NASCAR Considering Changes to Xfinity Fastest Lap Award Criteria

Josh Berry, who was swept up in a first-lap incident in last Sunday's Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, returned to the track more than 100 laps down, and after repairs to his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse, the driver turned the Xfinity Fastest Lap. In doing so, Berry received an additional championship point.

Berry winning the award is the latest example of a car finishing numerous laps off the pace, which went on to receive the award after early-race damage repairs. Kyle Larson won the award twice during the regular season in a similar fashion at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and at Watkins Glen. Those two fastest lap awards, which came after Larson was several laps behind the leaders, were enough to earn Larson additional Playoff Points going into the Playoffs due to his placement in the regular-season championship standings.

This trend has caused NASCAR to take a look at the Xfinity Fastest Lap Award, and according to Mike Forde, Managing Director of Communications for NASCAR, the sanctioning body is looking at potentially tweaking the criteria of eligibility for the award. Forde spoke about the potential changes on the latest episode of the 'Hauler Talk' Podcast.

“It was just one of those things where maybe this is something we do look at,” Forde said. “There’s conversations on both sides, and when we first started talking about this when Larson did it the first time in Mexico City was, the pros of keeping it how it is, is that it gives teams to work on something, fans of the No. 5 car – it almost happened the same exact thing [as Berry] where it was right at the beginning of the fan – fans of Kyle Larson came out to watch him and want to continue seeing him strive for something and compete for something.”

On the podcast, Forde suggested that there is a chance that a driver would have to finish the race on the lead lap in order to secure the Xfinity Fastest Lap bonus award, if changes are indeed made. But if there are any changes to the Xfinity Fastest Lap Award, they won't come until next season.

After the 'Hauler Talk' Podcast dropped, some fans expressed disdain over the discussed potential changes to the Xfinity Fastest Lap Award for the 2026 season, but Forde cautioned on his personal X account that there are no changes set in stone for the award, and that there are simply conversations going on behind the scenes within the sanctioning body on whether a change is needed.

“For fans in the comments who would hate this change, don’t worry, just yet— strictly a discussion. Listen to the pod for more context. There are good reasons to keep it. But good reasons to have the discussion, too. Nothing at all imminent.”

On one hand, NASCAR wanting to make a changes makes perfect sense as it doesn't pass the smell test to have a car 100-plus laps down re-enter the race and bust off a qualifying lap to score the Xfinity Fastest Lap Award, but at the same time, having that bonus point out there on the table has also given teams a reason to thrash on their cars to return to the track.

And as we've seen, when they return to the track, they're pretty damned fast.