Arrow McLaren, Hendrick Motorsports unveil Kyle Larson's liveries for 'The Double'

INDIANAPOLIS -- Having already spent several hours in Chevy's IndyCar simulator housed at GM's new state-of-the-art technical center just outside Charlotte in recent months, Kyle Larson says he's eyeing his on-track IndyCar debut in October as part of his rookie orientation program at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval for the 2024 Indianapolis 500.

After Larson, along with folks from Arrow McLaren's IndyCar program and his day-to-day crew at Hendrick Motorsports, unveiled the 2021 NASCAR Cup series champ's liveries for his attempt at 'The Double' on May 26 -- running the Indy 500 and Cup's Coke 600 in the same day -- Larson's first taste of an Indy car on-track remains the next step in his year-plus-long ramp up towards his IndyCar debut.

Larson won the Knoxville Nationals sprint car event Saturday night, returned to IMS at 4 a.m., and got a couple hours of sleep prior to the news conference to unveil his liveries. Larson recounted his first day in the Chevy Indy car sim a couple weeks back that started as an easy-going session but quickly became frustrating when he learned just how much further he had to go to try and capture the car's full potential.

"We were doing Mid-Ohio, and I first got in and thought I'd be out of control and in the grass, but I felt like I was doing alright and got into a rhythm," Larson said. "The engineers were staying pretty quiet, but they would chime in and say, 'Hey, everything looks good. Keep working on your braking zones, more pressure, you can go a little deeper,' So I asked, 'How much more do I need?'

"'Well, you need about 1,000 pounds more pressure.'

"'What?!'"

Insider:Kyle Larson's 2024 run at The Double could be the first of many

Larson on '24 Indy 500 head start:'Totally different than anything I've been in'

As Larson explained, Cup cars on a lengthy straight heading into a 90-degree turn -- like Turn 1 of the IMS road course -- typically takes about 800 pounds of brake pressure. An Indy car's limit runs around 2,800.

"That's insane. I've never pushing anything that hard," he continued. "Just trying to get my head wrapped around slamming the pedal that hard and releasing it quickly. Even just maintaining it some was super difficult. I just couldn't ever quite figure it out, and I felt like I regressed once I got closer to the max.

"(Arrow McLaren IndyCar driver Felix Rosenqvist) showed up and was way faster than me, and it was starting to get frustrating. But it was an eye-opening experience to see the data. I'd always heard about those downforce cars and the braking, but I'd never seen the telemetry of what they're doing behind the wheel."

Lucky for Larson, 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan was hired as Arrow McLaren's special advisor for this very reason. In his new role, the 48-year-old will serve as a driver coach and be on-hand for most IndyCar race weekends, but behind the scenes, he'll be active in coaching up someone like Larson, who's talent in the cockpit of just about any car is unmatched but still has a lot to learn when it comes to top-level American open-wheel racing.

The pair already have a synergy built up, having crossed paths numerous times while running for Chip Ganassi Racing within the last decade, including multiple times in the Rolex 24, where they won the overall title in 2015. According to Racing Director Gavin Ward, Arrow McLaren plans to get Larson more simulator time in the coming months, but his first time physically on the track in the car is set to be that 500 test in October -- which tends to be atypical, with IndyCar officials (or teams) often requiring rookies to run another oval, like Texas Motor Speedway, in a test before tackling the 2.5-mile superspeedway oval in Speedway. An additional test like that, Ward added, could still come between October and the open test that will fall ahead of next May's 500.

"It hasn't really set in yet that it's truly a reality, but this makes it seem more real. I'm sure once things slow down in the offseason and I have time to sit around and think about the upcoming season, that's when it'll all hit, and the nervousness will set in along with the excitement," Larson said. "I have thought about the ROP a little, so I am a bit nervous when I think about that, but I think once I get in the car, a lot of those nerves will hopefully go away after a few laps, and it'll start to feel like home like all the other cars I drive.

"No matter the result from this whole experience, I'm going to come out of it a better racecar driver. I already have just in a short amount of time I've spent in the sim."