Kyle Larson’s hopes of winning a second NASCAR Cup Series title are in serious jeopardy. The Hendrick Motorsports driver decided to race the Indy 500 instead of the Coca-Cola 600 last Sunday. Justin Allgaier started the race in his place in the No. 5 car, returning to Charlotte Motor Speedway. Because Larson chose to skip the points race at Charlotte, he needed an exemption from NASCAR to qualify for the playoffs.
However, recent developments suggest that the HMS team has not yet applied for the exemption. In this case, the board will grant the application for an exemption. It is expected that the board will treat the application differently than other exemptions it has granted in the past.
NASCAR has not reached a consensus on providing Kyle Larson with a waiver
Larson did not intentionally miss the Coca-Cola 600 race. The Indianapolis 500 was postponed for four hours due to bad weather, forcing him and the team to make a difficult decision.
However, he returned to Charlotte to finish the race, but the race was canceled due to a rainstorm. Many believed that Larson’s decision to race the Indy 500 meant that Rick Hendrick and HMS had already applied for an exemption.
However, according to NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, no request has been received yet. “There’s not much to report on this topic. We’re letting the process take its natural course. I’m sure we’ll get applications at some point.
We’ll do our due diligence and interview employees. Again, this is not a decision any one person will make. We’ll look at it as a group, discuss it and move on.” Normally, exemptions are granted to riders who are injured and unable to race, or who are banned by a sanctioning body.
The situation is complicated by the fact that Larson made a conscious decision not to turn up to the start of the Coca-Cola 600 race. “He missed the race. This is new territory for us, because in the past exemptions have often been granted for medical reasons. So this case is a little bit different in that respect.” “We’ve had some preliminary discussions, but we haven’t reached an agreement yet,” Sawyer concluded.
Even if they granted Larson a waiver, NASCAR would be forced to grant waiver requests from virtually every other team and driver, simply because they’ve already set a good example. And if they denied those requests, it could lead to accusations of favoritism toward Hendrick Motorsports drivers.
Here are the notable drivers who got the waiver from NASCAR
If a driver misses a race, the NASCAR rule book states, “Unless otherwise approved by NASCAR, the driver and team owner must participate in all championship events this season to qualify for the playoffs. If unable to earn a starting position, the driver and team owner must attempt to qualify for the race at the discretion of the series general manager.”
The important part is “if approved by NASCAR,” which states the exception. Kyle Busch missed a championship season (2015) and was suspended for 11 races.
The reason was that he was injured, so an exception was justified. Chase Elliott was granted an exemption not once, but twice. He was suspended once last season for a skiing injury and once for intentionally crashing Denny Hamlin in the Coca-Cola 600. However, when Larson was suspended from racing in 2020, NASCAR approved an exception for Matt Kenseth. The board cited “extraordinary circumstances” as the reason for the exemption.
There is no way to know for sure how NASCAR will handle Larson’s situation. But considering the goodwill and performance of the drivers this season, an exception would never be off the table.
