Kyle Larson’s hopes of winning his second NASCAR Cup Series title are in serious jeopardy. The Hendrick Motorsports driver decided to race in the Indy 500 instead of the Coca-Cola 600 last Sunday.
Justin Allgaier took his place in the No. 5 car and started the race before returning to Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Because Larson decided 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 an exemption. In this case, the board will accept the application for an exemption. It is expected that it will treat the request 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 only to see it 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 SVP of Competition, they have not yet received an inquiry. “There’s not really much to report on this subject. Let’s let the process run its course. I’m sure they will submit a request at some point. We will do our due diligence and meet with the employees. Again, this is not a decision that any one person will make.
We will look at it as a group, discuss it and move forward.” Normally, exemptions are given to riders who are injured and unable to race or who are banned by sanctioning bodies.
Things get complicated because Larson made a conscious decision not to make it to the start of the Coca-Cola 600 race. “He missed the race. This is new territory for us, because exemptions were often granted for medical reasons in the past. “In that respect, this case is a little bit different. We’ve had some preliminary discussions, but we haven’t yet reached an agreement,” Sawyer concluded.
Even if they granted Larson an exemption, NASCAR would feel cornered to grant exemption applications by virtually every other team and driver. That’s simply because they’ve already set the example of exceptions. And if they were to deny these requests, it could raise allegations of favoritism toward Hendrick Motorsports drivers.
Here are the notable drivers who got the waiver from NASCAR
If a driver misses a race, NASCAR’s rule book states: “Unless otherwise authorized by NASCAR, drivers and team owners must compete in all championship events this season to qualify for the playoffs. If they do not earn a starting spot, drivers and team owners shall attempt to qualify for the race at the discretion of the Series Executive Director.”
The important part is the “if approved by NASCAR,” which indicates an exemption. Kyle Busch missed a championship season (2015) and was ruled out of 11 races.
This was because he was injured, and therefore an exemption was justified. Chase Elliott has been granted an exemption not once but twice. He was suspended once for a skiing injury last season and once for intentionally crashing Denny Hamlin in the Coca-Cola 600. However, NASCAR approved a waiver for Matt Kenseth when Larson was suspended from racing in 2020.
The reason the board granted the exemption was “extraordinary circumstances.” There is no way to know for sure how NASCAR will handle the Larson situation. However, given the drivers’ goodwill and performance this season, a waiver would never be controversial.
