Kevin Harvick was happy to see that NASCAR granted Kyle Larson a waiver to remain eligible for the 2024 Cup Series playoffs after he missed the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway last month.
While that is the case, Harvick also questions if the waiver is still a useful tool for NASCAR and if it should go away in the future. Speaking on his “Happy Hour” podcast, the FOX Sports analyst said he doesn’t like the waiver being used for any reason including injuries.
“The best thing that came out of this is Kyle Larson got the waiver as he should,” Harvick said. “And I think as I’ve said, it’s time to talk about whether the waiver is right. … There’s’ gotta be some guidelines. It can’t be everything and it can’t be just at the decision of a couple of people. It’s just gotta be more clear. I don’t like it at all. Like, I don’t like it for injuries. I don’t like it for childbirth. I don’t like it for anything.”
NASCAR implemented the waiver after introducing the new playoff system in 2014. Per NASCAR‘s guidelines, “Unless otherwise authorized by NASCAR, driver(s) and Team Owner(s) must start all Championship Events of the current season to be eligible for The Playoffs.” The sanctioning body has since handed out waivers for drivers who have suffered injuries or were suspended.
Kevin Harvick preaches for simplicity in NASCAR playoff system
Just last year, Chase Elliott received a waiver after missing six races due to breaking his left leg in a snowboarding accident. Elliott failed to win a race upon returning and missed out on the playoffs. Harvick argued for why the system should be more simplistic.
“Why doesn’t everybody just get one drop?” Harvick questioned. “If you’re going to make it OK for one guy to miss a race, why is it not OK for the guy who races all the races to get rid of his worst one? I don’t know what the solution is, I like simplicity. I like simplicity of who gains the most points. The top 16 guys that gain the most points, they get into the playoffs. … And let’s not forget, you can also just win. You’ve given the way to get into playoff of winning, and if you can’t win, you don’t deserve to be there.
“I don’t understand why we need to make it more complicated than it needs to be. If you can win, then you deserve to be in it. I mean, Chase Elliott didn’t win last year, and he missed the playoffs. If we didn’t have the waiver, it would have never even been talked about. All he had to do was win. But instead, it got close enough to where we’re talking about Chase Elliott being able to get into the playoffs on points. The win is the waiver.”
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