Despite being one of the biggest obstacles to their own chances to win the NASCAR Cup Series championship, Kyle Larson has the support of pretty much all of his peers to receive a waiver from the sanctioning body to remain playoff eligible.
Larson missed the start of the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night due to a storm that delayed the start of the Indianapolis 500 by four hours. The decision was made for Larson to start the Greatest Spectacle in Racing and then compete in the second half of the NASCAR crown jewel, even though only the starting driver (Justin Allgaier) receives credit.
Unfortunately, that same storm then made its way south and canceled the remainder of the Coca-Cola 600 just as Larson arrived. He never made a single lap and it appears that outcome combined with the decision to choose Indianapolis over Charlotte has led to NASCAR delaying a decision on granting the waiver.
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.
Based on a series of media scrums on Saturday morning at Gateway, where the Cup Series races this weekend, Larson’s peers all want him to remain eligible for the championship on the basis that running the double is beneficial for the sport and he never intended to miss Charlotte.
“He’s Kyle Larson,” said Kyle Busch. “The guy is doing more for motorsports than everybody else.”
That’s pretty definitive.
Michael McDowell, who won the pole for Sunday’s race, was even more definitive.
“I don’t see the other side of this point at all,” McDowell said. “I think if it was me and I did it and I think that’s a different situation and I hate to say it like that, but Kyle Larson is going to win five or six or seven races this year.
“To sit here and say that he’s not going to get a waiver because he tried to do the double and brought a tremendous amount of eyeballs on our sport and a tremendous amount of eyeballs on IndyCar and just helped motorsports all together is crazy.
“So I know that there’s arguments to that, but I mean, come on, we’re talking about the best driver that’s ever sat in a stock car and we’re not going to give him a pass? That’s crazy.”
Brad Keselowski says he understands why NASCAR might not be immediately inclined to grant the waiver but also suspects it will be granted and that it should be.
“Those are rather unique circumstances,” Keselowski said. “I like the idea of drivers running the double. I think that’s good for the sport. It’s good for the industry as a whole. I think everyone sees the value of that.
“There’s probably some industry angst over when things got tough, what got prioritized, but that’s just how it goes sometimes. I don’t think I have an answer to make that any better. It’s certainly an interesting situation. I think he will get a waiver and I think he should get a waiver and we’ll move on from this. It does seem for now that he’s going to have to sweat a little bit.”
The implication is that Keselowski believes NASCAR, knowing they really should give the waiver, just wants to make Hendrick Motorsports as uncomfortable as possible about that decision to remain in Indianapolis and not forgo it to compete at Charlotte.
Denny Hamlin says he’s not entirely surprised the waiver was not immediately granted.
“I don’t know when they submitted it and what is usually the timeline of accepting or denying in a certain amount of time,” Hamlin said. “I certainly think they made their best effort to get there. I also understand NASCAR’s part of wanting to protect themselves from this happening in the future but I think they made a good faith effort to race.”
His 23XI Racing driver, Tyler Reddick, didn’t offer much beyond ‘concern’ that NASCAR is not immediately granting the waiver.
“Yeah, it’s concerning,” Reddick said. “It’s really concerning and that’s all I’ll say right now.”
As Chase Briscoe points out, while also recognizing why it would make NASCAR uncomfortable to immediately grant, this is the Indianapolis 500 and the double attempt has been beneficial to NASCAR over the years with the likes of Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon, Kurt Busch and John Andretti.
“I’m torn on it (and) I don’t quite know which way I lean,” Briscoe said. “I think that, it’s tough because there was never an intention to miss a Cup race but obviously, but when you sign up to run the Cup Series, it’s part of the deal that you run every single race.
“At the same time, I’m from Indiana so I certainly understand the significance of the Indianapolis 500. I feel like, it’s just a tough spot to be in because if you don’t get the waiver, there will be less guys who want to run the double. I don’t know. I really don’t know which way I lean. I’m 50/50. It’s a tough spot to be in.”
NASCAR is legitimately, fairly, in a tough spot.
On one hand, they have issued waivers for drivers who have missed huge fractions of the season due to injuries. One of them, Busch, went on to win the championship in 2015. It also issued a waiver to Chase Elliott and Johnny Sauter after suspensions for intentionally wrecking another competitor.
Is that more deserving of a waiver than Larson missing a race due to a worst-case scenario, cross-geographic storm? The case could be made that those were things that happened in a NASCAR race to where this was choosing a race in another discipline over the NASCAR Cup Series — something Daytona Beach would be loathe to set as a precedence.
But again, as Ty Gibbs also points out, this is Larson — who has done more to grow racing holistically than anyone in North America.
“He’s really important to our sport and it was really good for NASCAR to have him there,” Gibbs said. “I don’t have a say so in the decision but that’s what I think.”
It appears to be a popular thought in the garage area.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.