NASCAR champion Kyle Larson sparks Cup Series rule change

NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson was namedropped on Friday as officials announced a key rule change heading into the 2026 season.

With the new campaign just around the corner, NASCAR confirmed several updates to its rulebook on Friday, including a crucial update to the damaged vehicle policy.

To understand the change, we have to go back to January 2025, when NASCAR confirmed that Cup Series cars that had been damaged on track and towed back to the garage could return to the race once they had been repaired. Prior to this, cars in such circumstances would have been forced to retire from the race.

However, while many cars took advantage of that new rule in 2025, Larson, in particular, highlighted one key issue.

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Multiple times last year, the Hendrick Motorsports star - and others - set the fastest lap of the race and earned the subsequent bonus point that goes with it after being towed to the garage for repairs.

Larson earned the fastest lap in Mexico City despite being 42 laps down, for example, and the same thing happened at Watkins Glen where the No. 5 Chevrolet finished 15 laps behind the race winner.

That will no longer be allowed, however, with NASCAR confirming on Friday evening that drivers who have their cars repaired in the garage will be ineligible for the extra point that comes with earning the fastest lap.

“It was something that we talked a lot about last year, and it didn’t feel exactly right or fair that teams working on the car in the garage for a while specifically just to lay down that fastest lap,” Mike Forde, NASCAR Managing Director of Communications, explained on the Hauler Talk podcast.

“It didn’t feel super in the spirit of competition, so we decided to change it.”

Key exceptions

There is one instance in which a driver who has returned to the garage for repairs and gone back out on the track can still earn the fastest lap point. That being that they set the lap in question before sustaining damage and having to undergo said repairs.

“If Larson ripped off a fastest lap and wrecks, he gets to keep that fast-lap point," Forde clarified.

"He just can’t get it after working on his car in the garage after an incident.”

Furthermore, a driver whose car is fixed on pit road and not in the garage also remains eligible for the fastest lap point, although NASCAR will only allow seven minutes of pit road repairs before sending a car to the garage.