NASCAR Deems Kyle Larson’s Dilemma ‘Uncharted Waters’ with a Hesitant Silence on His Championship Shot

Kyle Larson’s hopes of a second NASCAR Cup Series championship are in serious doubt. The Hendrick Motorsports driver opted to compete in the Indy 500 race over the Coca-Cola 600 last Sunday. Justin Allgaier replaced him in the No. 5 car and started the race for him before returning to Charlotte Motor Speedway.

By deciding to miss the points race at Charlotte, Larson now needs a waiver from NASCAR to be eligible to compete in the playoffs. However, going by the recent developments, the HMS team has yet to appeal for a waiver. In that case, the governing council does receive the waiver request. They are expected to treat this request differently than other waivers they have handed out in the past.

NASCAR has not reached a consensus on providing Kyle Larson with a waiver

It’s not that Larson deliberately missed the Coca-Cola 600 race. The Indianapolis 500 was delayed by four hours due to bad weather, which forced him and his team to make the tough call. However, he did make it back to Charlotte to complete his race, only to see the event get washed out due to a rainstorm.

Many believed that Larson’s decision to run the Indy 500 meant that Rick Hendrick and HMS had already filed for a waiver. However, according to NASCAR’s SVP of Competition, they have yet to receive any requests. “Really not a lot to report on that topic; just based of let the process take its course. I’m sure at some point they will send in their request; we will go through our due diligence and meet with our people. Again, this will be a decision that not one person will make, but a group will have a look at it, discuss it, and move forward.”

Usually, waivers are granted to drivers who were injured and were unable to race or those who had received suspensions from the sanctioning body. So things are tricky, as Larson consciously decided to miss the start of the Coca-Cola 600 race. “He has missed the race; it’s a little bit uncharted waters for us because, in the past the waivers had been mostly given for medical reasons. So this one’s a little bit different from that aspect, and we’ve had some preliminary discussions, but we haven’t landed.” Sawyer concluded.

Even if they grant the waiver in favor of Larson, NASCAR will feel cornered by basically every other team and driver to grant the waiver request. Just because an example of an exception has already been set by them. And if they deny those requests, there could be suspicion of favoritism towards the Hendrick Motorsports drivers.

Here are the notable drivers who got the waiver from NASCAR

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In a situation where a driver misses out on a race, the NASCAR rule book states, “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. If a starting position was not earned, then the driver(s) and team owner(s) must have attempted to qualify, at the discretion of the series managing director, for the race.

The important part is “otherwise authorized by NASCAR,” which eludes to the waiver. Kyle Busch, in his championship-winning season (2015), missed 11 races and was exempted. This was because he got injured, and therefore the waiver was justified. Chase Elliott, not once but twice, has gotten the waiver. He got one due to his skiing injury last season, while he got one for suspension after intentionally wrecking Denny Hamlin during the Coca-Cola 600.

However, NASCAR did approve a waiver for Matt Kenseth when Larson was suspended from racing back in 2020. “Extraordinary circumstances” was the reason cited by the governing council to grant the waiver. Nothing can be said for certain about how NASCAR will approach this Larson situation. However, given the driver’s pure intentions and his run of performances this season, a waiver won’t be sparking any controversies for sure.