After weather kept him from actually competing in the Coca-Cola 600 last year, Kyle Larson is back for another attempt at becoming the fifth driver to officially make a Memorial Day Double attempt, first by competing in the Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and then by flying to Charlotte Motor Speedway to run NASCAR's longest race.
No driver has done the Memorial Day Double since Kurt Busch in 2014, and whenever the topic is brought up, it's usually NASCAR drivers who are asked about the possibility of the 1,100-mile single-day cross-over.
But one IndyCar driver who has admitted to having discussions about it, even after recently celebrating a pretty big birthday, is four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves.
The 50-year-old Brazilian competes for Meyer Shank Racing on the IndyCar side, and even if he wins a record-breaking fifth Indy 500 this year, he plans to keep coming back for more.
"I'm still coming back!" he told Beyond the Flag when asked whether or not he'd try to go for a sixth, if given the opportunity.
Earlier this year, Castroneves made his NASCAR Cup Series debut in the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, and he did so in a fourth Trackhouse Racing entry.
In 2022, Trackhouse Racing debuted what they call "PROJECT 91", which is designed to give internationally renowned race car drivers the opportunity to compete in Cup Series races.
While Castroneves didn't technically qualify for the "Great American Race", team owner Justin Marks took advantage of a new "world-class provisional" in the new charter agreement to guarantee Castroneves his spot in the field through PROJECT 91.
And Castroneves isn't ruling out additional NASCAR starts.
"It sparked another interest when I did the Daytona 500," Castroneves admitted. "The car was so cool, and yeah, drivers gave me a little bit of a hard time, which is actually, I was expecting nothing less. There was not much that you can compare, but every time you drive different cars, you become better.
"You become a better driver, and it sparks maybe a little bit more of a different sensitivity for sure. It helped a lot, but right now, it’s still pretty much the same as I’m feeling from the few yeras before with IndyCar. But year, if there was another opportunity to drive in a Cup car, I would definitely do it."
Seeing as how Castroneves wants to compete in the Indy 500 indefinitely, would he entertain a Coca-Cola 600 start as well, thus enabling him to run the Memorial Day Double like Larson is trying again this year?
"We discuss it, but it takes a lot of effort for them to pull a lot of other guys to do a fourth team in that category, I would say," he said. "So I understand it's very, very hard on everyone, but yeah, we always discuss."
Perhaps those discussions will go further in future years, because for this year's Coca-Cola 600, the Marks-owned team have indeed added a fourth car for Connor Zilisch, the development driver whom many believe will end up in one of their Cup cars full-time at some point in the near future.
The 109th running of the Indy 500 is set to be shown live on Fox from Indianapolis Motor Speedway beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET this Sunday, May 25 (begin a free trial of FuboTV here!), and the Coca-Cola 600 is set to be shown live on Amazon Prime Video from Charlotte Motor Speedway beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET that evening.