NASCAR granted Kyle Larson a waiver Tuesday that will keep him eligible for the Cup Series playoffs, but that doesn't necessarily mean the discussion is over. NASCAR will use the offseason to take a "deeper dive" into the language of the Rule Book.
Elton Sawyer, NASCAR SVP of competition, provided comments about the situation Tuesday during a session with media members. He said that there is a long list of rules for NASCAR to discuss during the offseason. The waiver rule will now join this list.
"We're going to look at it, take a deeper dive," Sawyer said. "And as we sit here today, we feel like we have language in the Rule Book that would support, obviously, giving the waiver and, B, not giving the waiver.
"So it's in the rulebook. Is there something we feel like we've learned from this process that we need to add some language and delete some language?"
As Sawyer explained, the Rule Book is pretty clear as it stands right now. NASCAR can either grant the waiver or not grant the waiver. There are just other elements that change the discussion.
The Rule Book sets the parameters for the team situated at the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina. They use the Rule Book as guidelines when making decisions that could impact the championship battle.
The majority of the time, NASCAR grants the waiver.
According to a chart created by Seth Eggert of Kickin' the Tires, only four of the 32 waiver requests have failed. NASCAR denied two waiver requests due to drivers violating the substance abuse policy. NASCAR denied two other requests after drivers missed races due to a lack of sponsorship and funding.
No situation is identical, especially the one involving Larson. The Indy 500 is the biggest race on the IndyCar schedule, and it is one of the biggest in the world. The Coca-Cola 600 is one of NASCAR's biggest races, one of its crown jewels.
The importance of the two events only added to the discussion as Sawyer and the team at the R&D Center went through the process. Ultimately, they decided to give Larson the waiver after several days.
"Again, we didn't take this lightly," Sawyer said. "That's why it took time to get to the decision that we did, but this one was unique. We'll continue to look at it."