Kyle Larson celebrates NASCAR playoff waiver with another win and the lead in the Cup Series

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — The Indianapolis 500 is over, and the anxious wait about whether Kyle Larson's participation in the race could cost him a chance to win a NASCAR championship is over.

This means life is back to normal for the busy NASCAR driver.

That means a lot more races and of course more victories.

Larson celebrated NASCAR's approval of his playoff participation with his third Cup victory of the season – a Sunday win at his home track. The win for Larson, who grew up 80 miles from Sonoma Raceway in Elk Grove, was his second on the hilly road course in scenic wine country. It is the fifth road course victory for the 2021 NASCAR Cup champion and moved him to the top of the current series standings.

It was a welcome reward after a busy month of May in which Larson became the fifth driver to attempt to run the Indianapolis 500 and the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. Rain at both events rendered his attempt to do “The Double” a failure and put him in jeopardy of not receiving an exemption to remain eligible for the NASCAR playoffs.

Driver Kyle Larson is introduced before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Sonoma Raceway, Sunday, June 9, 2024, in Sonoma, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Godofredo A. Vásquez

It took until Tuesday of this week for NASCAR to grant Larson the exemption, then he took the first two consecutive days off in months to lounge by the pool in the California sun, enjoy a wine tasting in familiar surroundings and then win at Sonoma.

“My life is so hectic that I never feel like I have a normal week for myself. Now that I'm just racing NASCAR and Sprint Car, it's even more hectic,” Larson said. “It's been really nice for me to come here this week and do nothing for a day and then be a normal tourist on Thursday. It's just a very relaxing week.”

Racing ends Tuesday when Larson competes in the $55,555 Bikini Zone Eagle Nationals at Eagle Raceway in Nebraska. After that, NASCAR moves on to Iowa Speedway, and if he can make it, he would like to drive a sprint car in nearby Knoxville next Friday and Saturday nights.

That's the kind of schedule Larson prefers and tried to implement last month. But the Indy 500 was delayed four hours because of rain, so Larson missed the start of the Coca-Cola 600. When he arrived in North Carolina, the race there had been stopped because of rain and never resumed, and Larson didn't get to complete a single lap.

Because of this, it took a week for NASCAR to discuss internally whether one of its biggest stars would receive the clearance needed to continue competing in the playoffs. Larson said he was never worried about the impending decision.

“Are we still talking about waivers?” he asked after the race. “I was literally never distracted by it. I was always focused on winning the regular season points title.”

His victory in Sonoma only showed how stupid NASCAR would have looked if it had decided against the Hendrick Motorsports driver.

Jeff Gordon, vice president of Hendrick Motorsports, said Larson and the No. 5 team were never unsettled while waiting for the exemption.

“I haven't seen it affect the majority of the team,” said Gordon, who added that Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels have left Hendrick executives to communicate with NASCAR. “As far as the impact on the team, I haven't seen why it really (concerned) them. It seems like everything is business as usual. I think the best medicine in any of these situations is to get back on the race track.”

“Especially when they came here, to Kyle's home track, a track they love to race at, I think they put a lot of those fears to rest.”

Larson led 19 of the 110 laps and passed defending champion Martin Truex Jr. with eight laps to go to defend the win in his No. 5 Chevrolet. It is his 20th win since joining Hendrick in 2021, putting him third in the organization behind Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.

Truex would have finished second in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, but ran out of gas before reaching the finish line and was classified 27th as two tow trucks followed him to the finish.

That left Michael McDowell in a Ford for Front Row Motorsports second. Chris Buescher in a Ford for RFK Racing was third and Hendrick's Chase Elliott was fourth. He was followed by Trackhouse's Ross Chastain, who had a collision with Kyle Busch on the final lap that dropped Busch from fifth to 12th.

HAMLIN OUT EARLY

For Denny Hamlin, who was leading the Cup Series at the start of the race, the day ended abruptly when his Toyota's engine failed after just two laps and he finished last in Sonoma for the second year in a row.

Hamlin said he had no warning that the engine was about to explode. He started 25th and was 29th when his engine died.

“No. Nothing. It's just that the gearing is a little weird for the track,” Hamlin said. “It's a lot about high-end rpm, but so is everyone else and I'm just not really sure. They'll look at it and figure it out, but it's certainly not ideal.”

Hamlin, who finished 38th, finished outside the top 30 at Sonoma for three years in a row.

His teammate Ty Gibbs at Joe Gibbs Racing didn't fare much better, getting cornered after 16 laps and finishing just one place ahead of Hamlin in 37th place.

“I just made a mistake and ruined our day,” Gibbs said.

NEXT

NASCAR is bringing the Cup Series to Iowa Speedway for the first time in track history. NASCAR began using the track for lower-level series in 2006 and for some national series events in 2009, but never for Cup. NASCAR stopped using the track after the 2019 season. IndyCar made the track an annual stop in 2007 and has been there every year since, except 2021.

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