Ryan Blaney reacts to NASCAR’s new waiver rule, believes it’ll bring more order to the sport

In the wake of the playoff waiver drama between Kyle Larson and NASCAR that overtook the sport last season, NASCAR has updated their policy for 2025.

This season and beyond, drivers needing a waiver for any reason that isn’t medical (birth of child, family emergency, age restriction included), will lose all playoff points. They can’t earn more after the fact, either.

Drivers who don’t have a medical waiver will enter the postseason, if they make it, with 2000 points. That is the bare minimum you can enter the playoffs with. 

Evidently, it’s a change Ryan Blaney is a fan of. The former Cup Series champion sat down with FOX’s Bob Pockrass, where he elaborated on why he believes the new rule can lead to a little more order throughout the sport in 2025.

“Hopefully it puts that into people’s heads, you know, consequences. If you do something very egregious to where it calls for, you know, you getting suspended for a race, then it’s a pretty big deal. So yeah, I mean, I haven’t put a ton of thought into it. I think it’s just guidelines. But yeah, maybe you won’t see some manipulation stuff, like you saw. You won’t see some, you know, big retaliation stuff. Hopefully it just brings a little bit more order to it,” Blaney stated.

“I think that was probably, you know — that’s the right call by NASCAR. You should, you know — you set these rules, and hopefully that kind of puts a little bit of the reins on that stuff.”

With the new rule, if a driver ends up in a similar situation as Larson, where he missed Charlotte and the Coca-Cola 600 for his foray into IndyCar, running the Indianapolis 500, he would have lost all his points. That would have put him in a dangerous position in the postseason. A must-win situation, in at least one or two rounds. 

Still, it’s better than the will-they, won’t-they drama that unfolded in 2024. Now, there’s clear guidelines for drivers, and they’ll have to make their decisions accordingly, weighing the risk and reward for each potential move.

Ryan Blaney believes it’ll help the sport, but it remains to be seen, as NASCAR’s made a bevy of changes heading into the 2025 season. It all begins again this weekend, with the Daytona 500 taking center stage on Sunday afternoon.

— On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this article.

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