INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — NASCAR star Kyle Larson aborted his first qualifying attempt for the Indianapolis 500 on Saturday after hearing what sounded like a miss in the engine of his Arrow McLaren near the end of his four-lap run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Larson was the sixth of 34 cars off to qualify and on pace to set a time that would have put him near the front of the 33-car grid when the incident occurred. Larson played it safe, shut the car down and headed in to have everything checked out.
“There was some alarm that popped up on the dash and it just cut power," said Larson, who is trying to qualify for the May 26 race and become the first driver since Tony Stewart in 2001 to complete the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day.
“I don't know what happened but that sucks,” Larson said. “I don't know how the car was looking, but it felt pretty balanced.”
Brian Campe, the technical director for Hendrick Motorsports who is working with Arrow McLaren to field the No. 17 car, said an examination of Larson's engine found no serious problems. The hope was to get back on the track later Saturday and give him a chance to make the top 12 to advance to the pole shootout Sunday.
“We just know there was some kind of engine event,” said Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon, who once dreamed of driving in the Indy 500 himself. “We believe the engine is still OK. They should be able to diagnose it and get back out.”
Still, the delay could prove costly. The weather was much cooler when Larson made his first qualifying attempt, and cool temps usually translate to quicker speeds. That was changing rapidly as the sun peeked through clouds over the speedway.
Larson wasn't the only Arrow McLaren driver to have problems on the first day of qualifying.
Pato O'Ward pulled out of the lineup for his first run when the team decided to make some late changes to his setup, Arrow McLaren principal Gavin Ward said. That decision came shortly before Callum Ilott, whose 231.995 mph run put him in the top 10, had his time thrown out when a postrun technical inspection discovered a problem with the left rear wheel offset.
There were about four hours remaining after teams had a chance to make their initial qualifying runs Saturday, so Larson and the rest of the Arrow McLaren cars still had plenty of time to get back on the track for another attempt.