Kyle Larson has reiterated the same phrase in practically every interview these last three Indianapolis 500 practice days.

“Just need some more laps,” the 31-year-old said on Thursday’s NBC broadcast for what seems like the umpteenth time as preparations ramp up ahead of May 26’s Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

What that doesn’t equate with is Larson needing more data and information to internalize. Larson’s coach for the Indy 500 — 2013 event winner Tony Kanaan — has made that point clear. Essentially, Kanaan’s job is “to pace the engineers” so that Larson can instinctively — not analytically — make decisions at the wheel No. 17 Hendrickcars.com Arrow McLaren.

“As a driver, I’m trying to say, ‘Hey guys, this is too much information. Let’s save it for later,’” Kanaan told FloRacing. “I think it’s a good balance to have there. I try to basically give him one (pierce of) information at a time. I’m like, ‘Guys, just give him one (note).’ We don’t give him all the (notes or feedback). Otherwise it’s just too hard to process.

“Things are happening so quick. And he’s trying to absorb everything right away as the champ that he is. I think it’s good to be from the outside trying to pace himself. I say, ‘Look, you’ll get there. It’s one thing at a time, otherwise you’re going to get confused.’”

With more than a dozen hours lost of practice time between Tuesday and Wednesday because of wet weather, and another hour-plus of practice lost Thursday morning because the No. 17 McLaren team had to change engines, Larson would, of course, like to be much further ahead of schedule.

As of lunchtime Thursday, he has just 65 total laps between Wednesday’s two-hour, rain-fragmented session and Thursday’s 11-lap mid-afternoon run. Lap No. 22 from Wednesday at 225.245 mph had been 15th fastest after the day’s session. That lap is now 20th-quickest overall between the two days.

But Kanaan said “I wouldn’t judge” any of those speeds because “we don’t know who’s fastest and who’s not” quite yet. One-lap speeds, however, show that speed is on McLaren’s side. Larson’s teammate Pato O’Ward tops Thursday’s speed chart at 228.861 mph as of 3 p.m. while Alexander Rossi’s lap of 227.284 mph is eighth-quickest between the three days.

“He’ll learn from his teammates,” Kanaan said. “We look OK. I wouldn’t judge (anything yet). … (Wednesday) was a good day. We got a lot of data. Now we’re going analyze. He’ll talk to his teammates, ask a couple different questions about lines. I think that’s the most important thing’ where he’s going to place his car. It can change the behavior of the car just because you’re running too close to someone or too far. For Kyle, this is the most important thing right now.”

“He’ll learn from his teammates. We look OK. I wouldn’t judge (anything yet). We won’t know who’s fastest and who’s not. (Wednesday) was a good day. We got a lot of data. Now we’re going analyze. He’ll talk to his teammates, ask a couple different questions about lines. I think that’s the most important thing’ where he’s going to place his car. It can change the behavior of the car just because you’re running too close to someone or too far. For Kyle, this is the most important thing right now.”

Larson’s post-practice comments Wednesday are in step with much of what Kanaan emphasized.

“I feel like I need to know what I need to feel in traffic to maintain those runs,” Larson said. “But then it’s like, if you miss that little bit or get some clean air, now it’s like, where did we lose? I just feel like there’s moments that are unpredictable. … I just try to talk to them and see what’s normal and all that. Tony’s been a great help this evening and talking with him.”

One rough patch Larson’s trying to smooth over is that he keeps “screwing up leaving my pit stall and getting into the end stall” and that he has to “get better on my end there.”

“Just trying to get rep so the little things are more simpler and natural come race day,” Larson added.

All things considered, Kanaan started Thursday morning with the impression that Larson is pleased as Fast Friday and qualifying on Saturday and Sunday looms.

“I think he’s happy,” Kanaan said. “We have a lot to talk about and things to analyze as far as in-car camera and stuff for sure. We made huge progress on what I’m trying to have him get better — well, not get better — but get used to in racing skills, which is running in traffic. (On Wednesday we) got him a lot of traffic runs, which was the goal.”

Larson’s to-do list before business picks up on Fast Friday remains lengthy and tedious. He should have hundreds of laps around Indianapolis Motor Speedway by now, but Mother Nature has constrained that to 184 through Thursday afternoon (counting Oct. 12’s Rookie Orientation, April 10’s open test and this week’s practice).

How does Kanaan manage that very list now with so much lost track time? There’s no perfect strategy, but focusing on one task at a time is a good place to start.

“You have a list. That list always changes. With him right now, it’s more of that we know the car is good,” Kanaan said. “We have good cars here and experienced teammates he can benefit from. We’re trying not to feed him (information). We’re really just trying to let him run and understand how the car behaves. And if you can make a couple key changes, (you try to) make him understand what that is. That’s how. We pick and choose (what we tell him) based on the changes.”

Repping out as many laps as possible is obviously crucial for Larson. But debriefs among he, Kanaan, the team and his teammates are highly important, too. On Wednesday, Larson took roughly 40 minutes between runs for his first serious debrief of the week.

And on Thursday, Larson only took 11 laps of mock race runs before heading to the garage to prepare for mock qualifying runs in the evening. It’s been since roughly 12:15 p.m. Thursday since Larson made his last lap around the 2.5-mile oval as he waits out his team’s swap to qualifying trim before the session ends at 6 p.m.

“We give him breaks and let him think about some of the things we saw in traffic to do different; talking about the setup,” Kanaan said. “It was more of how the car is behaving. He has questions, obviously. … It’s about making changes. We’ve made a couple changes since then. And he liked it.”