Larson unsure if double attempt is worth it after early finish to a rough day

Kyle Larson did not have the race day he hoped to have between Indianapolis and Charlotte, and if he could, he would give it a second try Monday.

But Larson knows that’s not how it works. Instead, he is left with two incomplete races after crashing out of the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600.

“I hate the way the day went,” Larson said Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “I wish I could hit reset and try again tomorrow, but the reality is that’s not going to happen. I just feel terrible for everybody – Rick Hendrick, especially – everybody at Hendrick Automotive Group and HendrickCars.com, for all the effort that they put in to make it possible yet again. Just didn’t happen.”

The crash at Indianapolis occurred on lap 92 when the car got away from Larson in Turn 2. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on the viewpoint, the race-ending incident allowed him to leave Indianapolis and make it with plenty of time to spare before the start of the Coca-Cola 600, where he qualified second.

Larson had a hard time out of Indianapolis shortly after 4 p.m. local time. The race was not complete by that deadline, and the decision would have had to have been made to pull Larson from the car if he were still in the race.

From the outside of the front row for the start of the Coca-Cola 600, he led the first lap. He briefly lost the top spot to Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron before reestablishing himself out front on lap nine. Larson led until lap 42 when he spun off Turn 4. The incident occurred a few laps after he'd hit the wall while leading.

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“I got loose [into the corner] leading early and smacked the wall and got us behind,” Larson said. “But I thought our team was doing a good job to get the car in better shape there to just chip away at it and contend for a decent finish.”

Larson was not in contention when he was caught up in the wreck that ended his night on lap 246. Daniel Suarez was running three-wide off Turn 4 with Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney when he was clipped by Briscoe and sent across Blaney’s nose. Suarez came back down the track and clipped Justin Haley and Larson.

“What I’m feeling to end the night feels very similar [to last year] – very tough and sad about how it all went,” Larson said. “But it wasn’t meant to be, I guess.”

It was a two-year deal for Larson to run the Indianapolis 500 with Arrow McLaren. When asked if how Sunday played out fueled him to try the double again or if he was done with it, he admitted it was still too fresh to have a good answer.

“The double is just a tough undertaking,” he said. “The window of time is too tight. Even if I didn’t wreck, I don’t think I would have made it here in time and probably would have had to end that race short anyway.

“I just don’t really think it’s worth it, but I would love to run the Indy 500 again. Just doing the double, I think, is logistically too tough.”

Larson is the sixth driver to attempt the double. Tony Stewart remains the only driver to complete all 1,100 miles between Indianapolis and Charlotte in the same day (2001).