Kyle Larson Suffers Setback With Fast Friday Wreck Ahead Of Indy 500 Qualifying
Larson is making his second attempt at pulling "Double Duty" on Memorial Day
Kyle Larson is back at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for his second attempt at pulling double duty by running in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend, but he suffered a significant setback in Fast Friday practice with a big crash less than 24 hours before the start of qualifying.
Friday saw some treacherous conditions with hot temperatures and high winds that made it tough to lay down a spotless couple of laps.
Earlier in the day, Chip Ganassi Racing's Kyffin Simpson suffered a nasty crash, and unfortunately, he was the next driver to get caught out.
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Larson had another crash in testing a couple of weeks ago, but unfortunately, this one was significantly bigger.
It appeared that Larson brought his No. 17 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet just a bit too low through Turn 3, perhaps even low enough for the car to bottom out.
That led to a spin which sent Larson hard into the wall nose first before sliding down the short chute into Turn 4.
Thankfully, Larson immediately hopped out of the car, but as you could see there was a lot of damage to that car, and with under two hours of practice time left on Friday, his day was done (though he did return to the track briefly to make sure everything was in order after the Arrow McLaren mechanics worked their magic).
Track time is at a premium and any lost time is going to be detrimental for Larson, who doesn't get nearly the amount of time in IndyCar machinery that most of the rest of the field gets.
That said, last year, Larson qualified on the second row of the grid, so hopefully the Arrow McLaren mechanics can get that car fixed up just the way that Larson likes it, because despite a run-up to this year's Indy 500 that hasn't gone quite as smoothly as last year's, Larson is one of the best all-around drivers on the planet, and has the ability to once again drop a strong performance that could land him a spot in the Fast 12, possibly even Fast 5.