NASCAR’s two great stalwarts, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon, are different. While both have fired their engines to glory in their prime, their stories deflected after retirement. While Gordon became a Hendrick magnate, Stewart did not really retire, as he continued racing.

And that is what fascinates Kyle Larson the most. The Hendrick Motorsports driver relates to Stewart’s tireless versatility on another level. As he had done a year ago, Larson reiterated his respect for Stewart ahead of ‘The Double’.

Kyle Larson emulates Stewart’s personality

Earning three victories in his rookie season, it was clear from the start that Tony Stewart was to be on a roller-coaster ride. He collected 49 Cup wins on every style of track before retiring in 2016. Even after his official departure, Stewart kept racing, especially on dirt tracks, and recently forayed into NHRA drag racing.

Kyle Larson wants to be just like that, as he said recently. He stressed there’s so much more than Cup racing. “I never viewed myself as just a Cup Series driver…Ever since I got into stock cars, I just continue to race dirt stuff. And I always looked up to guys like Tony Stewart, who continue to race, other forms of racing. I kind of modeled my career after his a little bit”.

And Kyle Larson is actively pursuing this Tony Stewart emulation. The Las Vegas Cup winner is ready to leave a mark in ‘The Greatest Spectacle of Racing’. Attempting the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on a single day, Larson will try to follow in Stewart’s footsteps. Tony Stewart was the only driver to complete both races worth 1100 miles in 2001.

Larson added that this penchant for versatility is good for the long run. “When I try different things and have to learn new things it just pushes myself to get better. I think that in turn helps the NASCAR side. I’m very fortunate that Hendrick Motorsports lets me do it, and I just really enjoy it.”

Kyle Larson keeps his schedule full. He competes in dirt races on weekdays before reaching a Cup track on the weekend. But now he is in for a challenging task in May, and he has meticulously woven a path to winning it.

Larson checked all the boxes for acing ‘The Double’

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Kyle Larson had finished his rookie orientation only last October in Indianapolis. He said it was about the “little stuff, what the steering wheel felt like, visually, what all that felt like.” In the February test in Phoenix, he said he wanted to “to feel the car and it slipping and moving and work on ins and outs of pit stalls and things like that.”

Larson slowly inched closer to his goal and proved his mettle in the Indy 500 practice. He was so fast that he fell short of only defending Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden. He said, “I could move on to the next thing, like all right, ‘Now how does it look like around cars? How does what I’ve learned in the past translate to now being behind cars?’”

The grand day hosting both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 is fast approaching. And Kyle Larson might just hold a candle to his idol’s 2001 wins in both races.