Did NASCAR fans' Kyle Larson Indianapolis stance backfire?

It has been three weeks since the most recent NASCAR Cup Series race, when Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson rallied to win a thrilling Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The race was the first official Brickyard 400 on the oval since the summer of 2020, ending a three-year run of action on the Speedway, Indiana venue's road course, and it was Larson's first since 2019.

Larson competed in the two biggest races at the "Racing Capital of the World" this year, having also competed in the 200-lap Indy 500 around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) superspeedway on Memorial Day Weekend back in late May.

He competed in the Indy 500 for Arrow McLaren through a partnership with Hendrick Motorsports. He had been planning on attempting the Memorial Day Double, competing in NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway after the Indy 500, but rain at both venues washed away that possibility for 2024.

NASCAR vs. IndyCar debate

With a full-time NASCAR driver competing in the biggest IndyCar race in the world, and doing so with zero IndyCar experience, there were always going to be some subtle undertones surrounding the "NASCAR vs. IndyCar" skill level debate.

That was certainly true for Formula 1 when two-time world champion Fernando Alonso skipped the Monaco Grand Prix and competed in the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing" for the first time back in 2017.

Larson qualified fifth for his rookie Indy 500, the same as Alonso seven years ago, and overcame an early hiccup on a restart to run inside the top 10 before a pit road speeding penalty derailed his race. He finished in 18th place.

Given who he was racing around and when his pit road speeding penalty occurred, Larson was likely on for a top eight finish, right behind Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood in seventh.

Larson did lead the Indy 500, but it was actually because of his penalty; that penalty allowed him to go on an alternate pit strategy a little bit later in the race. It wasn't as if his penalty knocked him out of the lead, though he did become the first driver to lead both crown jewel races in the same year since Tony Stewart did so in 2001.

Did NASCAR fans' Kyle Larson stance backfire?

If you would have predicted that Larson would finish in 18th place in the Indy 500, you would have been ridiculed and called a hater. As good as Larson is, there were a lot of fans who didn't quite appreciate the magnitude of the Indy 500 leading into this year's race and just assumed he would show up and do what he usually does.

So the fact that Larson finished in 18th place in an IndyCar race at the same track where he drove through the field to win a NASCAR race could certainly give IndyCar fans some ammunition against the NASCAR fans who treated IndyCar as if it were a minor league series leading up to this year's Indy 500.

Having said that, it's not as big of a deal as you might have thought.

Aside from comments here and there from the NASCAR announcers on the Indy 500's NBC and Peacock team during the practice and qualifying sessions leading up to the big race, the whole "NASCAR vs. IndyCar" theme really wasn't as present as one might have expected regarding Larson's Memorial Day Double attempt this year.

And if it was, it certainly didn't ascend to the level of the "Formula 1 vs. IndyCar" debate in 2017, when Lewis Hamilton infamously asked, "for Fernando to be fifth, what does that say about Indy?" after Alonso, whom Hamilton had said was "the best driver in the paddock", qualified for the Indy 500 on the second row. Plus, there is more to performance than qualifying or even a race classification.

So while it may have been a rude awakening for some, no, it didn't "backfire".

This wasn't your typical "NASCAR vs. IndyCar" episode. Larson, at his core, is pretty much a dirt track racer, anyway; he simply competes in NASCAR for a living. And he does it at a very high level, to the point where he has been classified as the best to ever driver a stock car, despite his true passion lying elsewhere.

He is a racer, above all else. He can get in anything and drive it, as he demonstrated with a strong all-around month of May at Indy, despite having never before competed in an IndyCar race. While the "generational talent" label has become a bit overused in this day and age, Larson is one whom it actually fits.

But he was never going to show up and dominate the biggest race in the world in an unfamiliar race car in an unfamiliar series, even if he was listed by some of the sportsbooks as the outright favorite – and even if a small contingent of fans thought he might.

Larson is likely planning to make another attempt at the Memorial Day Double in 2025, again competing for Arrow McLaren through a partnership with Hendrick Motorsports in the Indy 500. Hopefully he will actually get a chance to run both races, which would make him just the fifth driver to ever pull it off. The Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 are scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 25.