Kyle Larson battled Denny Hamlin tooth-and-nail ultimately settling for the runner-up spot at the Wurth 400. But before the Monster Mile ended up showcasing the perfect display of ‘NextGen’ parity during the race, Kevin Harvick made headlines after his announcement to serve as the backup driver for Larson’s #5 at the All-Star Race weekend at North Wilkesboro next month.

In a lighthearted pre-race segment on FOX, the broadcast team broke the news to the world on live television, with Hendrick Motorsports’ 2021 champ. Ahead of his P21-to-P2 dash at Dover, Larson would tell the world, “We’ve been trying to find drivers and stuff to replace me in the seat for practice and looked at lots of resumes and unfortunately, Clint (Bowyer’s) didn’t make the cut. So we decided to go with Kevin Harvick.”

Hendrick Motorsports made it official from their end in updates across their social media handles. The X post read, “@KevinHarvick will be the standby driver for @KyleLarsonRacin at the NASCAR All-Star race in May due to scheduling conflicts with Indy 500 qualifying.”

This is due to clashes with Kyle Larson’s Double Duty attempt, including the grand Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same weekend for 1100 miles of back-breaking racing action. IndyCar Series’ flagship event will hold practice from May 14th to 17th, followed by qualifying on the 18th. The All-Star Heat Races in North Wilkesboro are announced to roll off on the 18th, and considering Larson can’t make it back in time, Happy Harvick will have the keys to the #5.

Larson seems set to miss practice for the All-Star race, but as he later announced alongside Harvick on FS1, “I won’t be able to, I don’t think, to get there for the heat race. So we have all day on Saturday to change everything back to me.” Hence, it is almost 99% certain that the Hendrick talisman will be back in time to take over his superhuman attempts ultimately reaching its climax on May 26th at Charlotte. He will be only the 5th NASCAR driver to attempt 1100 miles of the iconic “Memorial Day Double”.

Kevin Harvick, on the other hand, a two-time All-Star race winner, will surely be excited to come out of retirement, with Rick Hendrick himself, calling in for the ‘favor.’ Only ironically, it would so happen that the #5 is currently the defending champion of this mid-season showcase.

While the ‘Double Duty’ attempt will be an exciting prospect for the 2021 Cup Series champion, Dover couldn’t live up to its hype for the driver as the #1q1 of Hamlin showed the NASCAR community how it’s done.

Coming off an impressive run at the high-banked concretes of Dover, Larson was a little disappointed after winning Stage 2 and falling behind Denny Hamlin for the entirety of Stage 3 and the finish line of the Würth 400. It was an outstanding day for Joe Gibbs and Hendrick Motorsports, as Martin Truex Jr (P3), and Chase Elliott (P5) represented their respective race teams with strong displays inside the top 5. Additionally, Kyle Busch turned up with his best finish since Atlanta with a P4 for Richard Childress Racing, albeit dropping three spots from the pole position at the start of the race.

Nevertheless, Larson shared his P2 perspectives in his post-race interview with Jamie Little: “I knew when I got within three car lengths, he (Denny Hamlin) was going to start moving around. I couldn’t really do anything. I was trying all sorts of different angles and speeds, all that. Nothing could generate enough speed to get close enough, I guess, to do anything. That was a bummer.”

Although Larson’s Indy 500 advance will kick off on May 14th with some much-needed track time at the Brickyard, his next stock-car test for 2024 takes place at the Advent Health 400 in Kansas.