With the potential for rain during Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, could Kyle Larson be pulled from his IndyCar ride to make it to Charlotte Motor Speedway to start the Coca-Cola 600 that night?
Or, what if Larson wins the Indianapolis 500? Would he stay for the ceremonies and miss the start of NASCAR’s longest race of the season?
Those are among the questions car owner Rick Hendrick faces heading into Larson’s bid to become the fifth driver in history — and first in the last 10 years — to compete in the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day.
IndyCar confirmed to NBC Sports that if Larson starts the Indianapolis 500, he cannot have a relief driver and that car will be done for the race. Should Larson leave Indianapolis before the start of the 500, his team could have another driver in the car.
The Indianapolis Star reported Thursday that Arrow McLaren is no longer considering Tony Kanaan as Kyle Larson’s replacement should Larson leave Indy before the race begins to compete in the Coca-Cola 600.
Weather could be the main factor in what Larson does.
The early forecast by Weather Underground for Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 calls for an 80% chance of thunderstorms around the 12:45 p.m. ET start of the race. The chance of rain is more than 74% the rest of the day.
The early forecast by Weather Underground for Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 calls for a 24% chance of rain at the start of the race. The chance of rain hovers between 20-24% the rest of the night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Larson concedes the forecast in Indy is unsettling.
“It’s stressful because weather is always unpredictable, but you just don’t really know until it’s like happening,” Larson said Thursday. “So it’s hard to plan for weather. You can have all these plans and backup plans and backup plans for the backup plan. But you just can’t really do anything or react until it’s kind of the moment.
“That’s what’s a little bit stressful. Yeah, it doesn’t look too promising for Indy on Sunday, but I think for me where I sit, if it’s going to rain, I hope it rains all day. That way it can just get pushed to Monday or something, and then Charlotte is not going to rain, I just hope it doesn’t rain, and we can get it in on Sunday night and then come here Monday.
“Again, it’s weather. The forecast changes kind of every day. But yeah, we’ll see.”
Hendrick Motorsports has partnered with Arrow McLaren to run Larson in this year’s Indy 500. He’ll start Sunday’s race fifth. Coverage on NBC and Peacock begins at 11 a.m. ET Sunday.
Hendrick was asked Tuesday if he would be the one making the call on if Larson needed to leave for Charlotte.
“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,” Hendrick said. “We’re just going to let it play out, and then Kyle and myself and Jeff Gordon, we have (Jeff) Andrews, we’ll make that decision Sunday.”
Asked how hard it might be to pull Larson from the car should the race have started, Hendrick said: “It would be very hard. It would be very tough. Would be very disappointing because of all the effort that everyone has put in, from Arrow McLaren to (Arrow McLaren CEO) Zak (Brown) 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.”
Larson has repeatedly stated that NASCAR is the priority because of the chance to win another Cup title. NASCAR rules state that a driver must start every race to be playoff eligible. NASCAR can grant a waiver to a driver but has used those almost exclusively for when a driver is injured (one exception was for Kurt Busch in 2015).
NASCAR did push back the start of last weekend’s All-Star Race by 16 minutes to ensure Larson could get there in time to start the event.
NASCAR awards points only to the driver who starts the race in that car, which makes it key for Larson to be at Charlotte Motor Speedway in time for the start of that race.
Section 12.4.1.3.B of the Cup Rule Book states: “A driver will be credited only with Points earned in the vehicle in which he/she started the Race. A driver will not be permitted to receive Points for more than one vehicle in the Race. The starting driver will be credited with all Points earned by that vehicle in the Race.”
Section 12.4.1.G of the Cup Rule Book states: “If a driver change occurs after taking the green flag, only the driver of record will receive Stage Points provided the driver of record is eligible for Points in the Series. A win by the replacement driver will not count towards eligibility for the driver Playoffs.”
Larson enters the Coca-Cola 600 as the Cup points leader. He has 30-point lead on Martin Truex Jr. Denny Hamlin is next, 39 points behind Larson. Chase Elliot is 49 points behind Larson. The most points a driver can earn in the Charlotte race is 70 since it has three stages.
Should Larson miss the start of the 600, he won’t fall any further than fourth in the points after that event at most. That might not seem important but playoff points will be awarded after the regular season ends with the Sept. 1 Southern 500.
The regular season champion receives 15 playoff points. Second receives 10 playoff points, third receives nine playoff points, fourth receives eight playoffs points and all the way down to the 10th-place finisher at the end of the regular season receiving one playoff point.
As the playoffs have shown, every point matters, which is a reason why Hendrick cites the importance of points at Charlotte, thus helping Larson stay atop the season standings.
