2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson is known to be willing and able to get into pretty much any kind of race car and get up to speed quite quickly, and he had been planning on making his Australian Supercars debut in the Adelaide Grand Final this coming November.
However, he has now withdrawn from that event.
Larson had been set to run the event as a wildcard with PremiAir Racing, and he had also been set to take on the circuit's speedway in a Jason Pryde Motorsport sprint car, according to Speed Cafe.
This decision comes less than two weeks after his second career Memorial Day Double attempt, and first in which he actually got to compete in both IndyCar's Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the same day.
Kyle Larson's Double does not go to plan
Larson finished last year Indy 500 in 18th place after starting fifth, but the race was delayed by rain, and by the time he got to Charlotte, the Coca-Cola 600 was halted by rain and ultimately shortened and ended before he ever got the chance to get behind the wheel.
This year, Larson struggled at Indy from the time he got into the cockpit. He crashed in the open test, crashed in practice, and was never competitive in the race after qualifying 19th before crashing again on a restart due to a mistimed downshift, taking out two other competitors in the process.
He then wrecked from the lead at Charlotte, and while he stayed in the race, he was collected in another multi-car wreck later on. All things considered, he didn't even compete 600 total miles of his 1,100-mile quest, putting him behind 20 of the drivers who only competed in the Coca-Cola 600.
He officially became the fifth driver to compete in both crown jewel races on the same day, but he unfortunately became the first driver to wreck out of both. Including Indy 500 practice, his Memorial Day Double attempt included an astounding five crashes.
Having hinted that future Double attempts may not be worth it after the frustrations of the past two years, which have included less than 1,100 total miles driven, it's not a stretch to suggest that he may feel he is better served to focus on NASCAR at the moment, even if the Adelaide Supercars race isn't scheduled to take place until a few weeks after the conclusion of the 2025 Cup Series season.
Whether or not the decision to withdraw from that event actually had anything to do with his struggles in the Double is unknown, but let's be real: it's still highly unlikely that Larson won't find plenty of other race cars to drive over the offseason either way, specifically on dirt tracks. At heart, he really is a race car driver whose full-time job is simply to drive stock cars in the Cup Series.