The spotlight falls again on NASCAR’s judicial wisdom. After the sanctioning body slapped Ricky Stenhouse Jr. with a hefty fine despite wildly marketing his punching video, people lashed out, labeling it as hypocritical. Although NASCAR regained some of its prestige by penalizing Austin Hill’s wrecking tactics, now they are on the radar again for Kyle Larson.

Larson set out to accomplish a historic feat, aiming to finish the 1100-mile double. However, the weather wore a black hat on Sunday and dashed his plans. It led him to prioritize the Indy 500 over the Coca-Cola 600, which calls for a NASCAR waiver. And his Cup rival thinks he should get one.

Kyle Larson scores another supporter

16 months of rigorous practice and preparation went into the Double. Hence, an Indy speeding penalty and the truncated race at Charlotte drilled huge holes in Kyle Larson’s heart, forcing him to pen a heartfelt message on X, apologizing to his fans, family, and colleagues who were looking up to him. This stirred veteran drivers to call for an immediate waiver, including Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The waiver policy comes into play as drivers are required to run all Cup races to be eligible for the playoffs. Denny Hamlin believes Kyle Larson should be excused for his choice, and he also slipped into his own off-NASCAR ambitions. “They (JGR employees) said, ‘Do you think he should get a waiver?’ I said quickly, ‘Yeah, absolutely.’ They’re like, ‘Really? So what if you wanna go race the Le Mans next year, should you get a waiver?’ I said, ‘Hmm, that’s a good point. I didn’t think about it like that.”

Then Hamlin cemented his argument by assigning a higher status to the Indy 500. “What defines a major event? …Now again, if Kyle wasn’t missing this to go to a high-limit race…You know, he was missing this to do the Indy 500 and the Coke 600. I don’t know how NASCAR feels…But I think it would be hard for you to convince me that the Coke 600 is the bigger event than the Indy 500.”

Starting in 1911, the Indy 500 ran its 108th annual event this year. Its greatness is evident in its popularity: the race drew 4.92 million viewers on NBC Sports in 2023, while NASCAR was less than half at 2.86 million viewers. Hence, Denny Hamlin’s argument in support of Kyle Larson is well justified.

Denny Hamlin has slipped possible intentions to run in the Le Mans 24 Hours. However, this French automobile race had not drummed up the Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s support earlier.

Denny Hamlin preferred to stick to his roots

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In June 2023, NASCAR spread its wings and flew to France. The Garage 56, consisting of Jenson Button, Mike Rockenfeller, and Jimmie Johnson, appeared at the Le Mans 24 Hours event. Since 1928, the winner of this race has claimed the greatest distance traveled in a 24-hour time frame. The race circuit is huge—almost 8.5 miles long. But Denny Hamlin did not express enthusiasm at the time.

Contrary to his newfound interest after Kyle Larson’s double event, Hamlin stressed his NASCAR roots last year. “I understand that it’s a huge race. I get it. I’ve never been super into Le Mans just simply because I grew up in Virginia on go-karts on a dirt oval, and all I cared about was NASCAR racing.” He added, “So, no, it’s not on my list. I would love to attend. I think it’d be cool to attend.”

However, this stance seems to have changed as Denny Hamlin slipped his intentions to run the Le Mans race next year.