NASCAR driver Kyle Larson was hoping to become the first driver since Tony Stewart to complete all 1,100 laps of two races held on the same day, the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. But inclement weather affected the schedule for both races, forcing the NASCAR driver to make a difficult decision about which race he would enter.
Larson arrived at Charlotte Motor Speedway just as the Coca-Cola 600 race was halted due to an impending thunderstorm, and the race ended prematurely after just 249 laps. The Indianapolis 500 was also delayed for hours by rain.
This put Larson in a difficult position: wait for the Indy 500 to start and risk missing the NASCAR race? In the end, Larson chose to run in the Indy 500 because of the effort his team and sponsors put into preparing for the race.
"I felt like I had a lot of weight on my shoulders and a lot of guilt that I couldn't be in two places at the same time. I just wasn't in the right frame of mind. I didn't enjoy anything yesterday. I felt like we were all in a no-win situation because of the weather and everything that was involved.
"Even though it's the biggest race in the world, it's hard to fully enjoy it when you know you're going to miss another race," Kyle Larson said of his decision to choose the Indy 500 over NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600.
But apparently it wasn't all in vain, Larson said he enjoyed his experience as an Indy driver.
"The experience of the last few weeks is unmatched by anything I've experienced so far," Larson said of his Indy 500 experience.
By not starting the Coca-Cola 600, Larson did not score any points in the NASCAR event. Had this race not ended prematurely, Larson might have been able to participate in at least part of it. He was on his way to Charlotte from Indy with a private plane, helicopter and car to get there on time, but the race stopped just before he arrived and so all that logistics were for naught.
"We got there just in time for the rain and thought they were going to close the race pretty quickly. And then when they didn't and they started to dry the track, I became very optimistic. My mood started to improve. I was ready to race. I knew I had 150 laps to go in the race and I knew I would have enough time to get to the front. I knew my race car was going to be fast, and then I looked at the track, which was probably 80% dry, and it looked like it wasn't long to go.
"Then they surprised us all and declared it officially over. It destroyed any good mood I had," Larson said of the situation at the Coca-Cola 600, the race the NASCAR driver missed.