At one point this week, it looked as if Hendrick Motorsports had a contingency plan in place should Kyle Larson not make it in time to North Wilkesboro Speedway from Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race.
That plan, which involved Xfinity Series regular Justin Allgaier filling in for Larson, has been nixed, Hendrick vice president of competition Chad Knaus said Sunday.
“To put Justin in and have him run the Open, we thought about it and spoke to NASCAR and that’s not the best route for all of us. It would get pretty messy pretty quickly,” Knaus said, via Jenna Fryer of The Associated Press. “Would it be fair to the people in the Open, or not fair to the people in the All-Star Race?”
Instead, Knaus said, the only plan for now revolves around Larson making it to North Wilkesboro on time. If he doesn’t, they won’t race.
“The car would just sit there and look pretty [if Larson doesn’t make it to North Wilkesboro in time],” Knaus said. “We would save it for another event. … The way things are working out all of our cards are in getting Kyle here. That’s the plan.”
Knaus added: “All of that stuff gets kind of crazy. We are better off to make sure our helicopters are flying off, we get him on the ground. And get him in a golf cart and get here. We’ve got a very tight timeline. We have worked very closely with our aviation department.”
Kyle Larson secures Fast 6 position for Indy 500, complicates NASCAR All-Star Race picture
Larson finished in the top-6 of Fast 12 qualifying for the 108th Running of the Indy 500 and is now set to take part in pole qualifying, slated for 5:25-5:55 p.m. ET. According to Jeff Gluck of The Athletic, the belief is that Larson will have to leave pit road at Indianapolis for his helicopter by 6:05 p.m. in order to make it to North Wilkesboro in time. From there, the plan is for Larson to catch a plane ride from Indianapolis to a North Wilkesboro airport and then helicopter over to the racetrack for the All-Star Race, which is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET.
Knaus said that even if Larson wins the pole, he will still attempt to make it to North Wilkesboro.
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