“Obviously, it‘s tricky, I spun.” Kyle Larson said these words during a practice for his second Indianapolis 500 attempt. Hendrick Motorsports’ golden boy carries no hint of doubt when he performs in NASCAR. From dominating Bristol races like a legend to overcoming his superspeedway weakness in Atlanta, Larson’s brilliance is visible. Yet his IndyCar excursions have been a tad bit unlucky to date. Last year’s pit road speeding resulted in an 18th-place finish, so Larson is taking 2025 seriously.

Tires are an essential part of all motorsports, be it NASCAR, IndyCar, or any other discipline. We all saw how Goodyear’s low-grip, high-wear tires made a ton of difference in some short tracks, like Phoenix or North Wilkesboro. But for Indianapolis, Kyle Larson faces a different challenge.

A lot of pomp and splendor accompanied Kyle Larson’s second ‘Double’ attempt. In 2024, a four-hour rain delay in the Indy 500 led to him missing out on the Coca-Cola 600 race entirely. So, fans looked up to a second-time charm; however, Larson’s IndyCar appearance has been plagued with problems in 2025. In an Indy 500 Open Test held on April 24th, he lost grip and crashed into the wall. Then, his troubles came back five days ago at the Fast Friday practice. In the final 90 minutes, Larson crashed his No. 17 Arrow McLaren Racing Chevrolet into the Turn 3 and Turn 4 SAFER barriers at the historic 2.5-mile speedway. His car hit the walls twice, both rear and front, before coming to rest. These twin disasters have prompted the star driver to examine his situation more closely.

What Kyle Larson shed the spotlight on was the track conditions. High winds and unusually warm temperatures characterized last Friday’s practice. The heat went close to 90 degrees, and wind gusts went over 40 MPH. In a recent appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Larson explained how that worked: “When it’s cooler, the track’s got more grip. The drivers make less mistakes, the speeds just kind of stay faster. So yeah, typically, I prefer warmer conditions. When the surface gets hot, your tires get hotter, and it just becomes slimy.” Larson added how he tackles this situation: “I think it probably depends on the track and the type of car I might be in. Yeah, like, you’re always studying like your competitors, your previous races, you see what moves work, like restarts, especially.”

After his crash in practice, his Arrow McLaren team quickly repaired the car with a new front wing and rear wing assembly. Yet Kyle Larson could manage a 21st starting spot in qualifying. The driver reflected on the difficulties he faces in IndyCar racing: “Restarts is where it gets crazy. You know, the field’s bunched up, it’s hard to pass, and you’re trying to make the most of the restarts. It’ll fan out 3 or 4-wide. The draft is like crazy, in IndyCar, which is weird to feel. In stock cars, we have drafting, but in IndyCar, it’s like you get in that pocket of air and it’s a full boost. It gets quiet… when you pull out, you have all the wind on top of your car, and it gets loud, the car starts moving around a little bit.” It was not long ago that Larson crashed into the wall with his practice run car.

On 15 May 2025, Kyle Larson was driving his No. 17 car when it spun and made contact with the Turn 3 wall. But, Yung Money took it very sportily. “You see me crash all the time. I don’t think it usually affects me,” he said this after his second crash in the last three weeks in his Arrow McLaren car. But he has much more than just a positive outlook. “I learned a lot. I’m sure the team is going to look at the data and learn a lot from it, my teammates as well,” Larson said. But what was going on in his mind after the first crash?

Kyle Larson said, “After the first run, I was a little bit nervous I’d be one of the guys battling for the final spots. … It was slightly less comfortable than what I felt last year, what I felt in qualifying. I felt pretty balanced. I was happy with that. With the balance comes a little bit lack of speed, but I didn’t crash, and that was a plus.” His qualifier performance has started to turn heads. However, there might be a speck of stress in his demeanor.

And right now, he must be taking a deep breath. Why? Well, because he is rumored to have a strong rivalry with one of the best IndyCar drivers.

Formidable even when in trouble

Well, the past week has been turbulent for Team Penske. The organization’s IndyCar fold went through another bout of violations after their 2024 push-to-pass maneuver. This time, the cars of Josef Newgarden and Will Power were found to have illegal modifications. As a consequence, Roger Penske dismissed his right-hand man of 26 years, Tim Cindric, and two other top Penske executives. Newgarden and Power landed $200,000 fines and were relegated to the back of the pack for the Indy 500. Yet that hardly means their winning drive is any less. After the 2024 infraction, Newgarden went on to clinch his second Indy 500 victory. So he has already proven that he can perform under pressure.

However, Kyle Larson has the perfect guidance in the form of Mexican speedster Pato O’Ward. The latter has two runner-up finishes at the Greatest Spectacle of Racing, coming close to stealing Newgarden’s glory last year. Larson reflected on how he gathered advice from the expert who lost his chance by a mere 0.342 seconds. He said, “Looking at where Pato was last year, I don’t see how you do anything different, really, you know? Newgarden’s car was so extremely good, and it was hard for others to build those runs on the backstretch. So I think (O’Ward) had his run on the frontstretch (on the last lap) and he took his opportunity and then you’re just hoping that you have just enough, which he almost had just enough speed and distance, before he got to Turn 3.”

Hence, the circumstances look challenging for Kyle Larson this year. We can only wait and see how the HMS star will perform in his second ‘Double’ attempt.