Jeff Gordon disagrees with NASCAR’s new ‘Kyle Larson Rule’ in 2025

NASCAR is heading into the 2025 Cup Series season with a few new rules. Most notably, NASCAR changed its playoff waiver policy, which will take away all of a driver’s playoff points for the 26-race regular season if they miss a race for non-medical or family reasons. According to one NASCAR executive, this rule didn’t necessarily need to go into place.

Hendrick Motorsports Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon joined SiriusXM NASCAR Radio for an interview last week and talked about the latest rule changes by NASCAR, including the playoff waiver policy that could be connected to Kyle Larson’s situation in 2024. Needless to say, Gordon isn’t a big fan of the new policy.

“That’s obviously the Kyle Larson rule,” Gordon said with a laugh on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “The one comment I’ll make about that is there’s a lot of debate over this, right? Last year, I was right there the whole time. I flew on the plane with Kyle from [Indianapolis] to Charlotte, and I personally don’t think NASCAR needed to take any further steps. Here’s my reason why: I saw the hurt on Kyle Larson’s face, and I could feel him letting his team down. I had the conversations with [Rick Hendrick] and the conversations he’s having with NASCAR, Chad Knaus, and Jeff Andrews. I heard it from fans and sponsors.”

If you’ve never owned a team or driven a race car, then I understand why you feel like you need to take extra action. But if you ever have, there is nothing harder than making that decision and dealing with the consequences of not being in that car, Kyle not getting those points, and having the opportunity to win that race because the car was great. Justin Allgaier did an amazing job but to let down the team, to me, that’s what drives the decision of why you do it or don’t do it in the future. Not necessarily whether you get a waiver or not. But hey, I understand. NASCAR, that’s their decision, and we’ll go by that.”