After second letdown, Kyle Larson offers an answer on future 'Double' attempts

Alex Zietlow, The Charlotte Observer on May 26, 2025

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CONCORD, N.C. — Cliff Daniels shook his head.

Chad Knaus stared in disbelief.

Kyle Larson, one of the greatest drivers in all of motorsports who woke up clinging to the hope that this Sunday would be equal parts remarkable and redemptive, rested his hands on his still steering wheel, wondering how this all could come undone again.

This wasn’t where Daniels (his crew chief) and Knaus (his VP of competition) and Larson wanted to be. Not Sunday evening, in the Charlotte Motor Speedway garage, with the No. 5 Cup car’s crew lifting the car’s right-side tires off the ground, looking for any sign the car could go on. Not now, after such a promising early run, then falling back in the field, then muscling his way back onto the lead lap and into contention. Not after all this — after the attention, the preparation, the traveling, the logistics, the second try to complete “The Double” after the last year’s attempt failed before it got started.

But this is where the No. 5 team was nonetheless, thanks to a Stage 3 wreck that damaged the right side of his car beyond immediate repair. And after five minutes in the garage, and Larson’s exit from the car, this is where Larson’s night would end.

“I just hate the way that the day went,” Larson told reporters just outside of the infield care center, a short golf cart ride from the garage. “I wish that I could just hit reset and try again tomorrow. But the reality is, that’s not gonna happen. So I just feel terrible for everybody, Rick Hendrick especially, everybody at Hendrick Automotive Group and HendrickCars.com for all the effort to make this possible yet again. It just didn’t happen.”

Larson made his second try at “The Double” on Sunday. And like last year, he didn’t come close to completing the 1,100 miles required of IndyCar’s Indy 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600. He wrecked out of Indy on Lap 91, flew on a helicopter to Concord, and then wrecked out on Lap 245 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Larson, with the result, becomes the second driver to post a “Did Not Finish” in both the Indy 500 and Coke 600 on the same day; Robby Gordon in 1997 was the first. Tony Stewart remains the only driver to finish all 1,100 miles on Motorsport Christmas, when he did so in 2001.

The driver of the No. 5 car called Sunday a “bummer.” Such an understatement was similar to what he said last year, after rain delayed his run at the 2024 Indy 500 so much so that he arrived at CMS after the race had been under a red flag due to rain of its own — just before NASCAR officially ruled the race done.

But this year felt different, Larson said.

But did it make him question whether he wanted to attempt “The Double” again?

“I don’t know,” Larson said. “It’s so fresh right now, but I don’t have a really good answer for you. ‘The Double’ is just a tough undertaking. The window of time is too tight. If I didn’t wreck, I don’t think I would’ve made it here in time, and probably would’ve 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’ again I think is just logistically too tough.”

The wreck on the IndyCar side was rough, a single-car spin-out on Turn 4 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Watch the wreck Larson sustained on the NASCAR side, though, and feel your heart sink. The driver of the No. 5 car, rising up the field, got collected thanks to a loose Daniel Suarez hitting his right-rear quarter panel even as Larson hooked his car deep into the infield turf trying to avoid it. He called his performance at Charlotte the product of “a few too many mistakes” which overpowered the team’s “good job to get the car back in better shape” to “contend for a decent finish.”

But such was the day — such was the story of the past two Memorial Day weekends — for Larson.

It left him with a feeling that he — and Daniels and Knaus and everyone else invested in this day — shared.

“What I’m feeling, to end the night, feels very similar to last year,” Larson said. “Just very sad about how it all went. It just wasn’t meant to be, I guess.”

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