The old saying “there’s a first time for everything” certainly applies to sports, but there are several sporting achievements that are still waiting for a first occurrence.
In the NFL, no team has ever won three consecutive Super Bowls. In the NBA, there has never been a postseason series comeback with a team trailing 3–0.
In individual sports, there has never been a calendar grand slam in the modern era of golf. Meanwhile, in auto racing, there has never been a successful Indy-Charlotte Double.
However, Kyle Larson will attempt to strike that last unaccomplished sports feat off this list as he will pull Double Duty on Sunday. Larson, who has made his name and fame in NASCAR, will try his hand at Indy car racing when he makes his IndyCar Series debut at The Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Larson will race the Indianapolis 500 in the early afternoon before resuming his normal job of stock car racing later on Sunday. After (hopefully) finishing the Indy 500, he will then board a jet traveling from Indianapolis to Charlotte, where he will then take part in the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday evening at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Only four drivers in auto racing history have attempted the Double before, and they’ve combined for nine attempts. John Andretti was the first in 1994, and he notched a 10th-place finish at the Indy 500 before finishing 36th out of 43 drivers at the Coca-Cola 600. Robby Gordon then would attempt the Double a record five times over the next decade, but he’d only notch two top 10 finishes over the course of the 10 race starts.
Tony Stewart gave it two attempts and managed two top-10 finishes in his first try in 1999. He was even better two years later in what remains the best combined finish of any Double attempt in history. Stewart finished sixth at the Indianapolis 500 before a third-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He remains the only driver to successfully complete all 1,100 laps of the two races.
The last attempt came a decade ago by Kurt Busch, and while he had a solid sixth place in the first race in Indianapolis, he finished 40th out of 43 drivers in the second race. Several drivers have considered tackling the Double since then, but Larson is the first to step up to the challenge and qualify for both.
More pertinent, Larson knows what it takes to win at Charlotte Motor Speedway as he won the Coca-Cola 600 just three years ago. The experience at doing that will be invaluable, but what Larson doesn’t have is competitive experience in the IndyCar Series. His first-ever race will be at the most prestigious event in the sport of American open-wheel racing.
Larson’s versatility as a driver could at least offset some of the lack of experience with this specific form of racing as he’s won several races in several types of vehicles. Outside of his Cup Series Career, he has three victories in NASCAR’s Truck Series, sprint car wins with World of Outlaws, and he’s shown that endurance racing is one of his strengths by winning 24 Hours of Daytona in a sports car.
He discussed what it was like being in an open-wheel vehicle after a practice session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in April.
“The cars, to me, feel very similar to a stock car in a way,” Larson told reporters. “Everything that I feel out there, is what I would expect from a 9 a.m. practice session in a stock car at the Brickyard 400—cool conditions, got grip, all of that. We wouldn’t be running around here wide open in a stock car, but like the way that the tires feel and all that feels relatively similar.”
Not making Larson’s job any easier for the first half of this monumental task is that the Indianapolis 500 field is loaded with elite drivers and past champions. Eight past winners are part of the starting grid, including four-time champion Helio Castroneves, who would move into sole possession of most Indy 500 victories of all time with another win. Two-time victor, Takuma Sato, is the other multi-time winner in this year’s field, while Josef Newgarden is the defending champion.
Newgarden and fellow Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin are the two biggest favorites, with the latter claiming the pole with an Indy 500 record pole speed of 234.220 miles per hour. Penske dominated the time trials with their cars taking the top three spots, so history has already been made for the 2024 Indianapolis 500. With McLaughlin on the pole, Will Power in the middle of Row 1, and Newgarden on the outside of the first row, Penske is the first team to sweep the entire front row of the grid since 1988.
Larson is the current betting favorite to win the Coca-Cola 600 and is the third-favorite to win the Indy 500, trailing only Newgarden and McLaughlin. The NASCAR champ will man the middle spot of Row 2 for the Indianapolis 500, which begins at 12:45 p.m. ET on Sunday. At its conclusion, he will then board a flight to North Carolina and compete at the Coca-Cola 600, which begins at 6 p.m. ET.
