Next year, Kyle Larson wants to finish the job.
While that certainly means trying to win the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in his second attempt, NASCAR's 2021 Cup Series champion is more focused on also competing in that night's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, an all-in-one-day drive of 1,100 competitive miles on May 25.
This year, the weather prohibited him from doing that. The “500” was delayed four hours by a midday rain storm, and by the time he arrived in Charlotte, the stock car race had been stopped by a storm of its own.
If the weather intervenes again, Larson and his full-time employer, Hendrick Motorsports, have made the decision they will divert their attention from Indy and put it on their day job. Of course, they hinted at some possible wiggle room on the back end.
“I’m a positive thinker and I’m about done thinking about the weather,” Larson said Tuesday. “I think we should all stop thinking about the weather and talk about how sunny and warm it’s going to be in May 2025.
“That’s kind of the mindset I have – thinking positive about things and positive things happen. So, that’s where my mind is at.”
Larson will again drive the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet fielded by Arrow McLaren, teaming with NTT INDYCAR SERIES drivers Pato O’Ward, Christian Lundgaard and Nolan Siegel in the 109th Running. O’Ward was leading the race with one lap to go only to be passed in Turn 3 by Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden.
Hendrick Motorsports chairman Rick Hendrick said the partnership with Arrow McLaren couldn’t have gone better this year, and he expects a similar effort in 2025. And he, like Larson, is eager for a return to Indy.
“(Next time) I won’t be quite as nervous as I was (this year),” said Hendrick, who experienced the Memorial Day Weekend in Indianapolis for the first time.
About everything went right for Larson leading up to the race. He passed the Rookie Orientation Program in October 2023 with ease, then hit 241 mph during the Fast Friday practice. In qualifying, he earned a coveted place in the Firestone Fast Six round, one of only two Arrow McLaren drivers and the only rookie to do so.
Larson qualified in the fifth position at 232.846 mph, and he ran mostly a clean race. He wasn’t pleased to be in the wrong gear on the restart at Lap 9, costing him six early positions and contributing to light contact with Ryan Hunter-Reay on the front straightaway. He said learned a lot about getting the car’s balance right throughout the 200 laps.
Still, Larson was in fifth place when he came to pit road for service on Lap 131. But he exceeded the speed limit on entry, which drew a drive-through penalty knocking him back to 22nd place.
Out of pit sequence in the final quarter of the race, Larson took the lead for the first time on Lap 180 and held it for four circuits. That made him the 243rd driver ever to lead at Indy.
Larson’s sixth and final pit stop came on Lap 184, contributing to an 18th-place finish, 9.4846 seconds behind Newgarden. Twenty-one drivers finished on the lead lap. For delivering an impressive month, Larson was voted Rookie of the Year as two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso was in 2017 with Arrow McLaren.
Tony Kanaan, the event’s 2013 winner who serves as Arrow McLaren’s sporting director, said Larson was so calm during the month “that it made me extremely nervous.”
Said McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown: “The job Kyle did on track was amazing.”
After climbing from the car after the race, Larson acknowledged making some mistakes.
“Smoked the left front (tire) or something (and) killed our opportunity (for a top-five finish),” he said.
“So, you know, proud to finish (all 200 laps), but pretty upset with myself. If I just could have executed a better race you never know what could’ve happened.”
In 2025, Larson will get that second chance to join John Andretti, Robby Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch as the only drivers to compete at Indy and Charlotte in the same day. Andretti did it first, in 1994. Busch was the last to do it, in 2014.
“I look forward to getting another opportunity to relive the experience – the experience of the whole Month of May in Indy,” he said Tuesday. “The months leading up to it were amazing and moments I’ll never forget for the rest of my life. Getting to be there with my family and my kids, getting to see them realize how big of an event the Indy 500 (is) and how cool it was to see their mom and dad flying around in helicopters and stuff, and getting to races and all that. Flying back and forth was cool.
“I look forward to reliving it and having everything go smoothly this year, which everything did go great this year minus the final 10 percent of the experience. I just look forward to it. I’m grateful, for sure, for the opportunity, and I hope to make everybody proud in both races.”
Larson said the experience offered so many memorable moments.
“I think there were a lot of things, personally,” he said. “(Indy) feels so big. I think for myself, No. 1, the number of fans that are there for the full two weeks. From Opening Day to Carb Day, there are thousands of people there every single day, and I felt like a fan favorite.
“Obviously being the only guy in the field doing ‘The Double’ that year, the amount of laps and years I’ve spent racing in Indiana, I felt almost like a hometown guy even though I’m from California. All of that was really cool.
“I just felt like the whole racing community, whether it be American auto racing fans or fans from the world were cheering for me, and that event brings in fans from all over the world. I could see people from different countries and have them come up to me and tell me how they’re such big fans and cheering for me and stuff like that. All of that was really cool.
“I could just go on and on. That event is huge.”
Larson said his next opportunity to drive an NTT INDYCAR SERIES machine will come in the series’ open test at IMS in April. A date for that test has not yet been announced.
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES season ends this weekend with the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Presented by Gainbridge at Nashville Superspeedway. The race is set for 3 p.m. ET, airing live on NBC, Peacock and the INDYCAR Radio Network.