Kyle Larson Looks To Make Racing History

KYLE LARSON won’t sleep much the night before the Indianapolis 500.

“We try, but it’s tough,” the 32-year-old driver tells Indianapolis Monthly. “I just remember last year; the cannon went off at like 5 or 6 in the morning. And once you hear that, you start getting excited. I mean, you are trying to sleep, but it’s tough to do.”

“Tough” may be quite the understatement for Larson going into Sunday, when he once again attempts the feat known as “The Double”—competing in the Indianapolis 500 and then traveling to Charlotte, North Carolina for NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 on the very same day. The California native will have a Prime Video documentary crew following him everywhere he goes.

“They follow me into the bathroom now,” laughs Larson, mere days before chasing the checkered flag at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “It’s going to be incredible to see them put two-and-a-half years of footage into a 90-minute film that will really show the magnitude of what we’ve been trying to accomplish now for the last couple years.”

But Larson admits that this year feels different.

“Last year, every day you looked at the forecast, you could see Sunday was not looking too promising,” the famed driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports says of the weather delays that hampered his first attempt at The Double. “This year, I just haven’t really heard much about the weather, so I haven’t looked at it a whole lot. I just assume it’s going to be good. [Laughs] But yeah, it’s the Midwest, so you never know what’s going to happen.”

Qualifying in the 19th position of the famed race, Larson’s road to get to the Indianapolis 500 has been a long but worthy one.

“There’s so much history and prestige behind this race,” Larson says. “I think all the buildup just adds to everybody’s excitement, whether you’re a competitor or a fan or a mechanic. You can feel the energy on race morning. There are hundreds of thousands of fans trying to file their way into the facility and then the celebrities start coming in and there’s just a sea of people everywhere. It’s different from any other event I get the chance to run.”

These differences are not only felt by Larson himself but also by the people who love him, including his wife, Katelyn. “I know during [Indianapolis 500] qualifying, she said she had to go have a beer,” Larson laughs. “She needed to knock the edge off.”

Nevertheless, Larson says one of the best parts about getting the chance to race in the Indianapolis 500 is the fact that his family and friends—including his 10-year-old son and possible future racer Owen Larson—can enjoy the spectacle right alongside him.

“Who knows where he wants to take his racing career, but I’d have to imagine he thinks all of this is really cool,” says Larson. “Seeing all the people there and all the craziness that’s going on—probably from his eyes, it’s maybe even bigger.”