The second attempt at the Memorial Day Doubleheader for Kyle Larson has not gotten off to the start that he would have hoped for after Larson crashed early in Thursday’s open test session for the Indianapolis 500.

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion crashed in turn one at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway early on Thursday during qualifying practice. Larson drifted high off the corner and pancaked the outside wall. The initial hit broke the right-front suspension, causing Larson to lose the ability to steer his No. 17 Arrow McLaren entry. He then smacked the wall again at the entrance of the second corner before his car came to a stop and he was able to climb out.

IN THE WALL 😬@KyleLarsonRacin makes contact with the wall exiting Turn 1 and in Turn 2.

📺: INDYCAR YouTube pic.twitter.com/5TE5c1BXDs

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) April 24, 2025

Larson told FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass that in a way, he was glad he was able to get this out of the way early, instead of deeper into the month of May.

“Hopefully this is the only time I’ll crash an IndyCar,” Larson told Pockrass. “I was kind of tight yesterday. I think it just carried over to today, and going faster just magnified it all. As soon as I turned into one I was like, ‘Man, I am in trouble here.’ It just had a ton of understeer. Just ran out of room and got into the wall. 

“It’s a bummer, but at the same point I’m happy to get it out of the way hopefully here early in the Indy 500 stuff. We can try to work on our balance quite a bit now.”

Kyle Larson is OK after his crash in Indy 500 testing today. It was his first crash in an INDYCAR. ⁦@IndyCarOnFOX⁩ pic.twitter.com/61ucMr7cAn

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) April 24, 2025

Thursday’s practice session was a “Fast Friday” simulation practice, meaning that the boost in the new hybrid engines were turned up and the cars were trimmed out for maximum speeds to simulate what the drivers will feel during qualifying for the 109th Indianapolis 500.

Thursday is also Day Two of this two-day open test for the IndyCar teams. Larson had to go through the “Rookie and Refresher” practice session on Wednesday afternoon before joining the rest of the field for the full test session on Wednesday evening. When the day concluded, Larson was 11th fastest of the 34 drivers with a speed of 223.430 miles per hour. Scott Dixon was fastest overall with a speed of 225.182 miles per hour.

Larson’s crash was the second incident of testing. Graham Rahal slapped the wall late in Wednesday’s session. Two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Takuma Sato also crashed hard on Thursday morning in the third incident of the two-day test.

Indianapolis 500 Wednesday Open Test Results