Kyle Larson adds to his championship bid at Sonoma days after getting NASCAR playoff waiver

Several days after getting his NASCAR Cup Series playoff waiver, Kyle Larson doubles down on his case to be a title contender for the 2024 NASCAR championship at Sonoma Raceway.

Larson passed Martin Truex Jr. and Chris Buescher in the closing laps at the Northern California road course to earn his second win at his home track and the 26th of his career.

It took NASCAR over a week to decide whether or not to give Larson his waiver after he competed in the Indianapolis 500 over the Coca-Cola 600 a week and a half ago.

Up until the Indy 500 race day, Larson said Charlotte’s 600-mile race was the priority since he competes in NASCAR full-time. But since the 500 was delayed several hours due to a rain storm, Larson and company changed their tune on race day and stayed in Indiana to compete in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

Larson’s Indy 500 experience was about a year and a half in the making, so it was understandable why he stayed at IMS after all the time and money spent to make the effort happen. Unfavorable weather on race day made the logistics of competing in the race and then traveling to North Carolina less than ideal. Still, he and the Hendrick Motorsports brigade made as strong an effort as possible to make it to Charlotte to run the second half of the 600-mile event.

The same storm cell that delayed Indy caused the Charlotte race to end before Larson could get inside his No. 5 Hendrick car, but he was applauded by fans for his effort to salvage the “Hendrick 1,100” as best he could.

Larson says he wasn’t as concerned about getting the playoff waiver as much as the public seemed he would be. He said he would be at every race the rest of the NASCAR season to try to win races no matter what.

That may be true. But since he got a waiver from NASCAR despite missing the 600, he will still be able to go for championship No. 2 this fall.

He is a realistic candidate for the 2024 title, as is Hendrick teammate William Byron and Denny Hamlin, who each have three wins thus far.

There are 10 races left until the playoffs start, and there are nine winners this year in the Cup Series. The only multiple-race winners have been Larson, Byron, Hamlin (who all have three victories), and Christopher Bell, who has two wins.

Michael McDowell finished second at Sonoma, while Chris Buescher finished third. McDowell is an established road racer who won at the IMS road circuit last summer, and Buescher last won a road course at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the Xfinity Series a decade ago.

Chase Elliott finished fourth, and Ross Chastain, who got his first career Cup win on a road course, completed the top five after making contact with Kyle Busch on the final lap and causing him to spin.