With lightning and downpours in Sunday’s forecast, which currently calls for nearly two inches of rain to land on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Mother Nature might derail Kyle Larson’s plans of competing in both the Indy 500 and NASCAR’s 600-mile race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The latest prediction for Sunday has a 50-percent chance of foul weather descending on IMS almost two hours before the 12:45pm ET green flag and staying into the early evening, which could push the 200-lap contest to Monday.
To prepare themselves for the possibility of losing Larson to the needs of his full-time job in NASCAR on Sunday, the Arrow McLaren team and the IndyCar Series have started discussing options to keep the No. 17 Hendrickcars.com Arrow McLaren Chevy in the field if the skies open and force Larson to leave for North Carolina.
Arrow McLaren sporting director Tony Kanaan has been the team’s backup plan in recent months. With the injury to former driver David Malukas, the 2013 Indy 500 winner was one of the primary options to step into the No. 6 Chevy, but that role was filled by Callum Ilott.
Although the team and the series weren’t ready to offer any official statements, both confirmed to RACER that they’re evaluating a possible refresher run for Kanaan — who did his Indy 500 farewell with Arrow McLaren last year and finished 16th — later this week.
If it were to rain on Sunday, but dry enough for the race to start after Larson needed to leave, Kanaan would be cleared to drive after a refresher is completed. If rain were to delay the 500 until the day after the Charlotte NASCAR race, the team and Larson would need to decide how they wanted to proceed.
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