Jeff Burton on Kyle Larson's Cup Series playoff waiver approval: 'NASCAR got it right'

Jeff Burton is happy to see that Kyle Larson will compete in the playoffs after getting his waiver from NASCAR. The NBC NASCAR analyst spoke to NBC Sports’ Dustin Long about the decision and said NASCAR made the right call despite taking a long time.

“At the end of the day, I think NASCAR got it right for the fans,” Burton said. “I think our fan base wants to see Kyle Larson in the playoffs, I think the fans lose if he’s not in the playoffs. I’ve stated publicly he’s the best driver in the world. He’s exceptionally competitive in the Cup Series. A lot of people are going to come and watch him race for a championship.

“Because of that, I think they got it right, but I also think they need to get ahead of this happening again. As long as this took, there was a lot of conversation about whether it should be granted or not and I understand that debate.”

Larson missed the Coca-Cola 600 last week because he competed in the Indy 500 earlier that day. He planned to participate in both races, but weather delays prevented that from happening as there was nearly a four-hour delay at the Indy 500, and NASCAR called the Coca-Cola 600 as Larson arrived in Charlotte due to weather.

NASCAR SVP explains the decision process on Kyle Larson

Elton Sawyer, the senior vice president of competition for NASCAR, explained the decision process for Larson during a teleconference on Tuesday. “We stayed the course,” Sawyer said. “We had our internal meetings. We had more internal meetings. We continued to have dialogue around it. And then the other part of it is in front of us was a race at World Wide Technology raceway that (we were) all getting prepared for. So again, the number one thing was to get to the right decision, take the time. We felt like the time that it took was the right amount of time to get to the right decision.”

Sawyer continued: “One of the reasons (the waiver is) in place is to give our fans some certainty that if they buy a ticket to come and watch our athletes and our stars perform, that they’re going to see them. So the prior precedent that was set with allowing waivers, those were quick decisions, as I said earlier. This one was unique in the fact that obviously Kyle raced with another series and wasn’t there to start our event.”