Concord, NC – A day that started with the promise of Kyle Larson, ended with a deaf noise. And a bang.
With that, maybe the end of the double.
Larson became the fifth driver to participate in Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600, but his two races ended early after accidents. He suggested that doing the double might not be useful again because of the narrow temporal window between events.
Admittedly, Larson’s comments occurred a few moments after the end of a frustrating day, but its point is clear and something that the leaders of Nascar and Indycar should consider before any driver again considers two of the largest races of American Motorsports on the same day.
Answering a question from NBC Sports, namely if his day fueled his desire to redo the double or if he finished with this, Larson said:
“I don’t know. It’s so fresh right now, I don’t really have a good answer for you. Double is just a difficult business. The time window is too tight. Even if I am not destroyed, I don’t think I would have succeeded here in time and I should probably have ended this race anyway.
“So I don’t really think it is worth it. But I would like to run the Indy 500 again. The simple fact of doing the double, I think, is just too hard logistics.”
Indianapolis 500 was to start at 12:46 p.m. on Sunday, but the rain delayed the event from 43 minutes to 1:29 p.m.. The race lasted 2 hours, 57 minutes, 38 seconds, ending at 4:26 p.m. HE.
The Coca-Cola 600 had to start at 6:27 p.m. (the green flag made a sign of management at 6:30 p.m.)
Larson crashed before Indy 500’s halfway. His helicopter arrived at Charlotte Motor Speedway at 5:16 p.m. He – Nine minutes before the driver’s presentations. Jeff Gordon, vice-president of Hendrick Motorsports said on Saturday that Larson “was going to be here (in Charlotte) for the presentations of pilots at 5:25 (PM and). This is the call.”
This year was the second year of a two -year agreement that Hendrick Motorsports concluded with Arrow McLaren for Larson to drive in Indy 500. There is no agreement in place for next year.
Larson’s comments raise the question of whether it is worth trying to double in the future if the start hours remain the same.
The effort takes a lot of money from the sponsors and even with all the advertising, the effort can be canceled by the weather. With Nascar’s new rule this year, indicates that if a pilot is missing a race for something other than age injuries or restrictions, the only way he can get a waiver of the playoffs is to lose all their points in the playoffs and all the points of the playoffs they earn before the regular season.
Hendrick Motorsports said it would get Larson from Indy 500 this year to take her to Charlotte to start the 600.
Once in Charlotte, things did not go well for Larson.
He struck the wall early by leading, then turned later in the first step.
“The mistakes on my side this evening just took me.
Larson has made his way in the middle of the peloton but was collected in a multi-caught accident which highlighted caution at the 247 at the 400-round event.
He couldn’t avoid Daniel Suarez’s car and the damage ended Larson’s race. After finishing 27th in Indianapolis 500, Larson ranked 37th at Coca-Cola 600.
“Hates the way the day went,” said Larson. “I would like to be able to just hit reset and try again tomorrow, but the reality is that it will not happen. Feel terrible for everyone, Rick Hendrick, especially. ”