On Sunday, Kyle Larson’s attempt at a Memorial Day double did not go as planned. He became the second driver to have his Memorial Day double include only one of the two crown jewel races, as well as the fifth driver to win both the IndyCar race and the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600, held at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the same day. 500 cars raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
After the Indianapolis 500 was postponed for four hours due to rain, Larson opted to stay for the 200-lap race at Indiana Speedway’s 2,500-mile, four-corner oval track. The 400-lap race at the 1,500-mile, four-corner oval track in Concord, North Carolina, was called off after 249 laps due to rain while Larson was on his way to catch a flight to Charlotte.
After completing 249 laps, the Coca-Cola 600 was ultimately canceled, and Larson was not given a chance to compete. Justin Allgaier took his place at the wheel of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and finished 13th. As a result, opinion seems divided on whether Larson qualifies for a NASCAR playoff exemption.
He’s already guaranteed a spot in the Cup Series playoffs thanks to two wins at Kansas Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway. To qualify, though, a driver must compete in all 26 regular-season events.
Overall, the argument is absurd. First of all, has NASCAR ever denied a driver an exemption in recent years? The purpose of the 26-race limit is to prevent drivers from randomly abandoning races. Think of it as a load-control precaution. Larson was leading the points standings before the Coca-Cola 600, and there’s no reason to think he can’t compete for the championship.
But what’s even more ridiculous is that in response to Larson’s disastrous performance in the Memorial Day Double, many media pundits and fans completely changed their attitudes. A few weeks ago, if you predicted that Kyle Larson would finish the Indianapolis 500 18th, you would have been called a “hater” and mocked. After all, he is the “talent of a generation.” “Number one in the world.” “Better than Max Verstappen.” God forbid you praise God constantly. It’s not that Larson isn’t brilliant. Think about it. After finishing second literally to current winner Josef Newgarden in an open test race for the Indy 500 in April, his betting odds jumped to 700 to 1 to beat the latter.
Newgarden’s win over Larson was less favored than Newgarden’s win over Larson when Larson nearly beat Newgarden during an unsanctioned training session. On Sunday we saw the results, with Newgarden becoming the first back-to-back winners of this race since 2002.
The same people who genuinely believed Larson would easily win the Indianapolis 500 are now calling for Larson to be barred from competing in the NASCAR Cup Series championship five and a half months before the winner is scheduled to be announced at Phoenix Raceway.
He feels rejected. Now that they know the Indianapolis 500 is not just an amateur event, they want Larson to pay the price for participating in it. How strange is that? The fact that there are more than one or two people with “hot opinions” on this topic makes it even more absurd.
Most of those people were just trying to back up their prediction that Larson would upset Newgarden, Scott Dixon, Alex Palou, and other IndyCar greats by winning the biggest race of all time. Furthermore, when it comes to opinions expressed by the NASCAR media, it should be pretty clear that not “toeing the party line” can be harmful, even without specifically referring to the specific incident at Talladega four years ago. I hope enough people realize this and can recognize the clear case of groupthink.
It raises the question of how many of these opinions are actually held by those expressing them. Even more ridiculous is the suggestion that granting Larson a waiver would set a negative precedent for the Indianapolis 500.
It’s not like Charlotte is avoiding attending Taylor Swift’s performance. This isn’t your neighborhood kart race or dirt track meet. This isn’t just an IndyCar street race. This is the largest one-day sporting event in the world. Would anyone be shocked that this event isn’t a NASCAR race? It won’t be anything close to “precedented” until half the Cup Series field arrives for the Indy 500 bump day at Dale Coyne Racing Honda. It’s a half-baked justification inspired by an inferiority complex designed to give the impression that NASCAR races are more important than the Indianapolis 500.
If Larson had won the Indianapolis 500, there wouldn’t even have been a conversation about it. And there’s no way Larson would miss the Coca-Cola 600.
The feud between NASCAR and IndyCar was not what many in the NASCAR community wanted and never happened. A difficult decision had to be made on Sunday, but there’s only one reason why that decision had to be made: bad weather. Isn’t bad weather ultimately out of control? Let’s not forget that Larson was there and ready to run the final 151 laps of the Coca-Cola 600 even if he didn’t earn any points or playoff points at that point. He could have easily decided not to compete at all, since the Hendrick 1,100 was out of the question. But after qualifying for the Coca-Cola 600 on Saturday and running the Coca-Cola 500 at Indy on Sunday, he was there. Unlike those who try to downplay his accomplishments and essentially lock him out of the NASCAR ranks until 2024, he is a race car driver.
