After NASCAR granted Kyle Larson a waiver for this year's postseason, it took less than a week for the 2021 Cup Series champion to find his way to victory lane again.

Of course, we are accustomed to seeing Larson take the checkered flag on a regular basis. If it is not when the Cup Series is in action, we hear that it happened at another track somewhere in the United States. Larson is simply a racer, and he loves to win races. What's more, he obviously knows how to win them.

It took well over a week after the Coca Cola 600 before Larson received the waiver. But there really was never any doubt he would get it. And there was no reason for NASCAR to not issue it to him.

Had NASCAR not done so, it might have come back to haunt them later in the season.

Back in 2005, NASCAR hosted its second iteration of the playoffs. After a successful debut the year before, the sequel went on without none other than Jeff Gordon. It was an off year for the four-time series champion, and NASCAR executives probably never imagined Gordon would be on the outside looking in come playoff time.

This would be far from the last time a high-profile driver would be shut out of title contention in the playoff era. Tony Stewart, who went on to claim the 2005 championship, did not defend it in 2006. And Dale Earnhardt, Jr. missed multiple playoffs during his Cup career.

Fast forward to 2010. Jamie McMurray wrapped up the season with three wins that year. Two of them were crown jewel events, the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400. But there was no playoff berth for Jamie Mac. This did not sit well with fans, so NASCAR expanded the playoff format to include two wild card spots the following year. This was done to place a premium on winning, as the drivers who won the most races while sitting between 11th and 20th in the points standings would be included in the title battle.

After a couple more years, the now current format with sixteen drivers being involved was implemented. For NASCAR, it was a way to include as many star drivers as possible so fans would tune in during the playoffs. If a driver wins a race, it is on to the playoffs. But the stipulation is that the driver must start every race on the schedule. Otherwise, a waiver is required.

That brings us to 2023. Chase Elliott sustained a snowboarding injury early in the season, missed six races, and obtained a waiver. He would get another following a one-race suspension due to the incident with Denny Hamlin at the Coca Cola 600. But both waivers ended up being a moot point, as Elliott never won a race the rest of the season and missed the playoff cut. Again, NASCAR found itself without one of its biggest stars in the running for the championship.

While there is no question Elliott commands the largest fan base in NASCAR, Larson has his share of supporters, too. And he was the major story for the month of May with his attempt to do the Double, commuting between Indiana and North Carolina during those weeks. And he impressed people with his Brickyard debut. Yes, he made that pit road speeding error in the last quarter of the race, but Larson had been running in the top ten for much of the day before that happened. In his first Indy 500, he ran well, all things considered. And to complete all 500 laps at IMS as a rookie is a badge of honor.

The weather was not kind to Larson at all that day, as the Indy 500 withstood a long rain delay before going green. As for the Coca Cola 600, the rain again became Larson's nemesis, as it stopped any chance of him driving at Charlotte Motor Speedway, hence the reason for the waiver.

While stock car racing is Larson's primary job, it is hard to fault Rick Hendrick for making the call to have Larson stay in Indianapolis. So much went into Larson's Indy program, which had been announced in January 2023. Given that fact as well as the amount of people involved in the endeavor, Hendrick simply and understandably could not call it off after nearly a year and a half of hard work.

We know what happened next. Larson and company applied for the waiver, played the waiting game, and got what they hoped for. But NASCAR was not going to deny it. A playoffs without Larson will not carry as much fan interest, and NASCAR knows this. It will not risk leaving out one of its biggest names from title contention because the weather did not cooperate. Larson is a winner, and he is fun to watch on the racetrack. You had to love how he charged toward the front after that last pit stop at Sonoma.

And that extends into the next point. After Sonoma, Larson now has three victories this season. He is tied with William Byron and Denny Hamlin for the most wins so far in 2024, and that could increase with ten races to go before the playoffs begin in Atlanta. In other words, if Larson is dominant throughout the rest of the spring and summer, but was not granted the waiver, many fans would have voiced their displeasure about him being locked out of the playoffs. Simply put, NASCAR did not even want that scenario to potentially come to fruition.

And it will not happen. The waiver is Larson's, just as Sunday's race was Larson's. And come November, the Cup Series title might be Larson's again.