Hendrick Motorsports spent $3M on Kyle Larson's 'Double' effort

Hendrick Motorsports spent over $3 million on its bid to enter Kyle Larson in this year’s Indianapolis 500, according to people familiar with the matter, highlighting the significant investment the celebrated NASCAR team put into the effort.

The team entered Larson in this year’s 108th running of the race in a move that garnered widespread attention globally. It was part of a joint entry with McLaren Racing’s IndyCar team, HMS and Rick Hendrick’s automotive dealership empire, which served as primary sponsor.

Larson was attempting to become the fifth driver to try to complete The Double, racing in the 500 as well as NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte on the same day. The effort was derailed by poor weather, leaving Larson to compete in a rain-delayed 500 while missing the 600, which ultimately was rain-shortened, a fact that thwarted his effort to at least run some laps in the NASCAR race.

That left NASCAR to determine whether to follow through with its rules that drivers must start all races to qualify for its playoffs, or grant Larson a waiver that would excuse the absence. On Tuesday, NASCAR announced it was granting the waiver, but not before a week’s worth of debate ran rampant in the sport about whether HMS and Larson were right to ultimately prioritize the 500 over the 600 once their hand was forced due to the bad weather.

HMS’s spending on the effort revealed how much it had to lose tangibly with little to no return on investment if it gave up on the effort. The scale of HMS’s investment had not been previously reported. The spending included items like the cost of the sponsorship, multiple test sessions for Larson in the months before the race at Indianapolis and Phoenix, buying a suite and having about 80 people on site for the race ,between guests and employees, and a significant number of private airplane flights both in the lead-up to the race and during the week of the race itself to shuttle Larson back and forth from Charlotte to Indianapolis.

The $3M figure is double or more what is usually spent by teams on an Indy 500 entry. According to IndyCar executives, a typical Indy 500 entry costs between $1M to $1.5M.

HMS entered Larson into this year’s race as part of efforts under Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon to turn its drivers into bigger stars in sports and entertainment. Larson has long been viewed as a throwback racer who can successfully race in any type of car, versus the more specialized drivers of today’s age who normally focus on just one discipline. That was underscored when he qualified a remarkable fifth for the Indy 500, though he ultimately finished 18th after a pit-road speeding penalty derailed his day.

According to Google Trends data, last month stands as the second biggest month for searches around Larson, only trailing May 2020, the month when he was suspended by NASCAR. Larson was named the rookie of the year at this year’s 500.

While HMS could decide to enter the Indy 500 again next year with Larson and McLaren, it’s not yet clear whether the team will elect to do so following the controversy that erupted with the way this year’s race played out.