Faded dream
Complete 1100 miles in a single day, trying to achieve the best possible results – one after the other – in two of the most iconic races in American motorsport: the Indy 500, the symbolic race of the IndyCar championship, and the Coca-Cola 600, the longest race on the NASCAR calendar. This was the goal that Kyle Larson set himself a year ago, trying to equal a feat achieved in history only by Tony Steweart in 2001 with 6th place in Indianapolis and 3rd, a few hours later, in the ‘marathon ‘ by Charlotte.
For almost a year now, Larson had been diligently building the possibility of achieving a legendary feat that no one had attempted for 10 years. Qualifying in both races went very well for the 2021 Cup Series champion: 5th in Indianapolis, in his debut in IndyCar, and 10th in Charlotte. Unfortunately, however, on Memorial Day Sunday, in which everything – starting from travel – had been organized down to the smallest detail to try to allow Larson to complete his feat, the weather got in the way.
Delays and misfortunes
The start of the Indy 500, which was originally scheduled for 12.45pm, was postponed due to the bad weather that hit the track until 4.44pm. Four hours of delay which completely disrupted Larson’s plans, who at this point chose to concentrate on the IndyCar race, giving the green light to the Hendrick Motorsport team and Chevrolet to replace him in the Charlotte race with Justin Allgaier, who had been pre-warned for the occasion. Larson’s plan was clear: race at Indy, finish the race and fly to North Carolina for the final leg of the Coca-Cola 600, taking over for Allgaier. In fact, NASCAR regulations do not prohibit the same car from being driven in the same race by two different drivers.
In the Indy 500 Larson did well, spending almost the entire race in the top-10 and even finding himself in the lead for a few laps. Unfortunately, however, a speeding violation in the pit lane caused him to bounce back. In the end his first time ever in IndyCar ended with an 18th position under the checkered flag. However, fate had yet to play its most unlucky trick on the 31-year-old Californian, considered by many to be one of the most talented drivers in North America.
The curse of the rain
In fact, while Larson was moving between helicopter and plane towards Charlotte, the disturbance also moved in the same direction, hitting the Coca-Cola 600 just as Larson landed at Concord airport, near the runway. Larson had time to reach his pit wall, put his helmet back on and prepare to take over Allgaier – who was 13th on the track at the time – when the race was suspended due to rain. In the event of a restart – which could have taken place around 1am, American time – Larson would have been the driver behind the wheel of car #5, but just when it seemed that the Charlotte track was one step away from drying out, Race Direction declared the race over – which had just exceeded half of the scheduled laps – awarding the victory to Christopher Bell, on Toyota.
A very bitter ending for Larson, who expressed on social networks all his displeasure at the way in which this particular adventure ended, hoping to have other attempts in the future to try to accomplish the Double Duty feat: “What I thought would be one of the best days of my life quickly turned into one of the most disappointing I’ve ever experienced“, Larson’s sad observation on Twitter/X.
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