Kyle Larson celebrates NASCAR playoff waiver with another win
SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — The Indianapolis 500 is over and the worried wait to see if Kyle Larson’s participation in that event would cost him a shot at winning a NASCAR championship has been resolved.
So it’s life back to the usual for NASCAR’s busiest driver.
That means a lot more races and, of course, more winning.
Larson celebrated NASCAR approving his participation in the playoffs with his third Cup victory of the season — a Sunday win at his home track. The victory for Larson, who grew up 80 miles away from Sonoma Raceway in Elk Grove, was his second on the rolling road course in picturesque wine country. It is the fifth win on a road course for NASCAR’s 2021 Cup champion and moved him to the top of the current series standings.
It was a welcome reward after a grueling month of May in which Larson became the fifth driver to attempt to run the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. Rain at both events made his attempt at “The Double” a bust and put him in danger of not being granted a waiver to remain eligible for the NASCAR playoffs.
It took until Tuesday of this week for NASCAR to grant Larson the waiver. Then he took his first two consecutive days off in months to lay by the pool in the California sun, do some wine tasting in familiar territory, and then win at Sonoma.
“My life is so hectic that I never feel like I get a normal week for myself. It gets a little bit more hectic now that I am just NASCAR racing and sprint car racing,” Larson said. “It was really nice for me to get to come here this week and just get to do nothing for one day, and then go be a normal tourist on Thursday. It’s just a very relaxing week.”
It ends Tuesday when Larson races in Nebraska at Eagle Raceway in the $55,555-to-win Bikini Zone Eagle Nationals. Then it is on to Iowa Speedway for NASCAR, and if he can pull it off, he’d like to run a sprint car at nearby Knoxville next Friday and Saturday nights.
That’s the kind of schedule Larson prefers and tried to pull off last month. But the Indy 500 was delayed four hours by rain, which forced Larson to miss the start of the Coca-Cola 600. By the time he arrived in North Carolina, the race had been stopped for rain there, never resumed and Larson never turned a lap.
Because of that, it took NASCAR a week of internal debate to decide if one of its biggest stars would be given the pass required to remain eligible for playoff participation. Larson said he never stressed about the looming decision.
“Are we still talking about waivers?” he asked after the race. “Literally, my mind never wavered. It was always focused on executing and winning the regular season points title.”
His win at Sonoma only showed how foolish NASCAR would have looked had it ruled against the Hendrick Motorsports driver.
Jeff Gordon, the vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, said Larson and the No. 5 team were never rattled during the wait for a waiver.
