Boring and frustrating': Why Kyle Larson was 25th on timing chart at

Tony Kanaan has been here 22 times as a driver. He knows the unpredictability of spring weather in central Indiana and the all-consuming frustration it can bring. He knows full well that an eight-hour practice can quickly turn into only three or four hours on pitlane and a few dozen laps.

It’s why Kanaan is such a perfect mentor for Kyle Larson, the latest ‘Double’ challenger who’s used to winning in virtually any car he steps into and who just might actually have the chops to win his maiden Indianapolis 500.

And three days into his first 500 practice week, it’s evident that Larson’s frustrations on a lack of track time, thanks to rain, an engine change and a poor roll of the dice on mapping out a run plan for Thursday, have bubbled to the surface. In what could’ve been as much as 19 hours of open track when the this week’s practice schedule first came out, Larson has logged just 85 laps through three days of 500 practice.

Larson and the No. 17 Arrow McLaren Chevy crew turned just 29 laps Thursday, when sprinkles only rarely put pauses on track time, failing to meet the 2021 NASCAR Cup champion’s expectations.

“I thought the weather was going to be good and we’d get in a lot of laps today, and everyone has been turning laps except for me,” Larson said from pitlane after having run just 11 laps through five hours of Thursday’s eight-hour 500 practice. At the time, Larson’s best lap from that morning ranked dead-last among the 34-car field. “It’s been a bit boring and frustrating.

Minutes after Larson finished the day 25th on the timing charts (22.805 mph) on the eve of a Fast Friday that could be plagued by rain, IndyStar asked Kanaan, Arrow McLaren’s sporting director, about Larson’s ever-present frustrations that shone through in his interview on Peacock that afternoon, immediately before the driver went and turned 11 more laps, lifting himself from the bottom of the timing charts.

Seeing and hearing Larson seething hours prior had been the least surprising part of his day, Kanaan said – having weathered watching the No. 17 crew execute a morning engine change, show up to pitlane to run in a pack with no one interested in playing, and then having to roll back to the garage to swap over to a qualifying setup instead – while Larson spent hour after hour idly waiting