Jeff Burton is pleased to see Kyle Larson will race in the playoffs after receiving a waiver from NASCAR. The NBC NASCAR commentator spoke with NBC Sports’ Dustin Long on the outcome, saying NASCAR made the right decision despite the lengthy process.
“At the end of the day, I think NASCAR got it right for the fans,” Burton stated. “I believe our fan base wants Kyle Larson to play in the playoffs; I believe the fans will lose if he does not. I have publicly said that he is the best driver in the world. He is really competitive in the Cup Series. A large crowd will gather to witness him race for the championship.
“Because of that, I think they got it right, but I also think they need to get ahead of this happening again. As long as this took, there was a lot of conversation about whether it should be granted or not and I understand that debate.”
NASCAR SVP describes the decision-making process for Kyle Larson.
Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, outlined the decision process to Larson during a teleconference on Tuesday. “We stayed the course,” Sawyer added. “We held our internal meetings. We held additional internal meetings. We continued to have discussions about it.
And suddenly, in front of us, there was a race at World Wide Technology Raceway that we were all preparing for. So, once again, the most important thing was to make the proper decision and take the necessary time. We believed that the time it took was adequate for making the appropriate conclusion.”
Sawyer continued: “One of the reasons (the waiver is) in place is to give our fans some certainty that if they buy a ticket to come and watch our athletes and our stars perform, that they’re going to see them. So the prior precedent that was set with allowing waivers, those were quick decisions, as I said earlier. This one was unique in the fact that obviously Kyle raced with another series and wasn’t there to start our event.”
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