Daniel Dye has completed sensitivity training and been reinstated by NASCAR after being suspended indefinitely for comments he made on a livestream about IndyCar driver David Malukas. However, he and Kaulig Racing, the team for which he had been competing full-time in the Craftsman Truck Series, have parted ways.
Corey LaJoie is set to take over behind the wheel of the No. 10 Ram for the remainder of the 2026 season, joining full-time drivers Justin Haley, Brenden Queen, and Mini Tyrrell in the team's lineup.
The team still run the No. 25 Ram as their "free agent" truck. LaJoie drove that truck two weekends ago at Darlington Raceway. A.J. Allmendinger filled in for Dye, who would have been eligible to return for this weekend's race at Rockingham Speedway, in the No. 10 truck.
There are questions as to whether LaJoie will be granted a playoff waiver, which would make him eligible for the playoffs if he qualifies by being one of the top 10 drivers in points by the end of the 18-race regular season.
A waiver is required for all drivers who miss at least one race, and LaJoie's case is unique in that he is set to become a full-time driver more than a month and a half after the season began.
All things considered, however, there's no reason not to grant him one. Here are three big reasons why.
1. He's already at a disadvantage
Even with two starts under his belt in 2026, LaJoie has no points; he was ineligible for Truck Series points at the time of his two starts. He is set to start his full-time Kaulig Racing stint with zero points, meaning that upon declaring for Truck Series points, he is 89 points below the playoff cut line.
If he can get into the playoffs from there, more power to him. It's also not as if the Truck Series drivers already in playoff contention are gaining another rival. Dye is being replaced, and Dye was only 25 points below the cutoff, so this decision would not inherently be putting anybody else at a disadvantage.
2. He's only missed two races
Even without full-time status, LaJoie has already run two out of four races this year; he finished 34th in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway for Henderson Motorsports and 21st at Darlington.
The idea that him missing these races should cost him his playoff eligibility stems from the fact that he wasn't expected to run full-time. The whole idea of the waiver system is to discourage drivers from willingly missing races (which, for what it's worth, absolutely nobody actually does), but LaJoie simply didn't have a ride for his two absences.
And again, we're only talking about two absences.
Had he run all four of the season's first four races, even as a part-time driver with no full-time plans, this wouldn't even be a discussion, and a waiver would have been a formality. We have seen drivers granted playoff waivers for missing far more than two races before.
3. Precedent
This one is the obvious one, because it seems like we hear about NASCAR's consistency with being inconsistent, in some form, every single week.
Kyle Larson was dropped by Chip Ganassi Racing four races into the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season and also required to take sensitivity training before returning. Matt Kenseth, who had stepped away from full-time competition three years prior, was named his full-time replacement, and he was granted a playoff waiver.
Kenseth nearly took advantage, placing second in July's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. However, NASCAR no longer uses a "win and in" playoff format for any of its national series, and Kenseth wasn't even close to getting in on points.
In other words, LaJoie would face an uphill climb anyway, so why not be consistent and give him that shot? Again, if he can actually overcome that deficit over the course of the regular season's final 14 races, more power to him, and his rivals should have done more to stop him.
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