Who Stands To Benefit Most From Additional NASCAR Cup Practice Time?

NASCAR will expand practice for Cup Series teams, beginning at New Hampshire Motor Speedway next month, and a couple of key groups stand to gain from the change.

Connor Zilisch, who has struggled mightily in his NASCAR Cup Series rookie season, stands to be a benefactor of NASCAR increasing practice time, starting at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. | Matt Marrie | Racing America On SI

On Wednesday, NASCAR officially confirmed a change to non-superspeedway NASCAR Cup Series practice sessions beginning with the event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway next month.

Currently, NASCAR Cup Series teams are split into two practice groups, and are given just 25 minutes to tune on their cars for the weekend's race. Beginning with New Hampshire, practice groups will be scrapped, and instead, the NASCAR Cup Series teams will conduct a single joint practice session, which is set to last 50 minutes.

Teams will also have an additional set of tires at their disposal in the extended practice sessions, bringing the total allotment for the practice session to two sets of tires.

It's a drastic change, which will allow teams to be better prepared for the race weekends going forward, but that being said, who stands to benefit the most from the additional practice time?

Undoubtedly, young drivers, who have suffered from a lack of on-track laps since the COVID-19 pandemic led NASCAR to significantly change the typical race weekend schedule, will be the largest benefactors of the additional practice time.

Connor Zilisch, one of the hottest prospects in NASCAR history, has suffered from one of the worst rookie campaigns, statistically, in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series this season. 21 races into the season, Zilisch has already suffered seven DNFs and has completed just 78% of the possible laps that he could have contested so far this year.

In fact, there was a particularly brutal stretch of seven races, beginning with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and concluding with the eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, in which Zilisch completed just 432 of the possible 1,485 laps.

For a driver looking to obtain on-track experience in the NASCAR Next Gen car, a drastically different race car than is used in any NASCAR National Series division, that only further puts him behind the eight-ball from a learning curve standpoint.

With additional practice time, this will allow young drivers such as Zilisch, Todd Gilliland, Noah Gragson, Riley Herbst, and any other young driver, additional real-world laps on track in the Next Gen car, which is the most beneficial thing to their development.

There was a period of time in the 2000s when it wasn't just common for rookie drivers to claim victory in the NASCAR Cup Series, but it had almost become expected. With how similar the product was in the NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series at the time, it created an opportunity for the young drivers to head to the NASCAR Cup Series super prepared.

However, in the modern day, it's become more expected for drivers to claim their first career wins in years three to four.

While an additional 25 minutes of practice each weekend shouldn't allow anyone to expect young racers like Zilisch to break through for a win in their rookie campaign, it is still a significant change that could allow them to become more competitive over the long run.

In addition to young drivers, the other group that stands to gain the most from the additional practice time each weekend would be the teams that aren't considered the A-tier team within a manufacturer.

While teams such as Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota), 23XI Racing (Toyota), Team Penske (Ford), and Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet) are seen as the top-dog organizations within their manufacturer pecking order, every other team fights for scraps or whatever information they can afford to obtain through technical alliance deals with the bigger teams above them.

While JGR, 23XI, Team Penske, and Hendrick show up to the track each weekend most prepared as they have the deepest resources at their disposal, others don't always come to the track with a car that is ready to contend for a race win.

Additional practice time should allow teams like RFK Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Trackhouse Racing, and Front Row Motorsports a little more of a chance to hone in the setups on their cars prior to the green flag for the race on each given weekend.

Now, obviously, the top dogs in the sport are set in stone for a while. They'll still be the teams with the most resources at their disposal. But additional practice time will allow some on the fringe of competing for wins to elevate the performance of their car heading into the actual race, instead of hoping to make wholesale changes on the opening pit stop of the race.

It'll be interesting to see how much of a shift in dynamic there is between the haves and the havenots in the NASCAR Cup Series from New Hampshire Motor Speedway onward.