NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer says the league has not yet received a playoff waiver request from Hendrick Motorsports for Kyle Larson but it expects one and will review it with due diligence when the time comes.
The start of the Indianapolis 500 was delayed due to rain and the decision was ultimately made for Larson to remain in the Circle City to run that race in lieu of starting the Coca-Cola 600. Instead, Justin Allgaier took the green flag in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5, making him the driver of record even with Larson intending to finish the race upon his return.
However, that decision also made him ineligible for the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs this autumn unless he receives a waiver from the sanctioning body.
According to Rule 12.3.2.1.A of the NASCAR rule book: “Unless otherwise authorized by NASCAR, driver(s) and Team Owner(s) must start all Championship Events of the current season to be eligible for The Playoffs.”
Unless otherwise authorized by NASCAR is the operative terminology here.
Typically, waiver requests are made and granted to drivers who were injured and unable to compete or were suspended by the sanctioning body and missed a race for that reason. Grant Enfinger missed a race in the Truck Series due to the lack of funding but did not receive a waiver to make the playoffs that year, for example.
What does that process look like from NASCAR?
“They submit the request that he has missed the race,” Sawyer said on Tuesday during his weekly segment on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “It’s a bit unchartered waters because in the past, the waivers have mostly been given for a medical reason so this one is a little bit different from that aspect.
“We’ve had some preliminary discussions but we haven’t landed on a decision yet.”
Hendrick Motorsports and NASCAR were in discussions over the weekend and it’s logically hard to imagine that they would have made the decision to stay in the Indianapolis area if there wasn’t some conviction that a waiver would be granted.
Larson made it back to Charlotte in time to complete the final 150 laps but that is when the rain began to fall and the race never resumed, leaving Larson without turning a single lap in his Chevrolet.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.