It was the scenario Larson hoped to avoid in his bid to become the fifth driver to complete ‘The Double’ — 1,100 miles of racing on one day between IndyCar’s crown jewel event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and NASCAR’s longest race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Unfortunately, rain delayed the start of the Indy 500, forcing Larson to choose between the two races. He is currently locked into the NASCAR Cup playoffs after winning twice so far this year, but NASCAR demands that drivers attempt every race in order to remain eligible for the playoffs. He will need to be granted a waiver by NASCAR to remain in contention for the championship, which he will likely get.
Larson is also leading the regular season championship, and winning the regular season title comes with 15 playoff bonus points. He has a 30-point advantage over Martin Truex Jr., but with an additional stage, the Coke 600 rewards more points than any other race on the schedule.
Justin Allgaier, who was already selected as a standby driver, will pilot the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet at Charlotte. Larson qualified tenth, but Allgaier will have to start the race from the rear of the 40-car field due to the driver change. Larson intends to head to Charlotte to race once he is done in Indianapolis but Allgaier, as the driver who started the race, would get credited with whatever finish comes out of it.
Laron is driving the No. 17 Arrow McLaren-Hendrick Chevrolet at Indianapolis. HendrickCars.com is backing both his IndyCar and NASCAR effort this weekend, leaving Hendrick more control over this decision.
Larson qualified fifth for the Indy 500, easily beating all other rookies in the field. When he takes the green flag from the middle of the second row, he will become the sixth NASCAR Cup Series champion to compete in ‘The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.’
The Memorial Day Double. Double Duty. The Indy-Charlotte Double. The 500/600 Double.
What Kyle Larson will attempt to do this weekend — contest the Indianapolis 500, IndyCar’s biggest race, and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR’s longest race, on the same day — has so many nicknames that reading the list will leave you with double vision. That’s fitting. Because Larson’s goal will be not only to complete the Double, perhaps even win one or both ends of it, but also do what he can to ensure he and the two teams depending on him are not placed in double jeopardy.
To understand the difficulty of driving two races on two very different racetracks in two race cars that might as well be from two different galaxies, let’s look back at the two-lane road that was paved for Larson by his NASCAR/IndyCar double duty forefathers. A five-pack of drivers who have attempted — or will attempt — to wrap their two hands around the steering wheels of two dissimilar machines and depending on a fleet of other varied vehicles to get from one event to the other, all while staring at the weather radar, gloved fingers crossed.
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