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Both the NASCAR Cup Series team Hendrick Motorsorts and the IndyCar team Arrow McLaren have announced that they will partner until 2025. Additionally, Kyle Larson will make a second effort at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway over Memorial Day Weekend in May.
This past May, Larson made an effort to become the sixth driver to complete the Memorial Day Double, but his run was cut short. Rain caused the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 to be postponed, so instead of traveling to Charlotte Motor Speedway in time for NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600, he chose to stay and compete in the storied IndyCar event.
The driver of the No. 17 McLaren-Hendrick Chevrolet qualified in fifth position, midway on the second row, and ran inside the top ten. However, a late pit road speeding penalty dropped him down the order, forcing him to settle for 18th.
That decision made him late for the Coca-Cola 600, which was halted due to rain itself by the time he had arrived.
The Coca-Cola 600 was called off before its planned distance because enough of the race had been run to be considered official. As a result, Larson was never able to compete and became the first driver in over 30 years to only complete one of two starts in a Memorial Day Double attempt.After Kurt Busch, a former colleague, accomplished the feat in 2014, Larson hopes to formally become the fifth driver to finish a Memorial Day Double attempt in 2025.
The only person to ever finish the 1,100 miles of the challenge in a single day was Tony Stewart, who accomplished it in 2001.
However, there is a caveat to next year’s attempt (or at least that’s what Rick Hendrick has said to appease NASCAR).
Despite having previously won many races during the regular season to guarantee his playoff berth, there were doubts about whether Larson would obtain a waiver to continue being eligible for the playoffs after he missed this year’s Coca-Cola 600.
After an unreasonably lengthy delay, the waiver was approved, but NASCAR was forced to confront the harsh fact that going ahead, changes to the system were required.
Giving Larson a waiver raised concerns that other drivers would compete in races that could eventually conflict with Cup Series events, even though the Indianapolis 500 is the Indianapolis 500 and nothing, no matter the series, should ever take a backseat to the world’s most popular single-day sporting event.
According to Hendrick, Larson’s top objective is the Coca-Cola 600, therefore if it rains at Indianapolis once again in 2025, he won’t start the race. This declaration follows Larson’s narrow defeat to win the Cup Series regular season title this year—a point he would have obtained only by participating in Charlotte.
Though that strategy is very dubious, Hendrick even hinted that Larson might be dragged out of the vehicle while leading, if any kind of delay made it seem as though he would not get it to Charlotte in time.
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