An unprecedent circumstance has produced another unprecedented decision as NASCAR is no longer scoring Kyle Larson as a playoff eligible Cup Series driver following the race on Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Despite his two wins, and the 17 playoff points he has accumulated throughout the first half of the regular season, Larson will need NASCAR to grant him a waiver to be eligible for the 10 races that decide the championship starting in September.
Larson is currently second in the championship standings and would otherwise already be a lock to race for the championship this fall.
This is all stemming from the decision that Larson and Hendrick Motorsports made to compete in the Indianapolis 500 even after a Sunday storm delayed the start of that event by four hours and creating an overlap with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
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.”
Larson intended to make the start of the Coca-Cola 600, which has traditionally been possible if the Indianapolis 500 starts on time, but the storm forced picking one over the other. Millions of dollars were spent on the Indianapolis 500 effort alongside Arrow McLaren Racing and Larson still aimed to make it in time to finish the race in Charlotte.
Justin Allgaier started the race for him in Charlotte and would be the driver of record no matter what happened, but the same storm that delayed the start in Indianapolis ended the race in Charlotte early right as Larson arrived.
Larson never turned a lap.
Regardless, Hendrick and Larson filed the waiver request late last week, and it’s a process that has been granted for injuries and behavioral suspensions over the years. In fact, the only time NASCAR denied a request was in 2021 when Grant Enfinger missed a single race due to a lack of funding and completed the season but without playoff eligibility.
But even in that instance, NASCAR continued to show the playoff points Enfinger had accumulated even if he wasn’t added to the playoff field that summer.
As a result, the unprecedented decision NASCAR made this time was that Larson is currently shown as having earned no playoff points on the updated championship standings after the race on Sunday.
Of course, this is still an active process and NASCAR could simply choose to grant the waiver next week or even issue a penalty of some kind. But for now, NASCAR has subtly made clear through the championship standings report that Larson is currently not in the playoffs unless it decides he is in the days ahead.
NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer has called the impending decision ‘uncharted waters.’
“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,” he told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio last week. “We have had some preliminary discussions but haven’t landed on anything yet.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.