Kyle Larson shares his future IndyCar plans with McLaren

The 2021 NASCAR Cup series champion Kyle Larson will participate in this year's 109th running of the Indianapolis 500. The 32-year-old recently spoke about his plans with McLaren.

Larson is currently racing with Hendrick Motorsports in the NASCAR Cup series full-time. He will be back at the greatest spectacle of racing with the #17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet fielded by Arrow McLaren. This year will mark his second attempt at the Indy 500.

Larson, along with the new Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan, recently joined the Dale Jr. Download podcast hosted by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Larson was asked how many Indy 500s he wanted to do, to which he responded:

" If last year had gone smooth maybe I wouldn't be doing this year, but last year didn't go exactly how we all planned to so I really wanted to this year. I would like to do it someday where I'm like fully committed mentally. I can't fully commit to Indy in the middle of our NASCAR Cup series schedule and points chasing and all the other stuff I have going on. I don't think there's plans for next year currently, so..make it good this time," he said.

Kyle Larson has a two-year contract with McLaren, which will end this year. However, there don't seem to be any plans to extend the contract just yet. During his maiden outing at the IMS, Larson finished the race in 18th position, but he managed to claim the Rookie of the Year for the Indy 500. He finished third highest among the other three drivers of Arrow McLaren.

This year's entry will mark Kyle Larson's second time entering the Indy-Charlotte Double, which makes him the fifth driver to attempt this feat and only the third driver to attempt it more than twice, joining the likes of Tony Stewart and Robby Gordon.

Tony Kanaan made known how he helped Kyle Larson adjust to IndyCar.

The Arrow McLaren team principal, Tony Kanaan, recently revealed how he helped Kyle Larson adjust to the IndyCar. Larson will be seen driving in the 199th Indianapolis 500.

The 2021 NASCAR champion has made a name for himself by participating in various divisions of stock and dirt racing. During the 2024 season, Larson debuted as a rookie. However, going into this season, he has more experience with the car and the track.

While speaking to Dale Earnhardt Jr on his podcast Dale Jr Download, Kanaan spoke about how he handled the communication between the engineers and the driver to help him adapt easily.

"We'll go through it, but to me,” he said, “before, engineers, they were trying to—like—we need to give him all this information. I said, just relax. Let me talk driver. You guys stay out. What do you need? And even on the radio, I said to Kyle, ‘Look, we have the front bar and the rear bar…’"

“…I gave him the technical part, but I said don’t worry about it. If the car feels like that, ask. That was all I did— to filter out how we let him to deal with and understand the situation,” he added (19:30 onwards).

Kyle Larson was having a good race at the 2024 Indy 500, but he was handed a penalty for exceeding the pit lane speed limit, which made him plummet down the order as he ended up in 18th.