NASCAR’s Kyle Larson Explains Crash During Indianapolis 500 Open Test

NASCAR star Kyle Larson’s Indianapolis 500 experience now includes what it feels like to smack the wall in an IndyCar crash at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Champion from Hendrick Motorsports crashed his No. 17 Hendrickcars.com Arrow McLaren Chevrolet during the high-speed qualification simulation session on Thursday, April 24. He sensed something was amiss on his car as he began his green flag session when he felt the car get “tight” entering Turn 1. He backed off the throttle, but by then, he lost control of the front end of his race car and was on for a wild ride.

Larson made hard contact with the SAFER Barrier at the exit of Turn 1. It continued across the short chute on the South end of the race course and made secondary contact with the SAFER Barrier in Turn 2.

Larson was able to climb from the car without assistance from the AMR IndyCar Safety Team and was examined and released from the IU Health Emergency Medical Center in the infield of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Larson felt fine afterwards, but the Arrow McLaren IndyCar team decided to load up the wrecked car for the race shop rather than rebuild it and send him back on the 2.5-mile oval for Thursday afternoon’s full field session.

Larson is a true racer, and this was the first time he had ever crashed in an Indy car. He was a rookie in last year’s Indianapolis 500 and had a fairly flawless Month of May that earned his Rookie of the Year Honors.

But Larson also needed to understand the dynamics of an Indy car crash and he experienced that Thursday morning.

Blessing In Disguise

“Honestly, you hate to tear up a really expensive car, but at the same point, I’m happy that I got it out of the way,” Larson said after he was released was the infield hospital. “It didn’t feel too different than hitting the wall in a similar fashion in NASCAR.

“Obviously, there could be much bigger wrecks than that in Indy, but I’m happy that it didn’t feel too bad.”

Larson spoke with his IndyCar crew about the crash and met with the engineers before he left the Indianapolis Motor Speedway shortly after 12 noon Eastern Time to fly back to Hendrick Motorsports in Concord, North Carolina.

He will turn his focus to Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway when he returns to the more familiar No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.

Reflecting on his IndyCar crash, Larson sensed something didn’t feel right shortly before he lost control of the car.

“I had that same feeling that I had to start runs yesterday, like the tires, I don’t know, just don’t come in and my balance was a little too tight,” Larson explained. “Like I said, I think just the faster speeds (in the higher boost qualifying sim session) just magnified all of that.

“I don’t think there’s anything I could have done, but maybe bail coming to the green, but it’s hard to do that.

“I was just super tight. Just a lot of understeer. I could feel it kind of coming to our green lap, and then just as soon as I turned into Turn One, my foot was kind of fluttering from wide open, because you know, I could tell that I was tight and then smashed the wall. I bailed a while before I hit the wall, but once you lose the front, you are just along for the ride.”

Recalling The Impact

That ride included the initial hit in Turn 1 followed by the rebound impact further down the track in Turn 2.

“You’re just kind of on the brakes and this low car is just riding on the pavement so you’re just along for the ride sliding,” Larson continued. “The second hit, it didn’t hurt or anything but like you can see the wall coming so you’re kind of like ‘Oh man, I don’t know what this is going to feel like.’

“It’s just unfortunate, but I don’t really know how these things work too, like we’ll get it repaired and get to make some more runs later today or not.

“It just kind of is what it is. Hopefully we can all learn from it and just tune on our balance more.”

Larson believed the impact felt pretty close to how it feels in a NASCAR crash, although the cars are dramatically different.

“It just felt normal,” Larson said. “I’ve never hit the wall before in an Indy car so as I was knowing that I was going to hit the wall, ‘Man, all right, here we go. We’ll see if it feels way worse than hitting a wall in NASCAR.’

“But it felt very similar.

“But again, there are way bigger crashes here than what that was, it could hurt way more than what that was, but yeah, it felt normal.”

Early Ending To Larson’s Test

Larson agreed with the team’s decision to end his test session early instead of thrashing to repair the car. It probably wouldn’t have been finished until very late in the afternoon session and with a near full week of practice for the 109^th Indianapolis 500in May, there remains more opportunity fine-tune the setup.

“I would rather just make sure the car is like 100 percent before we go out and trick ourselves on anything or anything like that,” Larson said. “I tend to move on and forget about things pretty quickly, so I don’t think even getting into the wall will affect the mental side of things, as we come back in May.

“I feel fine. Got my hands off the wheel, I knew to do that.”

Just a few minutes after Larson spoke outside of the infield care center, two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato crashed his No. 75 Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing into the South Chute with a loud thud.

Sato spent much more time in the IU Health Emergency Medical Center, but he was also released by the IndyCar Medical Staff.

The “Silver Lining’

As for Larson, he found value, even in a crash, that he will take with him into this second Indianapolis 500 when he returns in May.

“If I was to hit the wall in a similar way, I know what to expect, but there’s also a lot harder ways to crash here at the Speedway in an Indy car so hopefully I don’t encounter that,” Larson said. “But I’m honestly a little bit happy that to now hit the wall one and know what it feels like and to know everything was safe because like the seat, the seat inserts, the seat position all that’s way different than what I have a NASCAR.

“In NASCAR, it feels like everything like surrounds you more the seat and all that where this, you’re kind of like floating a bit more in the seat, so I wasn’t sure what it would be like if I hit the wall.”

And now, NASCAR’s Kyle Larson knows what it feels like to crash an Indy car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.