NASCAR star Kyle Larson crashes for the second time in the lead-up to the Indy 500
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — NASCAR star Kyle Larson crashed for the second time in the lead-up to the Indianapolis 500 on Friday when he lost control of his Arrow McLaren entry and hit the wall in the final practice session before this weekend’s qualifying runs.
The damage was relatively minor, though, and it only took Larson’s team about an hour to make repairs to the front and rear of the car. That allowed him to get in some precious laps with about 30 minutes left in the 6-hour session.
Larson, who also crashed on April 24 during an open test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, is taking his second shot at trying to complete “the Double” by running the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. Larson finished 18th in the rain-delayed 500 last year, but he never ran a lap in the NASCAR race in Charlotte when rain there ended the race early.
“Obviously it’s tricky. I spun,” Larson said after leaving the care center. “I don’t know. Kind of caught off guard a little bit there, but I think we’ll be fine. I tend to get over things pretty quickly. I know I spun but my balance felt pretty close to being good.”
Larson waited until there were about 90 minutes left in Friday’s practice, which was marked by high temperatures and gusty winds that made for treacherous conditions, before trying his first qualifying simulation. He wasn’t far into the run when his No. 17 car went skittering up the track, bumped nose-first into the wall and then spun around and hit it again.
The crash came several hours after Kyffin Simpson hit the wall hard and nearly flipped his car.
Larson’s damaged car was put on a hoist and taken to Gasoline Alley, where Arrow McLaren went to work fixing it. Along with the late laps he got Friday, the team will have an hour-long practice Saturday morning before qualifying begins at 11 a.m. EDT.
“I’m sure at this point, we’ll want to get out there and shake it down,” Larson said. “If not, you still get time to make a few runs tomorrow. The track conditions will be better and I’m sure we’ll pack a little extra downforce to be safe that first run, and get a run in. Not too worried about it.”
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