INDIANAPOLIS — Kyle Larson returned to Indianapolis Motor Speedway Wednesday to take his refresher course in preparation for the May 25 Indianapolis 500 and get reacquainted with his Arrow McLaren Chevrolet Indy car.
While the sessions were delayed by communication issues at the 2.5-mile race track, Larson eventually made it on to the track and turned the 11th fastest lap of the day.
Larson qualified fifth and finished 18th, while being named rookie of the year in his debut Indianapolis 500 last year.
“It was good. Good to get back behind the wheel. It doesn’t seem like that long ago, and figured it would feel normal when I got back in, but it definitely took some getting accustomed to, so it’s honestly good to go through the ROP,” Larson said. “I feel like it would be hard to commit to wide open anyway the first couple laps.
Meeting with the media shortly after exiting the car for the day, Larson said he felt a difference in the car from last year.
“Yeah, still just trying to get the hang of it. Definitely I feel like — I haven’t talked to any of the teammates yet, but I feel like it feels a little different handling-wise this year,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s the hybrid stuff and the weight of that or what I’m feeling, but it feels a little different, so not quite the same balance that I had last year, so just got to kind of think through that and how you want to adjust to it, if you want to get it to a point like we were last year or not.”
IndyCar mandated hybrid technology after the 500 last year, so it was Larson’s first experience in a hybrid-equipped Indy car.
“Hearing them describe it to me was a little bit confusing, but once I got out there and all that, it was OK,” Larson said of the hybrid technology. “I didn’t really feel like it does much of anything to help you. It definitely helps; it doesn’t hurt.
“But it’s not like you get this massive boost down the straightaway or anything like that. I feel like whenever I would hit it, I’d get like an initial kind of handful of horsepower and then it just flattens out to normal. You get kind of close and then you just kind of stall out.”
Larson was looking forward to a second day in the car on Thursday.
“Yeah, absolutely. I think anytime you’ve got a night to sleep on anything, you usually come back a little more comfortable the next day,” Larson said. “I’m sure that’ll be the same for the team, as well. We had a lot of radio communication issues on the box and a couple different engine things happening, so all stuff you probably expect the first day.”
During a day in age when simulator technology is important to the preparation of drivers and teams, Larson remains old-school in his approach to racing.
Yeah, nothing really. Yeah, nothing at all. I didn’t do any sim stuff,” he said. “They have a new steering wheel, so I got molded for that. That’s about all that I’ve done Indy related.
“I mean, you have so much track time here that you kind of can build into it anyway. Maybe if I got in the sim, buttons and all that would have been a little bit easier to kind of set up the way I wanted, but like I said, you have enough time here that I don’t really feel like it’s that necessary, and then the overall — like sim, car balance I think for oval staff, it doesn’t relate to real life.
“I think a lot of times you can just trick yourself in there. Even on the NASCAR side of things, I don’t really use the sim,” Larson added. “Yeah, I didn’t do anything. But there’s going to be plenty of track time to figure it out.”
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