Dale Earnhardt Jr. fed up with NASCAR waivers, ‘Kyle Larson Rule’

NASCAR has passed a few new waiver rules heading into the 2025 season and one of the ones that has drawn the most scrutiny has already been dubbed the ‘Kyle Larson Rule.’

That rule? NASCAR has changed its playoff waiver policy.

The new policy will strip all of a driver’s playoff points for the 26-race regular season if they miss a race for non-medical or family reasons.

It’s been called the Kyle Larson Rule, in part, because the driver needed a waiver to make the playoffs last season after missing the Coca-Cola 600 while trying to pull the double with the Indianapolis 500.

There’s at least one man with a lot of say-so in NASCAR circles that isn’t a fan of the new waiver rule in the slightest.

“I hate putting that label on it, but look: I don’t like this waiver stuff,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on the Dale Jr. Download. “Like the original, the whole idea of it, I just don’t love it. Listen, I mean, I’m trying not to use any examples, but man if you’re injured and you’re out, you’re injured and you’re out. I don’t think there should be a medical waiver.

“I don’t think there should be any waiver whatsoever. You show up, you race, you get points. If you don’t race, you don’t start, you don’t get the points. You just don’t. So what is the argument against that? Why do we need the waiver at all?”

Some like the idea of drivers like Larson being able to compete across various driving disciplines. It certainly created a fun viewership experience for the fans, with the will-he-won’t-he-make-it drama creating a truly unique angle last year.

“I don’t love the optics of it,” Earnhardt said.

Earnhardt seemed at a loss for how to process that drivers could be given a pass without racing the full slate. He asked his co-hosts on the show for an explanation in defense of the new waiver rules.

He didn’t find any of them particularly satisfying.

“It had been a certain way for so many years and then now you can miss races due to an injury and still run for a championship,” Earnhardt said. “And I just never really like thought that was part of the deal. So I guess when I was asking you what the argument against it is, I was hoping you might say, ‘Well, an NFL quarterback can get injured, come back and then take his team to the championship’ and say OK, that’s kind of what it’s like.”

To Earnhardt, though, it’s just tough luck if you’re forced to miss significant time on the racing circuit. Even if you’ve accumulated enough points to otherwise qualify.

“In my mind the waiver is only to make sure your big stars are in the playoffs,” Earnhardt said. “And so if something were to happen, somebody gets hurt or some medical issue happens — I don’t know that I feel that great, I don’t know that I feel good about the medical pass, getting the free pass off of an injury.”