By David Morgan, Associate Editor
INDIANAPOLIS – For the second year in a row, Kyle Larson has returned to Indianapolis for the Month of May as he looks to once again try and pull off the Indy 500/Coca-Cola 600 double of racing 1,100 miles in one day.
Last year, it was a pretty calm affair for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion in his Indianapolis debut driving the No. 17 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet before a late race pit road speeding penalty relegated him to an 18th place finish.
When he got to Charlotte, Larson would never get a chance to climb behind the wheel of his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to finish out the Coca-Cola 600 after the rain that delayed things in Indy also brough that race to an early end.
A year later, it hasn’t quite been as smooth sailing the second time around for Larson at Indianapolis.
After a crash in the open test in April, Larson found the wall once more during Fast Friday in preparation for qualifying.
Nonetheless, Larson shook off the turmoil and put his car in the field and will roll off from 19th place when the green flag drops on Sunday.
“It’s been different a little bit,” Larson said of his second attempt at the Double. “I feel like it’s obviously been a little more challenging with a couple of smaller crashes that we’ve had and then just having to work on the balance of the car more than we did last year.
“I feel like last year we didn’t really have to mess with a whole lot. I thought the balance was pretty comfortable, but it’s just taken a little bit more time to get to that comfortable spot this year.
“Happy with where we’re at now. Yeah, you know, just kind of focused on both of the races at this point.”
Larson added that this time around, he has a better feel for how the open wheel cars will react on race day, surrounded by 32 others and won’t be shy about using all of the tools at his disposal behind the wheel to dial things in as the race plays out to move forward.
“I have definitely gotten more — I think last year I was just scared to do anything. I think my balance was, like, in a happy spot last year, and I was like, I don’t want to go and — I didn’t know how sensitive everything was going to be,” Larson explained.
“This year, yeah, I’ve definitely played around with it a lot more. I feel like even last year I was afraid to do things in the short chute, moving bar. This year I’ve gotten way more comfortable with doing those things.
“The hybrid is, I feel like, hyped up as being this crazy new thing, but it’s really not a big deal either, I don’t think. I don’t know what these guys think. But you just pull the paddle and go. When you want more charges, hit a button. It’s not really, like, a big deal.
“Yeah, there is definitely more to the cockpits than what we’re used to all year long in NASCAR or sprint car racing, but yeah, I feel like I’ve gotten the hang of it more this time around.”
In his first attempt at the Double, Larson’s Achilles Heel appeared to be going through the restarts and trying to get up to speed there. He added that having last year’s race under his belt, the knowledge of how everything plays out will help him stay in the fight in those moments on Sunday.
“It was honestly probably good for this year I think to go and have that bad restart and then you have to get aggressive on some others to learn for this year having to start from, I don’t know, row seven or wherever we’re at.
“Yeah, I think it’s tough. You get a lot of laps throughout these couple of weeks, but there’s still more to learn during the race than practice. Just getting into the rhythm of all that is a challenge. But, I mean, there’s a lot of us out there that really don’t have that much experience racing on ovals for some of these guys. Specifically, the Indy 500.”
With Larson giving the Double a second chance, the question always comes around about who else in either the IndyCar paddock or the NASCAR garage could potentially pull it off
“We could have a huge laundry list of people that should do it,” said two-time and defending Indy 500 champion Josef Newgarden.
“I think Blaney really wants to do it. Obviously McLaughlin. I want to do it. I think you could ask the majority of the field would want to do the double. It’s so much fun.
“It’s just very difficult to get that lined up. Doing what Kyle is doing right now, it’s harder than it looks. What I mean by that is just putting the program together. You would have a lot of people doing it if it was simple, I can promise you that.
“I think Kyle Busch has spoken publicly about trying to get something off the ground. That’s Kyle Busch. Should seem like it’s pretty likely for him to put a program together. It was quite difficult.
“Yeah, there’s a lot of people that want to do it. I would love to see Blaney do it at some point. I don’t know how he would do in INDYCAR, but it would be fun to see.”
Sunday’s 109th running of the Indy 500 kicks off at 12:30 pm ET on FOX, with the Coca-Cola 600 scheduled for 6:00 pm ET, streaming on Amazon Prime.
Be the first to comment