Kyle Larson is teaming up with Pato O’Ward on a 2022 ‘The Double’ attempt and the NASCAR star has been impressed with the IndyCar driver’s personality
Kyle Larson bluntly admitted that he and his Hendrick Motorsports teammates—Chase Elliott, William Byron, and Alex Bowman—are “pretty vanilla” compared to the vibrant personality of IndyCar sensation Pato O’Ward.
Larson was acquainted with a different racing environment while pursuing ‘The Double’ for the second consecutive year, and chatted with Express U.S. Sports about his experiences in both the Indy 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600. Ultimately, it proved a tough day as he tried to make history, crashing out of both races.
The Coca-Cola 600 also proved a source of frustration for Elliott, who blamed himself, while William Byron was overtaken late on by Ross Chastain for the win and questioned Joey Logano’s driving and Denny Hamlin risked upsetting his Hendrick fans.
READ MORE: Jimmie Johnson had telling moment with Rick Hendrick before Kyle Larson crashREAD MORE: Indy 500 national anthem singer breaks silence after receiving backlash for performance
While Hendrick Motorsports is arguably NASCAR’s top team, Larson was candid about what is lacking among him and his colleagues. He praised his Arrows McLaren teammate O’Ward for his dynamic presence, suggesting that NASCAR could benefit from more personalities like him.
Speaking to the media before ‘The Double’, Larson said: “We’re all pretty vanilla at Hendrick. I feel like most of the IndyCar garage though has got good personalities. We need more guys like Pato in NASCAR.”
O’Ward’s personality was on full display after a disappointing Indy 500 result. He finished fourth and sounded off after the race, won by Alex Palou after he overtook Marcus Ericsson.
“Pretty c— race I would say,” O’Ward said on FOX Sports. “Just kinda sucks that it went down to – the switcheroo was for the last position of the race and Ericsson actually kinda choked there and let Palou by and just kind of … he just had to pedal it there. I don’t think it’s a finish anybody here woulda wanted to see.
“I just feel like there was a bunch of non-experience in the front of the restarts and some of those restarts were pathetic. Those were not of the level that we should be seeing at the Indy 500.
“It just felt like we were playing roulette in a casino and picking outside or inside and just depending on what everyone else was choosing you either got screwed or you made like 10 positions.”