By: Ashley McCubbin

If anyone was looking at the forecast for Indianapolis last week, there was not much hope about seeing anybody on-track for the NTT IndyCar Series test. However, the rain staying away on Wednesday allowed for Kyle Larson and 33 other drivers to get on-track.

“I wasn’t expecting to get on track at all. No, I feel like I’ve gotten more out of this week than I anticipated getting,” Larson said. I was happy to get the solid couple hours that we got in in the morning. So I would rather have gotten something rather than nothing.”

The feeling of surprise in what transpired on-track was not just for the Arrow McLaren driver, but the fans as they looked at the speed charts. Larson was able to make 45 laps throughout the day, ending the test ranked second behind Josef Newgarden.

Larson is following suit in the likes of Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch in attempting to complete the Memorial Day double with the Indianapolis 500 and Coca Cola 600. On-top of simply driving an IndyCar and a NASCAR stock car in one day, the events take place in different states with Indiana and North Carolina, respectively. The famed open-wheel event will also mark Larson’s IndyCar Series debut, as well.

The test allowed Larson to race around fellow competitors for the first time, in beginning to learn how the air affects the car and setting up passes.

“I think that was my first run on that set of tires, and there was a few cars in front of me, and I’ve been hearing about how the dirty air is and all that and how bad it is. In that run I was like, man, it doesn’t feel that bad. It didn’t feel that different from clean air, and I was wide open behind them, and it was no problem,” he explanined. “Then we did some ins and outs and got towards the end of that set of tires, and I was by myself just kind of running and building lots of understeer by myself, and we stayed out there to kind of allow Newgarden to catch me, and he ended up passing me, and I totally lost the nose. That was pretty crazy kind of feeling that and all of that.

“But I think I could have done a better job, as well, when he passed me timing the air and the run and all that. Once I kind of lost the nose, it was hard to recover from it. It was so sensitive that, again, I don’t even know if that’s real, but I would assume that’s more real than me not feeling a balance change in traffic. But yeah, that’s why it’s just kind of hard to learn right now when the conditions are like this and the packs are smaller and all that. There’s still a lot left to learn. But that’s what I felt in those couple runs.”

Larson added he also noticed more checking up happening in the corner than he thought would be, realizing he needs to be looking further ahead than who is in front of him.

“Like I think I was like fourth or fifth in line at that point, and I probably needed to look a couple more cars in front of that person,” he continued. “When I say that person, also it’s like, I don’t know who I’m out there around because in a stock car somebody turns the corner you can see a door number or there’s a number on their back bumper. I’ve got no clue who I’m out there around and learning off of. That was surprising. I thought it would be easier to know who was out there around me. Yeah, it’s difficult.”