Insider: Kyle Larson takes ROP laps at IMS
Motor sports insider Nathan Brown recaps Kyle Larson’s rookie orientation at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday, October 13, 2023.
Editor’s note: This is the second in a five-part series examining questions entering the 2024 NASCAR season.
With his multi-disciplinary racing exploits, Kyle Larson continues to push boundaries, regularly entering territory where few drivers have gone before.
So, we all should’ve seen this coming, right? The year in which Larson made the Memorial Day Double the Kyle Couplet.
Larson won’t be the first to run the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, just the first in a while, and while success in the endeavor has been rare, one would think Larson’s diverse skillset would set him up perfectly for such an enterprise.
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So, how does Larson do in Double Duty and, does it open doors for others?
There seems to be no lack of volunteers for the latter question. In recent weeks, both Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney and reigning Indianapolis 500 champ Josef Newgarden hinted at the desire to do the Double. But as Newgarden quickly noted, finding the opportunity and rides to pull it off remains difficult.
Larson could help with that by proving success in both is possible. Not many before him have. Here’s a quick brush-up.
For starters, only Tony Stewart has ever completed all 1,100 miles, finishing sixth at Indy and third at Charlotte back in 2001. The very next year, Robby Gordon fell just a lap short of the feat, finishing eighth at Indy and coming home 16th in the 600, one lap down.
In terms of doing both on the same day, Stewart’s 2001 effort remains the standard. In 2014, Kurt Busch became the last driver to attempt the Double, and though he matched Stewart’s sixth-place finish at Indy, he bowed out midrace in Charlotte with a failed engine.
Decades ago, competing in both events was much easier and more commonplace as the two events were held on different days until 1974. With a NASCAR points system that was more relaxed, drivers would routinely skip the Charlotte race to compete at Indy — Cale Yarborough, LeeRoy Yarbrough and Bobby Allison did that.
Yarborough was the first driver to do both events in the same year, finishing 41st at Charlotte and 17th at Indianapolis in 1967. That year, the 600 was run on Sunday while the Indianapolis 500 started on Tuesday and ended on Wednesday due to rain.
In 1969, Yarbrough became the first driver to win while doing Double Duty, claiming victory at Charlotte on Sunday, May 25, and finishing 23rd at Indy on Friday, May 30. To date, Donnie Allison turned in the best combined finishes in the same year, winning at Charlotte on Sunday, May 24, and turning in a fourth-place result at Indy on Saturday, May 30, in 1970.
Once the two events started sharing a calendar date in the mid-1970s, crossovers became a near impossibility. That is, until 1992 when Charlotte became the first speedway with lights, thus allowing the start time of the 600 to venture further into the evening.
Just two years later, John Andretti became the first driver to attempt the Double in one day, finishing 10th at Indy before suffering engine failure midrace at Charlotte, settling for a 36th-place showing. Stewart went on to attempt the feat twice and Gordon five times.
But since Busch’s foray back in 2014, nobody has tried what Larson will. Yet, perhaps outside of Stewart, none before can match the overall racing success Larson’s had. Larson has a Cup Series championship, yes, but there’s the numerous victories on dirt and even an overall title in the Rolex 24 to go with it.
So, this was likely the next and most natural progression in the career of a driver that refuses to be boxed into any one form of racing.
How will he do? Time will tell, but surely, more than a few eyes will be watching.
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