All going well, the NASCAR Cup Series leader will race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this Sunday afternoon (local time) in a McLaren IndyCar before flying to Charlotte to complete the Coca-Cola 600 in the evening.
Any delays at The Brickyard, where he qualified a remarkable fifth on debut, could quite easily force him to pull out of the Indy 500 given his bid for a second NASCAR Cup title with Hendrick Motorsports takes priority.
However, now a new threat to Larson’s ‘double’ campaign has emerged in the form of Donald Trump, the former United States President and Republican nominee for the 2024 election.
Charlotte Motor Speedway has confirmed to local media that Trump is planning to attend Sunday night’s race in North Carolina, where he won the Republican Primary in March with 73 percent of the vote.
The risk, therefore, is that security measures which would be enacted for a former and potential future US President could get in the way of Larson’s journey from Indianapolis into the Charlotte circuit.
Larson is set to fly by helicopter to the airport after the Indy 500, and onward to Charlotte on a private jet.
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Drivers are expected to take the green flag at The Brickyard at 12:45 ET per IndyCar’s official Colour Schedule.
However, the National Weather Service is forecasting a 60 percent chance of rain for the suburb of Speedway on Sunday, which could delay or disrupt the 200-lapper.
Last year’s race-winning time was 2:58:21.9611s in an encounter which included three late red flag periods and that of the year before was 2:51:00.6432s when there was one red flag period among a total of six Cautions.
Even the relatively quick 2021 race, won in a time of 2:37:19.3846s with two Caution periods along the way, would leave about two-and-a-half hours to make the journey to Charlotte in time for the official 18:00 ET start time for the Cup contest, assuming no rain delays.
Making matters even more complicated, Larson cannot score points in the NASCAR race if he does not start (per Section 12.4.1.3.B of the Cup Rule Book), nor would a win count towards the Playoffs, ruling out the idea of taking over his #5 Chevrolet midway through the evening.
Furthermore, McLaren Sporting Director Tony Kanaan, the 2013 Indy 500 winner, would not be allowed to take over the #17 Chevrolet at IMS if Larson starts given IndyCar outlawed ‘relief’ drivers in 2015.
The Brazilian finished 16th last year in his farewell race and third the year prior in an Indy-only Chip Ganassi Racing entry, but must have completed the Veteran Refresher to be eligible.
There is one last day of on-track action before the race itself, that being Friday’s Carb Day, but Larson would need to have been withdrawn for Kanaan to undertake his refresher.
Rick Hendrick, though, stated in the past 24 hours that they will wait until Sunday to make the call.
While he has partnered with McLaren for the Indy 500 entry, he reiterated that NASCAR is the priority for Larson.
“That’s a tough question because we’ve talked about it many times, and we know we need to be at Charlotte for the points,” he said.
“We’re just going to let it play out, and then Kyle and myself and [Vice-Chairman] Jeff Gordon, we have [Team President Jeff] Andrews, we’ll make that decision Sunday.
“It would be very hard [to pull Larson out], it would be very tough,” added Hendrick.
“Would be very disappointing because of all the effort that everyone has put in, from Arrow McLaren to Zak [Brown, McLaren Racing CEO] and the crowd, our marketing people.
“We’ve got a tremendous amount of folks there at Indy, and he’s in such a good position, it would be extremely hard.”
Of McLaren’s full-time IndyCar drivers, Alexander Rossi qualified fourth and Pato O’Ward eighth, while Callum Ilott took 15th on the grid in the #6 entry originally set to be steered by David Malukas in 2024.
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