NASCAR Cup Series

Larry Mac: The XFINITY Series is broken and it's going to be hard to fix

Published Mar. 25, 2016 9:45 a.m. ET

foxsports

In the last four NASCAR XFINITY Series races, Kyle Busch has led somewhere in the neighborhood of 84 to 85 percent of all the laps run. Trust me, this has been an ongoing debate for a number of years. I do think NASCAR acknowledges it's something they need to be looking at to make the racing more competitive in that series.

One of the branding slogans the NASCAR XFINITY Series uses is, where "Names Are Made." Well, it's pretty hard when one of the superstars from our premier series, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, is driving in these races and he's the only one making a name. That does make it a challenge, but to their credit, NASCAR acknowledges it.

The problem is that NASCAR is in a box. These teams will be the first to tell you that they can sell XFINITY sponsorships but somewhere in that agreement has to be a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver running some of the events. It's simply the facts of life for the NASCAR XFINITY Series.

NASCAR has made a little bit of a move by saying when the XFINITY Series gets to the championship race at Homestead in November, that if you were a 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase driver, you are prohibited from running both the Camping World Truck Series race and the XFINITY Series race at Homestead. So that's a start.

I've said this so much in the past that I know I sound like a broken record. I really don't think the problem is a Sprint Cup driver running in the XFINITY Series for a XFINITY team. I think the real problem is a Cup driver running a XFINITY Series car fielded by a Sprint Cup team. When I walked into the XFINITY Series garage area last weekend at Auto Club Speedway, I noticed that 13 of the top 15 teams in owner points are NASCAR Sprint Cup owners. So to me, that's where the real problem is.

So, how do you fix it? Honestly, I don't think you can fix it. I just don't see how you can fix it. I really don't. Again, to their credit, NASCAR recognizes there is a problem and they are taking a hard look at it. Like I mentioned earlier, they have branded the NASCAR XFINITY Series as where "Names Are Made," and in its current form, it's simply killing the series.