Kyle Larson has driven pretty much every type of race car there is. But don’t forget, this Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 will only be his second race ever in an Indy car — and quite possibly his last in an Indy car, as well.
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While attempting to do The Double — the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 on the same day/night — Larson has been like a sponge, soaking up anything and everything anyone in IndyCar can tell him.
That includes 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan, who happens to be a major executive with Arrow McLaren, which is the team Larson is driving for in the 500. Kanaan has essentially been a one-on-one coach for Larson both last year and this year.
Another significant influence upon Larson is Arrow McLaren teammate Pato O’Ward. The Mexican native has come close to winning the 500 several times, especially last season’s race where he challenged eventual winner Josef Newgarden in the closing laps, only to finish second.
O’Ward is arguably the best driver in IndyCar today who has come so close to winning at Indy, yet never has drunk from the celebratory bottle of milk in the winner’s circle. In five starts in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, he has two runner-up finishes, a fourth and sixth (as well as a 26th place showing due to a late-race crash).
So when O’Ward speaks, Larson listens intently, particularly about how O’Ward came so close to holding off Newgarden in last year’s race, but inadvertently waited longer than he should, allowing Newgarden to take the checkered flag.
O’Ward came in a close second by a mere 0.342 seconds, the second time he’s finished runner-up in the 500. Allowing Newgarden to get the best of him was a mental error that has haunted O’Ward ever since.
So when he gave Larson some advice recently, Larson took it to heart.
“Looking at where Pato was last year, I don’t see how you do anything different, really, you know?” Larson said on the Pat McAfee Show on ESPN. “Newgarden’s car was so extremely good and it was hard for others to build those runs on the backstretch.
“So I think (O’Ward) had his run on the frontstretch (on the last lap) and he took his opportunity and then you’re just hoping that you have just enough, which he almost had just enough speed and distance, before he got to Turn 3.”
It appeared that O’Ward slightly slowed, perhaps being so close to the edge of losing control going into Turn 3 on the final lap, which allowed Newgarden to pass him and sail across the finish line first, the first time a driver has won back-to-back Indy 500 victories in 23 years.
“If you’ve got the opportunity to take the lead on the last lap, you have to take it,” Larson said. “I feel like you can’t wait until Turn 2 and hope that you’re going to have this run or not. You’ve got to get to the lead when you can.”
We’ll find out Sunday if Larson took all that advice to heart, especially if he’s in the same position O’Ward was in last year’s race.
