Kyle Larson’s journey to the Indianapolis 500 has been anything but smooth, a rollercoaster of speed, spins, and sheer determination. As the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion gears up to attempt “The Double”—running both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day—he’s faced more crashes than anyone else in the lead-up to this year’s race. After dusting himself from the first crash of the practice run last month, Larson was hoping for a strong lap in the mock qualifying sessions. But, once again, the No. 17 Arrow McLaren ran into the wall, raising concerns about Larson’s preparedness to redeem himself after last year’s disappointment.

Even his teammate, Chase Elliott, was worried about his chances to qualify well after the damage he sustained on the race car. What surprised everyone was that even Elliott shared his true feelings about attempting the “Double Duty”, but his focus was on his teammate attempting to create history at the hallowed grounds of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Kyle Larson just can’t seem to catch a good break

Ahead of the All-Star race, Chase Elliott was asked about his willingness to run the Memorial Day Double. We heard about the wild story of how Kyle Busch’s Double attempts were foiled by Coach Gibbs and later, Larson, but for Elliott, it’s not a big deal. “A little bit, but not much. They said earlier that he unfortunately had another crash today, which sucks. I hope they can fix it. I don’t really know how those cars work,” he said.

Friday’s session was grueling on the drivers as they struggled to find the right balance. Kyliff Simpson was the first to cross the line and end up crashing in Turn 4. And soon, Larson also suffered a similar fate. With 90 minutes left in the session, the HMS star was not able to clock the best speed as he lost control of his car entering Turn 3 and slammed into the outside wall nose-first. This was followed by another contact, this time the rear end of the car touching the wall heading into Turn 4. “I’m not too worried, I think I will be fine. Adjust a little bit, and track conditions will be better tomorrow and today I backed in it.” Larson said after the crash.

Now, in a NASCAR race, if the car gets damaged, the team have to resort to a backup car, which isn’t as good as the primary. But Elliott wasn’t aware of how things worked at Indy until the interviewers cleared it for him. “Oh, okay, gotcha. So yeah, there you go — I guess it doesn’t matter, which is awesome for them. Looking forward to keeping up with it, hopefully Sunday or next week, in between running around on race day morning. But yeah, wish him the best, and looking forward to keeping up.”

All eyes will be on Kyle Larson’s qualifying run. It is going to be a tough ordeal given he’s found himself in the wall twice when he has tried to make speed on the No. 17 Arrow McLaren car. And even after the qualifying, the job is only half done as the HMS driver will need to be on his toes to complete the 500 miles at the Indy 500, and then fly back to Charlotte in time for the start of the Coca-Cola 600. Needless to say, both McLaren and Hendrick Motorsports will be praying for clear skies and a good race on May 25.

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Things aren’t looking good for Larson

Last year, when Kyle Larson stepped out to qualify for his Indy 500 debut, he was pumped and pushed his race car to the absolute limit. Clocking 232.563 mph, he was able to secure a P6 position to start the race, and it was huge. But unfortunately, his 2025 run isn’t in line with his last year’s attempt; it could be the crash, or the stress of getting back at Charlotte, nothing can be said for sure.

The good news is that he was able to run a clean lap during the qualifying rounds, but the 230.053 mph wasn’t good enough to secure a good starting spot. Out of the 19 drivers that have attempted their laps, Larson ranked 16th. The bad news is that the likes of Josef Newgarden and other big contenders were about to come next for their qualifying laps.

“I’m not sure what they did, but I would assume they trimmed out a little bit. I feel like they matched the balance well. I got a little free into 2 the last lap. But other than that, I could tell that I was doing a little bit better. I don’t like qualifying here, so I felt like we had to qualify again because we’re trying to make the fast 12, but it just gets sketchier every time.” Larson said after the qualifying run.

The way the Indy 500 qualifying works is that each driver gets four laps run around the 2.5-mile oval. The average speed determines their qualifying position. After all cars complete their runs, teams can make additional attempts until 5:50 pm, which Larson is going to do to improve on his current position.