Kyle Larson crashes out of Indy 500 near the midway point, ending his second bid for ‘the Double’
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Kyle Larson crashed out of the Indianapolis 500 near the midway point Sunday, ending the NASCAR superstar’s second shot at finishing both “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” and the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte in the same day.
Larson had been mired deep in traffic throughout the first half of the race, which was delayed about 35 minutes because of a rain shower that passed over the speedway. He was going through Turns 1 and 2 when his car wiggled on a downshift, sending him into a spin and into the outside wall, ending his race after 91 laps.
“Just a bit crazy there on the restart,” he said. “I got like, tight behind Takuma (Sato). I was really close in. I got loose and kind of got all over the place, and yeah, so it spun. Just hate that I got a little too eager on the restarter. Hate it for everybody else.”
Kyffin Simpson and Sting Ray Robb also were caught up in the crash.
“When Kyle started losing it and checking up, I tried to go around the outside and there was just no grip out there,” Robb said.
The early ouster at least gave Larson plenty of time to make the trip to North Carolina for the Cup Series race on Sunday night, where he will start on the outside of the front row. If he had made it to the finish in Indianapolis, he would have faced a tight window to make the 550-mile trip because of the rain delay, which soaked up most of the 45-minute buffer that his NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports and IndyCar team Arrow McLaren projected for him.
It was a rough day for Larson even before the crash. He also stalled the car on pit lane, costing him valuable track positions.
Larson took his first shot on one of the toughest challenges in motorsports last season, when even more rain wreaked havoc with his finely laid plans. That Indy 500 was delayed by 4 hours because of heavy rains that saturated Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and that caused him to be late to Charlotte, where the Cup Series race was underway by the time he landed.
Then, more rain there caused the NASCAR race to be called complete before Larson ever took a lap in his car.
John Andretti was the first driver to try the Indy 500-Coca-Cola 600 double in 1994, and Robby Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch also have given it a shot. Stewart is the only one to complete all 1,100 laps, finishing sixth in the 2001 Indy 500 before the helicopter-jet-helicopter jaunt to Charlotte, where he finished third in the Cup Series race.
“Just bummed out,” Larson said. “Try to get over this quickly and get on to Charlotte. Try to forget about it and win tonight.”
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Reed reported from Charlotte, North Carolina.
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