By David Morgan, Associate Editor
Kyle Larson is becoming a well-traveled man as he splits his time between Indianapolis and North Carolina between his full-time duties in the NASCAR Cup Series and his first attempt at the Indianapolis 500.
On Sunday, that meant starting the day rocketing around Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the second day of Indy 500 qualifying, where he had advanced into the Fast 12 after Saturday’s first day of time trials.
Larson posted the fifth-fastest time in the Fast 12 at 232.788 mph to move on to the Fast Six later in the day with a chance at running for the pole.
Rolling off second in the Fast Six, he improved his time to an average of 232.846 mph to jump to the top of the board temporarily before being eclipsed by his Arrow McLaren teammate Alexander Rossi and the Team Penske trio of Scott McLaughlin, Will Power and Josef Newgarden to bump him back to the middle of the second row for next Sunday’s 108th running of the Indianapolis 500.
“Oh, it’s awesome! It just makes it all mean something more,” Larson said of his top-five qualifying run. “To be lined up on the second row of the Indianapolis 500 is pretty crazy. Yeah, I just can’t believe it, really. I thought if we could make the Fast 12, that would be exceeding expectations. To qualify as well as we did yesterday and then get into the Fast Six today was unbelievable.
“Happy with how it’s gone so far there, and now I look forward to hopefully get better in race trim.”
After handshakes and high-fives with his Arrow McLaren crew, Larson had little time to waste before having to get to a waiting helicopter on the Brickyard Cross Golf Course outside Turn 2 to head off to North Wilkesboro to defend his 2023 NASCAR All-Star Race win.
NASCAR pushed the start of the non-points exhibition back by 15 minutes, but Larson arrived with plenty of time to spare after making the journey from Indianapolis to the Wilkes County Airport where another helicopter was waiting to ferry him to the track.
Despite not having turned a lap in his No. 5 Chevrolet on the newly repaved track at North Wilkesboro and having to start from the rear of the field, Larson quickly adjusted to being back in a stock car, beginning his march forward shortly after the green flag flew.
By halfway, Larson had climbed to 13th and was far from being done climbing into the top-10 after the Lap 117 caution and advancing as far as sixth-place by the time the…
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