Daytona Beach, Florida (BVM) Kyle Larson attempted to create history on Memorial Day weekend, becoming the fifth driver to try “the double,” racing in the Indy 500 on Sunday afternoon and then competing in the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte at night.
Larson appeared to be in for a thrilling weekend, but the weather proved otherwise. Rain delayed the start of the Indy 500 by many hours, causing Larson to miss the start of the Coca-Cola 600. While the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet eventually arrived in Charlotte and was set to take over for Justin Allgaier, who had started in the No. 5 in his stead, rain caused the race to be called off before Larson could get into the vehicle. The event was eventually called after 249 laps.
Larson not only had a terrible day, but the fact that he did not start the Cup Series race at Charlotte has complicated his eligibility for the NASCAR playoffs.
NASCAR instituted a new regulation in 2014 when it launched its win-and-in playoff system, requiring drivers to attempt to start every race in order to qualify for the postseason. Finally, the rule was adopted in part to ensure that drivers did not skip any races if they had already qualified for the playoffs earlier in the season. The official terminology used in Section 12.3.2.1.A of the Cup Rule Book is shown below.
“Unless otherwise approved by NASCAR, driver(s) and team owner(s) must start all championship events in the current season to be eligible for the playoffs. If a starting position was not earned, the driver(s) and team owner(s) must have attempted to qualify for the race, as determined by the Series Managing Director.” Several waivers have been issued over the last decade to drivers who were unable to compete due to unforeseen circumstances.
Kyle Busch obtained a waiver in 2015 after injuring his leg during an Xfinity Series race. His older brother, Kurt Busch, was awarded a waiver the same year following an early-season penalty, and also obtained a waiver in 2022 that was never utilized because he sat out due to concussion symptoms that stemmed from an early-season race.
Most recently, Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Chase Elliott, was granted a waiver after injuring his leg in a skiing accident in 2023, though he ultimately failed to reach the playoffs.
While injuries and suspensions have resulted in waivers in the past, NASCAR has never quite faced a situation like this. Larson did technically break the rule of not starting a Cup Series race, yet unforeseen circumstances with the weather played a big role in that for one of NASCAR’s most successful and most popular current drivers. It’s created a bit of a gray area when it comes to the rule, and many around the sport have weighed in recently as the racing world continues to wait for a decision.
“It opens a can of worms,” Team Penske driver Joey Logano said on Behind the Wheel on SiriusXM NASCAR radio. “There’s just no black and white answer to this one.
“I get it, you’re in Indy, you’ve done all the practices, you’ve done the qualifying, you’ve done all the prep. Let’s face it, the Indy 500 definitely rivals the Daytona 500 as the biggest race in America. It’s hard to walk away, it’s hard to leave.”
While Logano gave a relatively neutral opinion where he sees both sides of the argument, many others have been more opinionated, including retired driver and current Fox Sports analyst Kevin Harvick.
“I do not like the waiver system,” Harvick said last week on his podcast, Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour. “I love all of our competitors to death, I love the fact that Kyle Larson went and ran the Indy 500. I think he should get a waiver. I absolutely despise the waiver system … The waiver thing is just way out of whack in my opinion.”
Harvick went on to question the previous waivers handed out by NASCAR to Kyle Busch in 2015 – who Harvick finished second to in the Cup Series championship standings that year – and to Elliott last year since his injury wasn’t NASCAR related.
Meanwhile, as NASCAR competed at World Wide Technology Raceway in Illinois this past weekend, Front Row Motorsports driver Michael McDowell echoed a similar stance to Harvick’s, building his argument on Larson’s success.
“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 that’s a different situation and I hate to say it like that, but Kyle Larson is going to win five or six, 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 altogether is crazy.
“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.”
Several other drivers seemed to agree with McDowell during various media availabilities over the weekend.
Larson’s status as arguably the top driver in NASCAR currently makes it hard to imagine that he wouldn’t be granted an opportunity to compete in the postseason. Perhaps that is what the 31-year-old driver is pinning some hope on as he claimed that he is “not stressed” about the situation over the weekend.
“It’s not up to me,” Larson said on Saturday. “I’ll be here every weekend.”
While it seems many believe Larson should and will ultimately be granted a waiver, the fact that NASCAR has already taken over a week to make any kind of a decision does cast some doubt on that notion.
Whether or not Larson is granted a waiver, it’ll be business as usual for the No. 5 team the rest of the season as he says he will not do anything different going forward. Although his attempt at “the double” has ultimately created a murky situation, Larson hopes to give it another shot at some point as well.
“I would like to do it again because I can’t imagine the weather could get any worse or screw up the plans any worse,” Larson said. “I think if I was to do it again it would go smoother.”
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