By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service
SPEEDWAY, Ind. – A day filled with high hopes and trophy expectations after weeks of hard work at track and a year to contemplate the quest ended abruptly Sunday after NASCAR star Kyle Larson crashed just before the midpoint of Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 – a race ultimately won in a dramatic sprint to the finish by three-time and reigning IndyCar champion, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou.
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Larson, who is the fifth driver in history to run Memorial Day’s famed “Double” didn’t get to finish the first half of this doubleheader day, leaving Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a disappointing 27th-place finish but grateful to have another shot at a trophy this evening in the NASCAR Cup Series’ Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Larson’s No. 17 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet got loose in traffic on a re-start and spun out into the Turn 2 wall having completed only 91 of the scheduled 200 laps.
“I got a little too eager,” an obviously disheartened Larson said.
“Just made a mistake. I was really close to Takuma [Sato] and got kinda tight because I was really tucked up underneath him and as I peeked out left, just got loose and spun. I hate that I caused that crash there and hate it for everybody Arrow McLaren and Hendrick Motorsports. A lot of people here to see a better result than that.”
The incident collected the cars belonging to Kyffin Simpson and Sting Ray Robb, who both actually seemed quite sympathetic toward the NASCAR superstar racing in uncharacteristically challenging conditions even for fulltime drivers – temperatures in the low 60s, overcast skies and light rain that delayed the race start and then brought out an early caution flag.
“Frustrating day, not much I could do in that scenario for Kyle,” Robb said. “It’s an easy mistake to make, cold track, long running stints there, marbles on the inside, cold tires on the restart, race conditions were tough. These cars were tricky.”
They were three of nine drivers that did not make it to the checkered flag in a race that presented challenges even for the most experienced of drivers.
For Larson, the adversity began immediately after driver introductions as he was standing at his car with his family and a long list of NASCAR dignitaries from his team owner Rick Hendrick and team executive Jeff Gordon to NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell.
Light rain sprinkles started falling while the cars were on the grid during all the pre-race pomp and circumstance that makes the Indianapolis 500 one of the biggest races in the world – a race that the talented and diverse Larson – a driver referred to as a “generational talent” – so badly wanted to compete in and win.
The wet weather created a green flag delay and cars rolled off the starting line 42 minutes later than the planned 12:46 p.m. ET starting time – significant for Larson who was on a specific timeline and needed to leave the track by 4:07 p.m. in order to make it to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the NASCAR Cup Series’ Coca-Cola 600 green flag.
Then there were a pair of incidents immediately thereafter slowing the pace further – with Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin hitting the wall and crashing out while trying to get his tires up to temperature on the warm-up lap. Minutes later, on the first lap of green, veteran Marco Andretti crashed out.
It really seemed to be the tone of the day, but at least early on Larson was still turning the laps and patiently moving forward. He ran top-20 all day methodically working up from his seventh row starting position, even overcoming a slow pit stop.
It was a promising start after being involved in pair of crashes during practice earlier this month that frustrated Larson. He rallied to earn a 19th-place starting position on the 33-car grid and was consistently among the fastest in in long-run speed. He climbed out of his car following Friday’s following practice seeming optimistic about his chances Sunday.
He ran well in a race that featured multiple strategies in light of all the incidents only to have his day end early Sunday.
“Just very disappointed,” Larson said. “Made a mistake on pit road and it obviously just kind of compounded from there, you feel like you’re behind and feel like you need to catch-up and that was probably the wrong thing to do and got little bit too over-zealous there on the re-start just trying to overcome the mistake I made.
“Really the best therapy is to get back behind the wheel so thankfully I only have a few hours before I’ll be back behind the wheel [at Charlotte]. Once we crank the engines up there, hopefully I’ll forget about it.”
