NASCAR acquired Kyle Larson’s waiver choice right, however not with out frustration

NASCAR made the suitable choice in granting a waiver for Kyle Larson to stay playoff eligible. The truth is, it gave the impression to be a no brainer.

Which is why, while it took NASCAR eight days to get to the right decision, the entire state of affairs nonetheless leaves a lingering, exhausted feeling of frustration amid the reduction.

The rule requiring a driver to begin each race to be playoff eligible, a minimum of from what was communicated when it was instituted in 2014, was for 2 main causes:

–Competitors: To maintain a driver who makes or advances via the playoffs with a win from skipping a race or to maintain drivers from skipping races to be well-rested or extra centered on a particular race to attempt to make the playoffs.

–Followers: To be sure that followers see the drivers they purchase tickets for, very similar to extra not too long ago carried out NBA load administration guidelines.

There was by no means something communicated that it was carried out to maintain different sequence from doubtlessly luring a NASCAR star for a weekend.

So when Kyle Larson opted to remain in Indianapolis for the rain-delayed Indy 500 and missed the beginning of the Coke 600, there should not have been something greater than a right away “don’t fret about it, you will get a waiver.”

He wasn’t doing it to take a break as a result of he already had two victories or to enhance his possibilities of making the playoffs.

His followers in attendance seemingly understood the state of affairs. Larson’s followers love him due to his capability to race a wide range of autos. His quest to do the double had enamored race followers as he tried a feat no driver since 2014 had achieved and solely 4 drivers had completed since lights at Charlotte made the Indy 500-Coke 600 “double” potential. It was a constructive storyline for the 2 weeks main into the occasion. If something, extra folks watched the 600 hoping Larson would get within the automotive.

Larson already was taking a regular-season factors hit and a possible playoff-point hit by not making it again and never incomes a potential 70 regular-season factors and eight playoff factors on the day.

Kyle Larson offers his view of the contact with Kyle Busch on the finish of the second stage at Gateway

What about Larson and Hendrick Motorsports saying that the 600 was the precedence within the weeks and months main as much as the occasion? That at all times appeared as a public face to point out respect to NASCAR in hopes that there was by no means a choice to be made. Anybody who has been to the Indy 500 is aware of simply how large an occasion it’s and the way particular it’s and nobody would assume {that a} driver would voluntarily go away except, as Robby Gordon as soon as needed to, his NASCAR sponsor commitments required him to forego a shot at an Indy 500 win. 

There isn’t any means Hendrick thought the choice could be denied when it determined Larson would keep at Indianapolis. Whether or not Hendrick or Chevrolet or Larson himself would have sought a authorized problem is unknown, and even when NASCAR prevailed in court docket, it no means would win within the view of public notion, along with the PR nightmare of this being a potential storyline via the occasion.

NASCAR says it could not rule on the waiver earlier than Larson truly missed the beginning of the race. And whereas it’s comprehensible it would not prefer to rule on hypotheticals, it is a uncommon occasion — the Indianapolis 500! — the place a coverage ought to have been set forward of time with clear parameters of what will get a waiver and what would not. That means the crew, the motive force and the followers all know the choice (both means) with out eight days of angst and questions.

Transferring ahead, NASCAR could be finest off to only ditch the waiver rule and say a driver loses playoff factors (someplace between two and 5) if the motive force would not compete in a regular-season race and should compete in each playoff race. 

Something could be higher than going via this week of uncertainty once more.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports activities. He has spent a long time overlaying motorsports, together with over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting Information, NASCAR Scene journal and The (Daytona Seaside) Information-Journal. Observe him on Twitter @bobpockrass.