Speculating on whether Kyle Larson could leave Cup Series if NASCAR denies playoff waiver

Whether or not Kyle Larson receives a playoff waiver is still up in the air, but what could his response be if he is denied? Could NASCAR potentially lose one of its biggest stars over this controversy?

Had Mother Nature not reared her ugly head on Memorial Day Weekend, this would be a non-issue. However, Larson had to make a choice. Larson and his team decided to stay in Indianapolis and race the Indy 500.

Drivers have missed races and received waivers for actions on track, injury, and other reasons. So, why not give Kyle Larson a waiver now? While NASCAR decides what they plan on doing, the rest of us are left to speculate.

Jordan Bianchi and Jeff Gluck of The Athletic talked about potential reactions from Larson should NASCAR deny him a waiver on The Teardown.

This is purely speculation, but an interesting thought exercise at least.

“I don’t know. I mean, you know, when Kyle Larson was out of racing in 2020 there were questions about, could he make a living running dirt racing, and everything, okay,” Bianchi said. “So, at the end of the day is, this is the number one form of racing in North America, or you know, at least in the United States. … If you’re so angry and upset you’re like ‘I’m done, I’m done with NASCAR. I’m gonna go run IndyCar, I’m gonna go run whatever.’ Okay, I get that but I imagine you’re probably leaving a lot of money on the table. A lot of money.”

If Kyle Larson decided to move on from NASCAR and ran sprint cars and IndyCar full-time, what would happen to his legacy? He has a Cup Series championship. However, Larson is missing quite a few Crown Jewel races from his record.

Would Kyle Larson walk away without a waiver?

Jordan Bianchi went into detail as he talked about the Larson ordeal. The most compelling argument he made – Larson has more to prove. If he wants to be among the greatest of all time, he has to do more in his primary series.

Mario Andretti and AJ Foyt were winners in everything they drove, but they had their main series, for the most part. Larson backing out of NASCAR now could do more harm than good for his legacy.

“Also, you need to run over here, if you want to be this great all-around, on the same ledger as Andretti and Foyt, you’ve got some work to do over here, you’ve got some big races to win still, and maybe you can still do that and run and everything like that and that’s fine and you run part-time,” Bianchi went on.”

“But are you going to walk away from all of that money and the opportunity to continue to build your resume as the best all-around driver of all time or one of them? I don’t know it would be hard to see that happen The other question is too Hendrick [Motorsports] has got a contract with him and I don’t know what that contract says he can and can’t do, maybe Hendrick says go, if you don’t want to be here, then sorry. I don’t know, if it were me I would have a hard time walking away from that.”

For what it is worth, Kyle Larson says he plans to race out the season as if everything was normal. Even if the waiver is denied, Larson can win the Owners Championship and score a huge payday for his team.