“We’re talking about the best driver to drive a stock car”: Michael McDowell ridicules notion of NASCAR denying Kyle Larson a waiver 

Michael McDowell shared his opinion on the speculation that NASCAR might not grant Kyle Larson a playoff waiver. Larson missed the start at last week's Coca-Cola 600 as earlier that day, he was competing in the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500, a prestigious event in the world of IndyCars.

Rules say that a driver must start in every point-paying race of the regular season to qualify for the playoffs. Although NASCAR granted waivers to Larson's teammates Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman last year, they were for medical reasons, unlike Larson.

Even the possibility that NASCAR might not allow Larson to appear in this year's playoffs sounded absurd to McDowell.

"I don’t see the other side of this point at all. I think, if it was me and I did it, and I think that is a different situation and I hate to say it like that, but Kyle Larson is going to win five or six, seven races this year," he said.

McDowell felt that by attempting the Memorial Day 'Double', Larson has drawn a lot of attention toward NASCAR and also toward the world of motorsports in general. He exclaimed,

To sit here and say that he’s not going to get a waiver because he tried to do the double and brought a tremendous amount of eyeballs on our sport and a tremendous (amount) of eyeballs on IndyCar and just helped motorsports all together is crazy."

Hailing Larson as the best driver to have ever driven a stock car, McDowell added,

"I know that there’s arguments to that, but I mean, come on, we’re talking about the best driver that’s ever sat in a stock car and we’re not going to give him a pass? That’s crazy.”

Following the weekend at Charlotte, Kyle Larson got relegated to P3 on points. He has 486 points to his name. On the other hand, Michael McDowell is 23rd on the driver's point standings, with 234 points to his name. Next, both will compete at the World Wide Technology Raceway on June 3.

Michael McDowell earns the pole for the Enjoy Illinois 300

Michael McDowell will start up front in Sunday's 240-lap event at the Gateway. The former Daytona 500 winner bagged his third pole on Saturday.

McDowell topped the field at a record speed of 139.241 mph and made the laps in merely 32.318 seconds. His fastest lap was at 138.598 miles per hour in 32.468 seconds. The race will feature live on Fox Sports 1, with radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR radio.

However, Michael McDowell was the only driver besides fellow Ford driver Austin Cindric, to downshift to gear 3 around turns 3 and 4. According to the 39-year-old speedster, the speed of the car matters more than the driver's racing abilities in tracks like these. He said (via nascar.com) :

"...The driver’s not a big part of whether you’re going to qualify well. You still have to execute. You still have to get through the gears. I don’t want to take anything away from that standpoint, but it really is a matter of how fast a race car your team brought you."

Michael McDowell will move over to Spire Motorsports next season. He will drive the number 71 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for the team.