2021 NASCAR Cup champion Kyle Larson considers himself a better “all-around driver” than defending four-time F1 champ Max Verstappen, and has heavily implied he believes himself to be the best driver in the world. For the second year in a row Larson has attempted to run “The Double” by competing in the Indianapolis 500, then flying to Charlotte, North Carolina for the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600. This year’s attempt went worse than last year’s and saw the arrogant 32-year-old crash out of both races, wrecking multiple millions of dollars of race cars in the process. Larson, already the unequivocal heel of North American motorsport, earned even greater ire—and upset the balance of karma—on Sunday by calling fan favorite IndyCar driver Scott McLaughlin a “****ing idiot.”
There are very few drivers who can say they wrecked two different cars in two different states on the same Sunday, but Larson is just built different, I guess. After failing to accomplish The Double in 2024 and 2025, Larson now says he doesn’t “really think it’s worth it.” Definitely, bud. It’s not that you aren’t good enough to do it, it’s just not worth doing.
How was Kyle Larson’s Indy 500?
With a short timeframe between the end of the Indy 500 and the start time for the Coca-Cola 600, Larson was anxious for the race to begin on time and stay green for as long as possible. With the two tracks about 430 miles apart as the crow flies, Larson had a helicopter waiting for him to get out of the car and hustle him down to Charlotte. When a light sprinkle of rain delayed the start of the Indy 500 by about half an hour, he was understandably impatient to get going.
Once the cars started moving, three-time Aussie Supercars champ and seven-time IndyCar race winner Scott McLaughlin wrecked his car on the front straight while warming his tires ahead of the green flag. The entire race track was devastated for the kiwi Penske driver, who was on the pole at Indy just a year prior. The entire track, save Kyle Larson, who called in on his team comms “somebody just crashed, ****ing idiot” then gave a sarcastic thumbs up (above) as he drove by the scene of McLaughlin’s demise.
Before making it to the half-way point of the 500-mile race, Larson accidentally downshifted too many gears into 3rd, locked up his rear tires, and spun up into the wall, collecting Kyffin Simpson and Sting Ray Robb in the process. This was, by a long shot, the single most bone-headed self-induced crash I’ve seen in the history of this race.
Larson also wrecked his car during the pre-Indy test in late April, and during Fast Friday practice the week prior to the 500. Larson’s Hendrick team, and the Arrow McLaren team who manage his entry at the 500, had to pay for quite a lot of broken components on account of the many wrecks caused by the NASCAR driver.
How was Kyle Larson’s Coke 600?
Once he’d flown back to God’s country and got more comfortable in his familiar Chevrolet Number 5, Larson figured his troubles were over. After getting out to an early lead in the Coca-Cola 600, with teammate William Byron in tow, Larson had a big loose impact with the wall but kept motoring out of it at full speed. A handful of laps later, however, he got behind on his steering and spun himself out of the lead of the motor race. Thankfully for Larson he didn’t hit anything, but it dumped him down the order. Maybe Kyle was tired, but he’d gotten away with his mistake and lived to fight later in the race.
At lap 245 of 400, however, Kyle dipped down into the grass to avoid “the big one” and got collected by another wrecking car anyway. Daniel Suarez, part of a big three-wide crash further up the field, was ejected from the pack and tipped down into Larson’s right rear quarter panel. With a collapsed suspension his day was over. I would hardly call the crash that ended his day Kyle’s fault. That was less about skill and more about luck. Or maybe he’d run afoul of the karma gods.
Only one driver, Tony Stewart in 2001, has finished all 1,100 miles of the double. Kyle attempted to hit 1,100 miles on his odometer on Sunday, but only managed to traverse 597.5 miles. Ross Chastain, Sunday night’s Coke 600 winner, drove more miles in one race than Larson did in two. Best driver in the world, indeed. Maybe if Kyle shouts the N-word during a race again, he’ll fail upward and get to crash even better equipment and wreck in even more important races.
