central America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia/Oceania & Africa. That could potentially open NASCAR up to larger markets across the world and help it gain popularity in other places. Obviously, these would all be standalone races, because the other series wouldn't (for the most part) race in these countries.

Another thing I'd do is implement a scholarship program. The winner of each international series would get a scholarship to move to one of the regional US series. The winners of each of the regional series would get a scholarship to move to Trucks. Truck champion would get a scholarship for Xfinity, Xfinity winner would get a scholarship for Cup. These scholarships would apply to the driver (giving him/her funding to run a full season in the next series up) but also to the team (giving that team the potential to run at least 1 car/truck in the next series up.)

For regulations, I'd make the cars in each series as close as possible to "stock" cars, with the necessary safety considerations taken, as well. I'd cap spending per team in each series (don't know how much, because I don't have all the financial data in front of me right now.) Obviously the cap for a 4-car team would be 4x the cap of a 1-car team, and so on.

Another thing I'd change is the age limits. I'm fine with keeping it at 18 for Cup, but I'd change it to 17 for Xfinity, 16 for Trucks and 15 for regional/international series, at all tracks. Rookie eligibility would be as follows: 5+ starts in Cup, 4+ starts in Xfinity, 2+ starts in trucks and 1+ start in regional/international series would disqualify you from the award. Drivers wouldn't have to "declare" for ROTY, but would be automatically entered if they passed the starts limit.

As for scheduling, I'd make the local/international series schedules about 10 races apiece. Trucks would be 20, Xfinity 30 and Cup 40. I'd get rid of charters in Cup, get rid of stages and get rid of the playoffs. Tracks would only get 1 date on the schedule in each series (the exception being a track like Charlotte, if they wanted to run the Roval.) I'd make qualifying completely open, with no charters, provisionals or automatic lock-ins. Cup field would be 50 cars, Xfinity field would be 40 cars, Truck field would be 30 trucks, regional/international field size would be 20.

There would be an All-Star Weekend on either the last weekend of June or the first weekend of July every year. It would rotate between each Cup venue every year. I'd bring back the pit crew competition, and have one for each level. I'd also have All-Star Races for each series at the same track. The cars in each All-Star event would be prepared at the same place, sort of like how IROC used to be, so all the drivers would be on a level playing field. On Wednesday, I'd have all 11 regional/international all-star races. They'd be reserved for the previous/current season's winners and a fan vote winner. The Truck All-Star Race would be on Thursday, and would be the past/current season's winners, 2 fan vote winners and the winner of each regional/international all-star race. The Xfinity All-Star Race would be on Friday, and would have the past/current season's winners, 3 fan vote winners and the top 2 finishers from the Truck Series All-Star Race. The Cup All-Star Race would be Saturday night and have the previous/current season's winners, 4 fan vote winners and the top 3 finishers from the Xfinity All-Star Race. There would be no "qualifying" for these races, and instead there would be a random draw one hour prior to the green flag to determine where each driver would start. This would give some regional/international drivers the opportunity to really showcase their skills if they could advance through the All-Star Races. Same with Truck/Xfinity drivers. And we'd get to see what someone like Matt DiBenedetto, who could win a fan vote in Cup, could do in equal equipment to the Cup stars, since they would be in equal cars.

Here are the points systems I'd use for each series:

Position-Cup/Xfinity/Truck/regional&international
1st-156/106/66/36
2nd-149/100/61/32
3rd-143/95/57/29
4th-137/90/53/26
5th-131/85/49/23
6th-125/80/45/20
7th-120/76/42/18
8th-115/72/39/16
9th-110/68/36/14
10th-105/64/33/12
11th-100/60/30/10
12th-96/57/28/9
13th-92/54/26/8
14th-88/51/24/7
15th-84/48/22/6
16th-80/45/20/5
17th-76/42/18/4
18th-72/39/16/3
19th-68/36/14/2
20th-64/33/12/1
21st-60/30/10
22nd-57/28/9
23rd-54/26/8
24th-51/24/7
25th-48/22/6
26th-45/20/5
27th-42/18/4
28th-39/16/3
29th-36/14/2
30th-33/12/1
31st-30/10
32nd-28/9
33rd-26/8
34th-24/7
35th-22/6
36th-20/5
37th-18/4
38th-16/3
39th-14/2
40th-12/1
41st-10
42nd-9
43rd-8
44th-7
45th-6
46th-5
47th-4
48th-3
49th-2
50th-1

There would be 1-point bonuses for winning the pole, leading a lap, leading the most laps and having the fastest lap in a race. The maximum number of points you could earn would be 160 in a Cup race, 110 in an Xfinity race, 70 in a Truck race and 40 in a regional/international race.

The reason for these changes I've outlined here is that the developmental series should really be a place where new drivers/teams/crew members/tracks get a chance to shine. What the Xfinity Series turned into years ago (and the Truck Series within the last 10 years, too) is so often a Cup driver driving for a Cup team with a Cup pit crew winning at a Cup track. That's not the way it should be. These changes would make the sport a lot more accessible for new teams and drivers. It would be harder for drivers to buy their way into the sport and stay there for years without results. It would be harder for teams to stick around in Cup with no results just because they have a charter. This would really bring out the talented individuals and help them succeed at the sport's highest level.