CONCORD, N.C. — A day that started with promise for Kyle Larson, ended with a thud. And a bang.
With it, maybe the end of the Double.
Larson became the fifth driver to compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600, but both his races ended early after crashes. He suggested doing the Double might not be worth trying again because of the narrow time window between the events.
Admittedly Larson’s comments came moments after the end of a frustrating day, but his point is clear and something that executives at NASCAR and IndyCar should consider before any driver considers running two of the biggest races in American motorsports on the same day again.
Responding to a question from NBC Sports about if his day fueled his desire to do the Double again or if he is done with that, Larson said:
“I don’t know. It’s so fresh right now I don’t really have a good answer for you. The Double is just a tough undertaking. The window of time is too tight. Even if I didn’t wreck, I don’t think I would have made it here on time and probably would have had to end that race short anyways.
“So I don’t really think it’s worth it. But I would love to run the Indy 500 again. Just doing the Double I think is just logistically too tough.”
The Indianapolis 500 was scheduled to start at 12:46 p.m. ET Sunday, but rain delayed the event 43 minutes to 1:29 p.m. ET. The race took 2 hours, 57 minutes, 38 seconds, ending at 4:26 p.m. ET.
The Coca-Cola 600 was scheduled to begin at 6:27 p.m. ET (the green flag actually waved at 6:30 p.m. ET)
Larson crashed before the halfway mark of the Indy 500. His helicopter arrived at Charlotte Motor Speedway at 5:16 p.m. ET — nine minutes before driver introductions. Jeff Gordon, vice chairman at Hendrick Motorsports had said on Saturday that Larson “is going to be here (at Charlotte) for driver introductions at 5:25 (p.m. ET). That’s the call.”
This year was the second year of a two-year deal Hendrick Motorsports had with Arrow McLaren for Larson to drive in the Indy 500. There’s no deal in place for next year.
Larson’s comments raise the question of if it is worth for anyone to try the Double in the future if the start times remain the same.
The effort takes a significant amount of money from sponsors and even with all the publicity, the effort can be undone by weather. With NASCAR’s new rule this year that states if a driver misses a race for anything other than injury or age restriction, the only way they can get a playoff waiver is to lose all their playoff points and any playoff points they earn before the regular season.
Hendrick Motorsports had stated that it would pull Larson from this year’s Indy 500 to get him to Charlotte to start the 600.
Once at Charlotte, things didn’t go well for Larson.
He hit the wall early while leading and then later spun in the first stage.
“Mistakes on my end tonight just got me behind. I got loose in leading early and smacked the wall and just kind of got us behind. I thought our team was doing a good job to get the car in better shape to just chip away at it.”
Larson worked his way to the middle of the pack but was collected in a multi-car crash that brought out the caution at Lap 247 of the 400-lap event.
He couldn’t avoid Daniel Suarez’s car and the damage ended Larson’s race. After finishing 27th in the Indianapolis 500, Larson placed 37th in the Coca-Cola 600.
“Hate the way that the day went,” Larson said. “I wish I could just hit reset and try again tomorrow, but reality is that’s not going to happen. Feel terrible for everybody, Rick Hendrick, especially.”
