INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The rain was not Kyle Larson’s friend on Sunday.
Larson was determined to complete the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600, but he did not get the chance to run a single lap in the NASCAR race.
Storms swept through Indianapolis Motor Speedway and delayed the start of the race, ruining Larson’s chance to complete the 1,100 miles in a single day. But after driving his No. 17 car to an 18th-place finish in his debut at “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” despite a couple of rookie mistakes, the NASCAR star headed to Charlotte.
After two helicopter rides and a roughly hour-long flight, Larson arrived at the 400-lap race that Justin Allgaier had started in his place. Just as he arrived, weather halted the race with 151 laps to go, giving Larson time to climb into the No. 5 car.
But he never got to make a lap at Charlotte as the race was cancelled after a two-hour rain delay, and Christopher Bell took the win.
“I would definitely love to come back next year,” Larson said of the Indy 500. “I feel like I learned a lot. I made a couple of mistakes early on with the reboot, not sure what I did there. “I feel like I did a really good job after that and I was able to learn a lot.”
Larson started fifth and spent most of the Indy 500, won for the second consecutive time by Josef Newgarden, alongside the leaders. But he made a small mistake shifting gears on an early restart and lost about 10 spots, then made a big one later in the race when Larson locked his tires entering pit road and was caught speeding.
Larson was running sixth at the time but had to pit again to serve the penalty, which dropped him out of the top 20. He managed to make up a couple of spots over the final 70 laps but never drew a caution that could have put him out of a chance.
“This killed our chance,” Larson said of the mistake on pit road. “I could have executed it better.”
Arrow McLaren unveiled the car for Larson in partnership with Hendrick Motorsports. With rain in the forecast all week, the big question entering Sunday was whether NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick would call off the effort and send Larson to Charlotte early so he could compete for stage points and boost his chances. in the Cup playoffs. .
But when the rain stopped, a Hendrick Motorsports spokesperson confirmed that the Indy 500 would be the priority.
“I think it would be great to have him back,” said Larson’s teammate Pato O’Ward, who finished second after Newgarden made a pass on the final lap to take the win. “I think he did a phenomenal job. I didn’t see exactly where he ended up, but when I was playing with him, playing in traffic, I thought he did a phenomenal job.”
Hendrick was on hand in Indianapolis to watch the race, along with Jeff Gordon, the vice president of Hendrick Motorsports who grew up largely in Indiana and once dreamed of racing the Indy 500. They were joined by hundreds of other fans who gathered around the No. 17 car as it was pushed onto the grid about an hour before the green flag dropped.
The storm that hit Sunday wasn’t the first to disrupt Larson’s plans. Earlier this month, he had several days of practice suspended (partially or entirely), limiting the amount of time he could spend in the car.
Larson’s attempt at “The Double” captivated those within the racing world. Most of his Hendrick Motorsports team flew to Indianapolis on Friday to watch the final Carb Day practice, and drivers who were in Charlotte watched the start of the rain-delayed Indy 500 before heading to their own cars and preparing for the start of the Cup Series race.
“I’m excited on the NASCAR side, but I’m more excited on the sprint car side, to see another sprint car driver go to the Indianapolis 500,” NASCAR driver Chase Briscoe said. “It’s like the origin of Indy. You had these sprint car drivers that would go out and race — you had AJ Foyt, Parnelli Jones, Jack Hewitt, Bryan Clauson recently — and that was always the thing. If you were the best sprint car driver, you wanted to race the Indy 500. That was the dream. So it’s cool from that standpoint.”
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AP Auto Racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Dave Skretta, The Associated Press
