Kyle Larson has gotten to experience the feel of his new steering wheel, and it seems like he’s ready to get back into an INDYCAR ride.
He’ll get his chance in a few weeks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on April 23 and 24. Those are the test days for the Indy 500.
Last week, Arrow McLaren team members visited Larson so he could set his grips on the new steering wheel that teams are using this year. It also allowed Larson to learn about controls for the hybrid engine and boost that were implemented last summer.
“I did the grip stuff. And they had my wheel from last year, as well, so I could look and compare button location and stuff and all that,” Larson told FOX Sports last week. “It’s tough. I don’t do it [all year] and I don’t really know where I want to put the buttons until I get in it and they ask me to change something.
“If your brain naturally goes to it, then it’s OK. But if not, we can always adjust. There are more buttons, more paddles, all stuff that you can customize. I don’t really know how it’s going to be until I get in the car and get to playing with all the stuff.”
The hybrid adds weight to the car, so it might feel a little bit different for Larson. But the main thing will likely be learning how to manage the controls.
“The hybrid deal — I feel like you are a little bit busier. It sounds like maybe in the cockpit of engaging and disengaging that [boost from hybrid’s stored energy],” Larson said.
“I really don’t know how it works.”
Larson has proven to be a quick learner, though. He doesn’t sweat the mechanical stuff and the intricacies of how things work. Instead, he focuses on what he needs to do in order to accomplish his job of going fast.
The test in April will be much different than a year ago when Larson was still learning everything about the cars. Now that he has raced in one Indianapolis 500, he knows what to expect.
He spoke at the unveiling of the paint schemes for both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 to promote his attempt at racing 1,100 miles on May 25. And Larson indicated Wednesday that there are certainly fewer unknowns. He also acknowledged that there are uncanny similarities between the style of racing of his stock cars at superspeedways and his car for the 500.
“I do feel like, although they look different and all that and there’s less things going on, that the style of race is so similar,” Larson said. “So I feel like there’s not a lot to learn once you get into the racing situation.”
At the car unveiling, Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon reiterated that, if there is rain on race day, Larson would leave the Indy 500 to make it to Charlotte in time for the NASCAR Cup race. Last year, Larson stayed at the rain-delayed 500, where he flirted with a top-10 finish before a speeding penalty relegated him to 18th. He got to Charlotte for the 600 just as the rainfall ended the NASCAR race.
NASCAR mulled for more than a week whether to keep Larson playoff-eligible (there is a rule that drivers need a waiver to remain playoff-eligible if they don’t start every race). This year, a driver who gets a waiver for non-health reasons would forfeit all playoff points earned during the regular season, which would significantly impact a driver’s ability to make the championship round.
Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan (who has 22 Indy 500 starts, including his win in 2013) would be the substitute driver for Larson at Indianapolis. Kanaan will do his Indy refresher course in May.
As far as any NASCAR practice and qualifying sessions Larson would miss at the All-Star weekend (for Indy 500 qualifying) or the Coke 600, Gordon said they hadn’t announced who it would be. But he said the standby driver would be a JR Motorsports driver of similar size to Larson. That would be Justin Allgaier, who finished 13th in the 600 last year, driving Larson’s car.
While Larson had hoped to have Carl Edwards practice for the All-Star race (Edwards declined) after the successful return of Kevin Harvick to a Cup car last year in that substitute role, Gordon said having a driver of similar build would be the easiest for the team.
“Last year, it was really cool to have Kevin get in the car,” Gordon said. “It was fun for the team and everybody, but it was a lot of work to swap from Kevin’s seat and everything that was for Kevin from Kyle’s. … We feel like keeping it a little bit more simplified this year.”
Larson said he felt his preparation for doing 1,100 miles in one day had him ready last year and feels he can prepare the same. The first main step is the test in a few weeks.
“I’m just excited to get some laps, get familiar with the visuals, the clutch, the leaving the pit stall, the coming into a pit stall — all the little details that it takes to be good in the race,” Larson said. “So kind of just getting back into the flow of things there.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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