Despite being one of the most significant impediments to their own prospects of winning the NASCAR Cup Series championship, Kyle Larson has the support of nearly all of his peers in obtaining 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 four-hour delay caused by a storm in Indianapolis. Larson was chosen to start the Greatest Spectacle in Racing and then compete in the second half of NASCAR’s crown jewel, despite the fact that only the starting driver (Justin Allgaier) is given 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.”
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.
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