NASCAR announces changes to Open Exemption Provisional rule

NASCAR has amended the Open Exemption Provisional upon reviewing the new rule following its first use at Daytona International Speedway last month.

It’s an expected response from NASCAR, which acknowledged during the pre-season that it needed further discussion after seeing it in play. There was also feedback from drivers within the sport about the rule and those who are eligible to use it. Jimmie Johnson, for one, spoke with NASCAR chairman Jim France about the rule during the Rolex 24 weekend, relating how he’d like to see it tweaked to ensure that an OEP driver was not keeping someone else from making the field.

In the update to the NASCAR rule book issued on Wednesday, the rule now states that the field will automatically be expanded to 41 cars when a team is granted the OEP and there are more than 40 teams entered in an event.

“The Open Exemption Provisional will be applied only if more than 40 vehicles are qualifying for the Event,” the update reads. “In that case, it will be applied regardless of the vehicle’s Qualifying position, and the starting field will be 41.”

The field will be made up of the 36 charter teams, a minimum of four Open teams, and the Open Exemption Provisional team.

The OEP is in the 2025 charter agreement and was learned about prior to the season-opening Daytona 500 when Trackhouse Racing used it for Helio Castroneves (pictured, No. 91, top). It must be applied for 90 days prior to an event and only one OEP will be granted for a race. If multiple teams request the OEP for one event, it will be at NASCAR’s discretion which one receives it.

Initially, the rule allowed for Castroneves to either qualify his way into the Daytona 500 field through traditional means (keeping the field at 40 cars) or he could fall back on the OEP if he failed to qualify. Castroneves fell back on the OEM and the field was expanded to 41.

A team that uses the OEM is not eligible for points or prize money from the race. NASCAR did not change that part of the rule in its Wednesday update.

However, NASCAR did add a stipulation that “NASCAR has full discretion to deem certain Events ineligible for the OEP.”