So the forecast is that lighting and downpours are forecastt, and two inches of rain are due to fall on IMS come raceday
It seems that might derail Kyle Larsons participation..... his plans are to compete 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 500 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.
Tony Kanaan has been the team’s backup plan in recent months but to race he will need to run a refresher later this week..
Other options are he possibility of keeping Larson in Indy at the expense of competing in the Cup race.
Rick Hendrick wrote:“We’ve talked about it many times, and we know we need to be at Charlotte for the points,” Hendrick said. “We’re just going to let it play out, and then Kyle and myself and Jeff Gordon, we’ll make that decision Sunday.
“The pressure of being in the race and starting with a great starting spot and knowing we’ve got the 600 to run, it’s going to be pressure all day. How does the race go? Is it going to rain? What time do we have to leave to get back to Charlotte? This is going to be a tremendous amount of pressure, but we signed up for it. We’re in the race. We qualified. Kyle is a heck of a talent. I just hope that the weather cooperates and we get to finish the race.”
But there is also an Option C......if Kanaan is not used as Larson’s backup ithen t
he bumped Dale Coyne Racing driver Nolan Siegel, who is approved to race without needing to do a special session in the car, could be drafted in to pilot the No. 17 Chevy. Siegel is no stranger to McLaren CEO Zak Brown, who co-owns the United Autosports sports car team Siegel will drive for next month in the LMP2 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
(The precedent of using a bumped driver was seen just last year when Stefan Wilson was injured and unable to drive for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/ Cusick Motorsports. The bumped Graham Rahal was recruited to drive Wilson’s No. 24 Chevy, which was moved from its 25th starting spot to the back of the field.
So it seems its down to Mother Nature as to which way it might go, certainly that will likely define whether Larson runs or not.
