Kyle Larson makes another trip to Indianapolis as Brickyard 400 returns to speedway's oval

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Kyle Larson spent May trying to become the second driver to complete 1,100 miles of racing in a single day.

Rain in Indianapolis and Charlotte washed away his big dream.

Now the 2021 NASCAR champion is back in town for the first time since finishing his inaugural Indianapolis 500 with a new vision, a new challenge and a new appreciation for the track's historic 2.5-mile oval.

“To this point, I haven't really had any thoughts about the 500 and what that's going to mean this week or if I'll have a different perspective when I get there,” Larson said in the lead up to Sunday's Brickyard 400. “Everybody there has just taken it from being already the greatest facility to stretching away from the competition."

Larson's mission this week is about more than logistics and aesthetics.

He has only one win since finishing the 500, June 9 at Sonoma, California, and Larson has only one top-five finish in his last five races — a fourth at New Hampshire.

Things got even worse over the past two weeks for the California native. The world's most versatile driver finished 39th in Chicago and 13th at Pocono, leaving him second in the Cup standings — three points behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott, the 2020 NASCAR champ.

It's not just close at the top, either.

Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin trail Elliott by just 15 and 20 points and William Byron, another Hendrick driver, enters this weekend in fifth.

While some believe Larson's experience from earlier this year in Indy could give him a leg up on the competition when the Brickyard moves back to the traditional oval NASCAR ran 200-mile races after three years on the track's road course, Larson downplays the notion.

The lone practice session is scheduled for Friday afternoon with qualifying set for Saturday, a far cry from the weeklong six-hour practice sessions and two days of qualifying Larson had leading up to the 500.

“Even though, the IndyCar and Cup car feel similar, it's different in the fact that in IndyCar you're running wide open,” he said. “We're going to be lifting in every corner in the stock car and still, I think, we'll feel the weight a lot there (in the corners). I think the line will be similar, but it will be similar to what it was with the previous generation car. So, no, I don't think the laps I have in the IndyCar really mean anything this weekend.”

Indianapolis has not been kind to Larson through the years.

In nine career Brickyard starts, he has just two top-fives with a career best third coming in 2021, the first road course race. On the oval, his top finish was fifth in 2016.

Changing series didn't help much, either. An impressive qualifying weekend allowed Larson to start fifth in May, but he was relegated to an 18th-place finish in part because of a late pit lane speeding violation. The four-hour rain delay in Indianapolis made him a late arrival in Charlotte where he failed to record a lap in the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600.

He called it one of the most disappointing days he'd ever experienced.

While Larson's busy schedule has allowed him to cast aside most of those bad memories, one concern lingers.

“I'm still anxious about the weather because we're supposed to leave for Italy on Monday, so we don't need any rain,” Larson said.

Fortunately for Larson, the weekend forecast looks picture perfect. High temperatures are expected to be in the low to mid-80s with rain chances under 10% all three days.

Weather won't be the only major difference as Larson drives through the speedway tunnel.

Though many Cup drivers believe the move back to the oval track will restore the race's prestige and the elimination of the NASCAR-IndyCar doubleheader again gives Cup teams the exclusive stage, Larson knows the atmosphere won't be the same even in front of one of the series' biggest crowds.

“I've always understood how massive the Indianapolis 500 is," he said. “But it was really amazing to see how big it is from start to finish with 350,000-plus people there. Every practice was a big deal and Carb Day and then, too, I just appreciate the facility every time I go there. I appreciate it more and more because it's the most beautiful facility we go to on the schedule.”

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