Analysis: NASCAR's game-changing move to buy ARCA

For casual observers, this move will do little in the short-term, the NASCAR ladder will remain the top-tier Cup series, Xfinity and bottom-rung Trucks series. 

But below that will be a radical overhaul that will push NASCAR back towards its roots in a move that's clearly designed to better prepare the next generation of Cup series talents and improve the spectacle at grassroots level. 

That's an important step considering the ongoing angst over NASCAR's calendar for reasons as varying as not expanding its reach across America, or ignoring historic favorites in favor of continuity. 

That's likely to remain beyond 2020's contract expiry for the majority of its circuits, because NASCAR has moved closer to the International Speedway Corporation, offering to buy stocks in the company that operates swathes of its calendar.

Traditionally, young NASCAR talent switches to short-track car racing in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and Pro Series West series in short-run seasons before graduating into Trucks. 

The plan for four championships 

But in 2020, there will be four championships for those at the fourth level to win: K&N  East, K&N West, ARCA Racing Elite Series and the brand-new Stock Car Invitational.

K&N will remain six-eight regional races on tracks less than a mile long and ARCA Elite will align closer to the traditional three-tier ladder of NASCAR by racing on every type of circuit: short tracks, intermediates, superspeedways and road courses.

That's a familiar look to recent season for both K&N and ARCA, but the radical change comes in the second half of the Elite series which will turn the second half of its 20 race calendar into the Stock Car Invitational. 

The top K&N drivers will be invited to compete on those final 10 ARCA races to compete for the championship-within-a- championship.

“That’s the part that excites me the most — the opportunity to get those young stars against some of these seasoned veterans and have them all out there at the same time,” Brandon Thompson, managing director of the NASCAR Touring Series, told NASCAR.com. 

“It’s a good natural progression from racing among your peers, so to speak, to going against some wily vets, which is what they’re going to see in the Truck Series. 

"It’s another ode to that developmental ladder and this being a key rung in that ladder.”

The key line in Thompson's interview was: “Making sure series veterans have a home and we can kind of get back to creating those stables in those series is also very important.  

"And finally we want to continue to highlight our up-and-coming stars in the sport.”

NASCAR's objective

The idea is that by creating a stable platform for career drivers in the lower rungs, as NASCAR had in its Winston- and Busch-sponsored era, NASCAR creates interest during a period of certain decline - at the lower, even regional, levels and that the talent climbing to the Cup series is more prepared than ever before. 

Considering ex-NASCAR president Brent Dewar's push for young talent to lead a revitalized NASCAR in 2018, and replacement Steve Phelps seemingly sticking to the script, this is by far the biggest commitment the organization has made to that project.

It's a mammoth undertaking, uniting two huge organizations, and 2019 as a grace year will be helpful. It's hard to see the logistics of four championships as a fourth tier working in unison right off the bat, but the long-term changes could be seismic.