No, Kyle Larson completing a generally unplanned Knoxville-and-Richmond double does not make him any more likely to attempt both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day ever again.
For that matter, Rick Hendrick doesn’t want to directly be involved in something like this ever again.
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When asked about the topic on Tuesday, Larson was already shaking head ‘no’ before the question could even be completed. He’s done with that phase of his career after attempting both races, and all the logistical pitfalls that come with it in 2024 and 2025.
“No,” said Larson shaking his head.
And then the question was finished.
“No, because as you can see, weather’s just a thing and I don’t know,” he added. “I got lucky.”
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Larson never even intended to run the Knoxville Nationals feature on Saturday night even after claiming the pole with his victory during a preliminary night win on Thursday. His plan all along was to race in Iowa all week, making as much money for the Paul Silva Racing No. 57 team, and then having crew member Trevor Canales start-and-park the car to collect $15,000 for making the 24-car feature.
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There were 100 entries when the week started and his feature win on Thursday paid $12,000-to-win too. This was supposed to be his final Sprint Car start of the season before the start of NASCAR’s Chase for the Championship.
But it rained on Saturday in Knoxville and Larson was able to get on a plane as soon as he finished sixth at Richmond and arrived in time for the start of the main event in Iowa. Hendrick Motorsports offered their full support in readying his plane while he drove the Cup car.
This is different than the past two years at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where he planned to compete in both races for Arrow McLaren and Hendrick respectively. His effort in the first year was thwarted by rain at Indianapolis, missing the start of the Coca-Cola 600, and then not even turning a single lap when it rained at Charlotte.
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Again, Larson never planned to do both races on Saturday night.
“When I woke up in the morning, the forecast showed heavy rain at six to midnight, So I was like, ‘okay, I’m for sure going to be able to go race on Sunday,’ but then the chances of rain started going down a lot,” Larson said of Knoxville.
“And I mean, from my weather app that I use on my phone, it was only showing a 10 percent chance at 6:00 p.m. by the time it was 4, when Cliff (Daniels, crew chief) started talking about helicopters and all the things.
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“So I was just like, ‘Man, I don’t want other people to go through all this trouble of lining me up a helicopter and spending all this money for me to go helicopter from the Cup race to the airport and get there five minutes (late) just to go fly home to Concord.’ So that’s where I was just like, yeah, by the time I got in the (Cup) car, I mean, there was no hope I had left of running there just based off of the forecast.”
That changed.
Nevertheless, now Hendrick has signed another driver in Zilisch who also wants to try the double someday and had explored the possibility of doing it with Trackhouse Racing. If Zilisch ever runs the Indianapolis 500, it most likely won’t be in a Hendrick Motorsports backed effort said the chairman himself.
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“I’m done with that,” Hendrick said earnestly. “But I’ve learned to say never say never, but it would take a lot of convincing for me to do that again.”
Zilisch is still hopeful.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s something down the road that I’ve always dreamed of,” Zilisch said. “But at the end of the day, I need to focus on what I’m doing on Sundays here before I really focus on stepping outside of my comfort zone.”
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