Racing the Indianapolis 500 is the dream of nearly every professional racecar driver. The 500 attracted – and continues to attract – the best of the best in every form of motor sport and having one’s mug on the BorgWarner Trophy is the pinnacle of open wheel motor sport. This is true for those that aren’t normally involved in the NTT INDYCAR series.
Most recently, Fernando Alonso attempted to win The Greatest Spectacle in Racing. The Formula One maestro raced with Andretti Autosport in 2017, earning Rookie of the Year honors despite a 31st place result, and tried to make the field in 2019, failing to do so with Arrow McLaren Racing. He raced the following August after the COVID pandemic moved the Memorial Day classic closer to Labor Day, finishing 21st.
Former F1 racers are currently plying their trades in INDYCAR and doing so successfully, notably Marcus Ericsson, the Swede driving with Chip Ganassi Racing who won the 106th Indy 500 and is now a deep threat at every single INDYCAR race, whether on a road course, street circuit, short or long oval. Romain Grosjean, now in his third season, hasn’t earned victory yet but is learning the ropes of the series with Andretti Autosport and could be a threat this month of May.
John Andretti was the first driver to attempt racing at both Indianapolis and Charlotte, attempting the 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, in 1994. Kurt Busch tried as well; neither one has been successful at winning either the INDYCAR or NASCAR Memorial Day classics in a single day. It’s not that these drivers didn’t have great equipment to help them win either or both; maybe it just wan’t their day. At Indy, in particular, it’s been said the track determines each year’s winner, so maybe next year, as 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson begins a two-year program to win both races, the track will oblige?
Larson will spend the upcoming year working his day job, which is driver of Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Throughout the season he’ll work on taking a second Cup Series title even as he prepares – and Larson intends to prepare fully – to understand what it takes to be an INDYCAR driver and be successful in that endeavor. No doubt he’ll be on simulators set up by both Chevrolet and Arrow McLaren, which will be his team of record for the two-year attempt.
Larson, as you might imagine, realizes “there’s a lot to take in” as the Indy cars are lighter than his NASCAR steed, have intense power that translates to all four wheels nearly instantaneously, have zero power steering and are raced wheel-to-wheel, hopefully without a single touch of another car or the unforgiving walls of the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval.
“There’s no bigger race than the 500,” Larson acknowledges. That’s likely why he, Hendrick Motorsports’ vice chairman Jeff Gordon – who missed his opportunity to race in the Indy 500 as he piled up the wins and titles in NASCAR (and yes, it’s one of his few regrets) and Arrow McLaren racing director Gavin Ward came to this historic track to announce their two-year intent to race in and win the largest single day sporting event in the world.
Larson, who is known for his ability to race and win in any type of race car admitted, “This is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. I wanted to be patient and kind of wait for the timing to feel right. It feels right. Having Hendrick Motorsports be extremely supportive of it, supporting the efforts with Arrow McLaren, it’s something that I’m extremely excited about.
“Jeff kind of told me that I get to live out a dream of his. That’s really special to me,” Larson continued in his late-morning press conference, held just before the track opened for its traditional six hours of practice on Thursday, May 18th. “I’ve obviously come here a lot in a stock car. I lived in the area for a couple of years, so this place, for a long time, felt like home – or a second home to me.” Both Larson and Gordon, born in California, came to the midwest determined to advance their motorsports careers.
While Jeff Gordon never had the opportunity to race in the Indianapolis 500, he does understand how much effort it takes to field a winning car. “I think, as a driver,” he said, “you’re talking about Indianapolis at 230-plus miles per hour, what it takes to get comfortable, what kind of language there is for a driver of the types of things that they’re talking about versus a stock car or a sprint car,” two of Larson’s most prominent motorsports activities.
For Hendrick Motorsports, “Building this relationship with Arrow McLaren [is key], so that next year we can do everything we can to maximize its full potential; get Kyle everything he needs, to get Arrow McLaren everything they need, to make sure that this effort goes as smooth as possible and gibes them the best opportunity to get a great result,” Gordon emphasized.
For Arrow McLaren, taking on a driver who has the versatility of a Kyle Larson is exceptionally important. “For the team to build this relationship with Hendrick Motorsports, Hendrick Cars” Gavin Ward noted, “is great. I think one of the best racing teams in the world, racing organizations in the world. Fun to kind of get that together… “ For these two mega-teams to converge and to work with the kind of compatibility that’s necessary for success – with a year to, well, get it right, is the smart way to attempt a run at Indy.
When Larson drove for Chip Ganassi Racing, there was always the specter of Indy looming. At that time, “I wasn’t as accomplished yet in the NASCAR stuff. I wanted to be able to not feel like I was taking a ton away from that stuff. Now I’ve been able to accomplish a lot in the NASCAR stuff. Hendrick is, obviously, always a consistent frontrunner.
“I don’t want to do this to just do it,” Larson emphasized. “I want to do it, take it seriously, feel like I’m prepared enough to win. I’ve got 300 some odd days to try to get ready,” he said.
This is an important year for Hendrick Motorsports. Not only does the team field four highly competitive cars in NASCAR’s premier Cup Series, celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2023, but the team is en route to France for the 100th anniversary of the 24 Heures du Mans, the Le Mans 24-hour summer classic. “The fact that Rick [Hendrick] has never been to the Indy 500, we’re going to go to Le Mans this year, next year he’s going to come to the Indy 500, that’s extremely exciting for our organization, as well a the things we can learn from Arrow McLaren in what they do here to compete for this event,” Gordon stressed. “I think there’s crossover we can learn from one another.”
Gordon did confirm that Hendrick Motorsports will continue to put its racing emphasis on NASCAR. “NASCAR is always going to be our primary focus, where our history, our legacy lies.” Still, the team has diversified in the past, as it is doing right now, in 2023. “We’ve dabbled a little bit in IMSA; we have a great relationship with Chevrolet and our friends at GM. If there’s something that makes sense for us as a company, as Hendrick Motorsports, then we’re certainly going to look at it, look at whether or not it makes sense for us or not.”
As he preps for next May (and for 2025), Kyle Larson has already been to the Arrow McLaren shop for a first seat fitting. The team has given him a packet of notes and dash displays to study and they’ve emailed him onboard footage. “I kind of got to see the onboard, see shifting, adjusting, all the cockpit adjustable things that they have, just seeing how the flow of the race kind of goes, how they position themselves behind people in traffic, stuff like that. Restart procedures, all of that. Pit stops, pulling into your pit sign, all of that.”
Larson doesn’t know when he’ll physically be able to test an Arrow McLaren racecar. Ward said the team is “looking at all options really, to get as much track testing or readiness. We’re evaluating all that.” Of course simulator running is part of that program, “I think it’s more about probably some of the basic stuff, just getting familiarized with the steering wheel, the adjustments in the cockpit. Gives you a heads-up on some seat fit work,” Ward noted.
Realistically, nothing compares to actual seat time, but Larson feels that the current form of NASCAR Cup Series racing “has trended a little bit closer to INDYCAR style of strategy, with fuel savings, stuff like that. I think I have more experience n
ow than I would have had three years ago on that side of things. I think,” he concluded, no matter the result throughout the whole experience, I think I’m going to become a better race car driver from it. So I’m excited about all that!”
By Anne Proffit
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