{"id":52224,"date":"2025-05-24T13:52:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T18:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=52224"},"modified":"2025-05-24T21:59:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T02:59:16","slug":"indianapolis-500-advance-larson-is-poised-for-his-attempt-at-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/24\/indianapolis-500-advance-larson-is-poised-for-his-attempt-at-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Indianapolis 500 Advance: Larson is poised for his attempt at history"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

SPEEDWAY, Ind. \u2013 Trotting down the grandstand steps after being introduced in Saturday morning\u2019s traditional Indianapolis 500 Public Drivers Meeting, NASCAR champion Kyle Larson encountered a standing ovation, loud cheers and a steady line of high-five greetings indicative of being the crowd favorite that he absolutely is for Sunday\u2019s 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 (Noon ET on FOX).<\/p>\n

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Kyle Larson – Indianapolis 500 Open Test – Photo by Joe Skibinski<\/p><\/div>\n

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion and current championship leader would love nothing more than to reward the support with a massive celebration in the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway Victory Lane where he celebrated last summer after winning NASCAR\u2019s Brickyard 400 at the famous track.<\/p>\n

Larson\u2019s No. 17 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet lines up 19th on the 33-car grid Sunday for his second consecutive start in the Indianapolis 500; the first leg of a Memorial Day race \u201cDouble\u201d that begins at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway and concludes eight hours away in NASCAR\u2019s longest race of the season, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (6 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime, PRN and SiriusXM).<\/p>\n

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Kyle Larson – Indianapolis 500 Qualifying – Photo by Josh Hernandez<\/p><\/div>\n

Last year the 32-year-old Californian finished 21st in a rain-delayed Indy 500 but by the time he got to Charlotte, the race had already stated and was in a rain delay, ultimately called \u201cofficial\u201d before Larson was able to climb into his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet<\/p>\n

This year, Larson is committed to making the start of the race in Charlotte. He\u2019d sure like to arrive, however, fully-hydrated with whole milk \u2013 his choice \u2013 the beverage traditionally given to the Indy 500 race winner.<\/p>\n

Larson\u2019s second Indy 500 go-round on the famed 2.5-mile oval has been markedly different than his debut last year. He\u2019s had a pair of crashes in practice in race preparation and instead of starting from the second row as he did in his debut, he\u2019ll roll off from the seventh row.<\/p>\n

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May 23, 2025; Speedway, Indiana Kyle Larson, Arrow McLaren practices on Carb Day before the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Photo by Michael C. Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

However, after Friday\u2019s \u201cCarb Day\u201d final practice, he said he was comfortable with his car and more prepared for what the big race will ask of him. He was among the fastest six drivers in both 10-lap and 20-lap speed.<\/p>\n

With a controversy involving two of the fastest cars \u2013 Team Penske\u2019s Josef Newgarden \u2013 the two-time defending race winner \u2013 and his teammate, 2018 winner Will Power, Larson\u2019s quest has shared the big-type headlines. Those two former winners will have to start on the last row after failing inspection prior to pole qualifying last Sunday.<\/p>\n

It’s indicative of a starting grid featuring plenty of bold headlines. The race will  showcase the first rookie polesitter \u2013 Robert Shwartzman – since 1983. And the season\u2019s most dominant driver, three-time and reigning NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou, who has won four of the opening five races, is starting from the second row trying to claim his first ever oval win in the sport\u2019s biggest race.<\/p>\n

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Kyle Larson – Indianapolis 500 Qualification. Photo by John Cote<\/p><\/div>\n

Having a NASCAR champion like Larson in the race with a competitive team would normally dominate the pre-race talk, but there has been a lot going on. And Larson says that\u2019s fine by him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually like that a lot,” a smiling Larson said of the other storylines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I get a lot of attention in everything that I do and race, and I don’t really like that because I feel like it takes away from the spotlight of others. This year has been better because I feel like I’ve kind of flown under the radar a little bit more. Not really under the radar, still obviously an important thing, and I have still gotten a lot of coverage. But last year I felt like it was crazy. It\u2019s been good and I like that, more normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, drives during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on May 10, 2025 in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo by Jamie Squire\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Larson is the fifth full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver to attempt \u201cThe Double\u201d joining the late John Andretti, Robby Gordon and NASCAR Hall of Famers Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch. Of them, Stewart is the only driver to complete all 1,100 laps \u2013 that 2001 effort including a sixth place at Indy and a third place at Charlotte \u2013 best all-time among those doubling-up.<\/p>\n

But there is a lot of optimism and a lot of support for Larson\u2019s effort Sunday.<\/p>\n

Most of Larson\u2019s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team – crew chief Cliff Daniels and most of his pit crew – came to Indy for Friday\u2019s final two-hour practice, showing their solidarity for this milestone effort.<\/p>\n

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Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on May 11, 2025 in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cSeeing the NASCAR Cup drivers doing it, it\u2019s a really big deal and so awesome to be a part of,” said Eric Ludwig, the jackman on Larson\u2019s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.<\/p>\n

\u201cKyle is just a racer through and through. Everything in his passion is just to race a car wherever he can, whenever he can and it\u2019s just so cool to be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a common theme and one that Larson hopes to reward.<\/p>\n

“He’s unique, he’s special, and we’re living in this moment where we’re getting to experience it and will be telling the next generation all about it one day,” NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. said of Larson. \u201cAnd so hopefully he has a great experience at Indy, represents the NASCAR crowd well with a great run, and we’ll see what he does next.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service SPEEDWAY, Ind. \u2013 Trotting down the grandstand steps after being introduced in Saturday morning\u2019s traditional Indianapolis 500 Public Drivers Meeting, NASCAR champion Kyle Larson encountered a standing ovation, loud cheers and a steady line of high-five greetings indicative of being the crowd favorite that he absolutely is for Sunday\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":52051,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,11],"tags":[233,230,421,125,22,225,16,672],"class_list":["post-52224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indycar","category-nascar","tag-charlotte-motor-speedway","tag-indianapolis-500","tag-indianapolis-motor-speedway","tag-indy-500","tag-indycar","tag-kyle-larson","tag-nascar","tag-ntt-indycar-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/AB5I9465a-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-dAk","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52224"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52228,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52224\/revisions\/52228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}