News has leaked out about a fairly substantial change in policy regarding NASCAR drivers’ ability to compete for multiple championsips in 2011. According to the information we have acquired, drivers will only be allowed to earn championship points in one series. They would be allowed to race for the purse in others, but they would accumulate no points toward a season championship.

We’re assuming that the drive behind this rule is to encourage teams to bring new and fresh talent into the truck and Nationwide series, while keeping the “stars” of the show up in the major league Sprint Cup series. The top three finishers in Nationwide cars last season were all Sprint Cup regulars.

While this decision bodes well for up and comers in the sport, it may be making those folks on the business side a little worried. We have to imagine it is far easier to sell a sponsorship on a car when a headlining driver will be in the seat. Taking a guy like Carl Edwards out of Nationwide car and replacing him with a kid fresh off the dirt track scene, while great for a movie plot, ain’t so appealing on the publicity front.

Not that professional stock car drivers are financially strapped, but there could also be contract and financial implications for them as well. If they have an incentivized contract based on season finishing position, that just went out the window. If they are pulled from a car entirely, that could cause a whole host of issues.

This decision will have one of two outcomes. It will work as NASCAR hopes and new talent will filter into the ranks quicker than it would have in the present system, or it will totally backfire and the regular drivers already in the cars will contine to drive them and perhaps win more races than the series champ will. If that happens, there will be a significant amount of egg on the faces of NASCAR brass and lots of people clamoring to ditch the new rule.

Hey, at least they are trying something.