NASCAR officials granted Kyle Larson a waiver on Tuesday to restore his eligibility for the Cup Series Playoffs.
Hendrick Motorsports applied for the exception after Larson missed the Coca-Cola 600 on May 26, with his arrival at Charlotte Motor Speedway delayed by rain at the Indianapolis 500, where he finished 18th in his IndyCar debut. Larson has qualified for the Cup Series’ 16-driver postseason field as a two-time winner this season.
The NASCAR Rule Book covers eligibility in Section 12.3.2.1.A, which 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.”
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“We didn’t take it lightly,” Elton Sawyer, senior vice president of competition, said Tuesday. “There was a lot of discussion internally. … Ultimately, we agreed to give Kyle an exemption. Essentially, what we decided was that despite the bad weather in Indianapolis and Charlotte, Kyle made a full effort to get to Charlotte.
He was in the pits with his helmet on, ready to go. “Unfortunately we also had bad weather in Charlotte and unfortunately we weren’t able to restart the race. That’s how we landed on our decision.”
Larson earned the 10th starting spot for his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on May 25 at Charlotte in the Cup Series qualifying session, then flew to Indianapolis as he attempted to become the fifth driver to run both the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 in the same day.
When storms delayed the Indianapolis event by roughly four hours, Larson stayed to begin the 500-mile race, and standby driver Justin Allgaier suited up to start the 600 in Charlotte for the No. 5 team. Allgaier, an Xfinity Series regular, dropped to the rear for the green flag but worked his way up in the running order when rain and lightning halted the action at Charlotte with 249 of a scheduled 400 laps complete.
Larson flew in from Indianapolis and arrived at the No. 5 team’s pit box when the race was stopped. He prepared to enter the car for the remainder of the 600-mile event, but after the progress of the track-drying efforts had slowed, the race did not resume. “This was definitely uncharted territory for us,” Sawyer said. “Previously, exemptions like this were typically granted for medical reasons. … This was unprecedented, having a driver miss one of our races, the championship race, in order to compete in another race. That’s why it took so long. “There were different opinions from different people. Everyone had an opinion on that. We felt that the final decision that we wanted to go to was the right decision and we made it.”
As the official starter, Allgaier was credited with finishing 13th in his first Cup Series start since 2022. Larson did not earn any championship points in the race and dropped from the top of the Cup Series standings.
After Sunday’s Cup race at World Wide Technology Raceway, Larson finished 10th and is now second in the points standings, 21 points behind Denny Hamlin. Larson has two Cup Series wins this season, the first of which was a dominating win at Las Vegas in March.
Two months later, he won by 0.001 seconds at Kansas Speedway in the closest finish in series history, recording his 25th career win on NASCAR’s top tour.
