NASCAR has made the decision to grant Kyle Larson a waiver that will permit him to remain playoff and championship eligible this season.
Despite his two wins, and the 17 playoff points he has accumulated throughout the first half of the regular season, Larson needed NASCAR to grant him a waiver to be eligible for the 10 races that decide the championship starting in September.
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 created an overlap with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Larson finished 18th at Indianapolis, won rookie of the year honors, and made it back to Charlotte just in time for the same storm that delayed the start of Indianapolis to cancel the remainder of the 600.
Justin Allgaier started the race and was the driver of record whilst Larson did not turn a single lap. NASCAR regulations require playoff drivers to have started every race of the regular season unless receiving approval or a waiver from the sanctioning body.
NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer said a lot of thought was put into the decision and that there were differing view points amongst league leadership.
“A lot of discussion internally,” Sawyer said. “I’m proud of our team and how we took the due diligence.”
That Larson made it to the 600 in time to at least try to race went a long way.
“Kyle made every attempt to get to Charlotte,” Sawyer said. “He was standing in the pit box with his helmet on, ready to go.”
And all told, Sawyer says the group concluded that stripping Larson of playoff eligibility was not the right thing for the sport.
“To not have Kyle Larson in our playoff and give our fans the opportunity the chance to see him race for a championship…at the end of the day, that didn’t feel like that was the right decision for us to make,” Sawyer said. “So we didn’t.”