CONCORD, N.C. — Kyle Larson’s second attempt at completing 1,100 miles in a single day by running the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 featured multiple crashes and ultimately ended in disappointment Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Larson’s day started with a rain delay at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and ended when he spun and triggered a multi-car accident on the 92nd lap of the 2.5-mile speedway.
“It was a bit crazy there on start, and I got tight behind Takuma,” Larson said. “I was really close to him and I think as I got a shade left of him (sees replay). I got loose and got all over the place and spun. I just hate that I just got a little too eager on the restart and caused that crash and hate it for anyone that got caught up in it. Bummed out. Try to get over this quickly and get to Charlotte. Forget about and try to win the next one.”
As a result, Larson made an on-time arrival at Charlotte Motor Speedway and started outside the front row for NASCAR’s longest race.
Larson led 34 laps but spun while leading only 43 laps into the race. His day continued, briefly, in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5.
He was involved in a second accident on lap 247 that ended his night with a 37th-place finish after he wound up 27th at Indy earlier in the day.
“I don’t know,” Larson said of the accident. “I saw smoke and I tried to get left through the infield and I just didn’t get far enough left. I got tagged and it ended our night. Just a bummer of a day all around. I just got super loose into turn three out of nowhere early in the race. I caught the wall and got some toe damage. I thought the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team did a great job in getting us back to where we were somewhat comfortable there the last 200 laps. We just needed to kind of chip away at it and I thought we could still end up OK.”
Despite the disappointing result, Larson was still pleased with the opportunity to do both races.
“Just not the day that I wanted, but huge thanks to Rick and Linda Hendrick, all of Hendrick Motorsports, Arrow McLaren, Chevrolet, everybody involved in making the day memorable,” he said. “It’s just unfortunate, but hopefully we can run it back someday.”
