NASCAR champion Kyle Larson turned his first laps at Indianapolis Motor Speedway behind the wheel of an IndyCar on Thursday in preparation for his Indy 500 run in May.

He climbed into the cockpit of the Arrow McLaren Chevy in the morning hours, and with officials and media watching on, effortlessly piloted the car to speeds he had not experienced before in his career.

Following on from yesterday’s trio of rookies completing their own orientation, Larson was able to follow the prescribed schedule without any issues.

He completed 10 laps each at 205 MPH and 210 MPH, then completed 15 laps above 215 MPH and was given approval from IndyCar to compete in this year’s upcoming Indianapolis 500.

Larson turned 72 laps in total, including installation laps, with his fastest circuit of the famous oval clocking in at 217.898 MPH.

Jeff Gordon, Rick Hendrick, and Tony Kanaan were all on hand to provide support for Larson’s first laps for the joint project between Hendrick Motorsports and Arrow McLaren.

Talking after the runs, the 31-year-old described how the experience was mostly what he expected and that his preparation made it easier to get up to speed.

“Yeah, it was fun,” said Larson. “It was mostly what I anticipated, in a way. The speed and the grip didn’t feel, thankfully, scarier than what I thought it might.

“Just how much the car wants to pull left and you have to fight it back to the right down the straightaways was something I didn’t expect. The way the wheel was a lot lighter than the simulator but still a little heavier than what I expected.

“Other than that, I thought it went really smooth. The pit road side of things is where I’ll have to work more on. Just the steering is so slow, you have to turn so far to get in and out if you’re coming around somebody. Getting used to the steering at the slower speeds will be something to get used to.

“Then just maximizing the apron, braking for pit road, stuff like that I think is stuff I’ll have to really focus on and work on. That way we’re maximizing potential.

“Overall, it was a great day. I felt like everyone at McLaren did a really good job of prepping me to make things easier to get up to speed. So thanks to everybody there. Glad to be through the day, and look forward to the open test in April.”

Larson plans to be the first driver since Kurt Busch in 2014 to attempt The Double, meaning he will run both the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 in the same day and will race for 1,100 miles if he finishes both.

Only four drivers have ever competed in both events in the same year, with Tony Stewart and Robby Gordon each completing the impressive feat multiple times between 1997 and 2004.

A lot of eyes will be on Larson in the coming months as he gears up to add his name to the list of drivers to have taken on the unique challenge.

There will be another team partnership in IndyCar for the 2024 season, with Juncos Hollinger Racing and Arrow McLaren teaming up to provide additional support to each other.

The two teams will work together in a strategic alliance that will see a joint effort take shape for much of the behind-the-scenes operation of the organizations.

According to the release, the alliance will begin with a focus on commercial and strategic initiatives and may evolve to include other areas over time.

Both teams will also ‘consider this alliance as a talent development opportunity, with the potential for engineers, mechanics and drivers to build their experience.’

“We’re continually working to strengthen all areas of our team,” said Arrow McLaren Team Principal Gavin Ward.

“And a strategic alliance with Juncos Hollinger Racing helps both of us in leveraging our commercial and marketing power and the McLaren Racing brand in a new way.”

Absent from the announcement is a promise of any sort of technical alliance, which would have seen the two teams work together on car setup and performance.

Other alliances on the IndyCar grid, such as the recently-revealed partnership between Team Penske and AJ Foyt Racing, a focused more on car performance and include more technical aspects to their information sharing.

JHR has been one of the few teams on the grid without any sort of support from a larger entity, with the team having only two full IndyCar seasons under its belt and having no assistance in getting its two cars up to speed.

The team’s two drivers finished 16th and 21st in the championship this past year, and this new alliance with the more formidable Arrow McLaren should help them move upwards in the coming years.

“Our two teams have a lot of similarities in how we’re attracting partners and building a fanbase,” said JHR co-owner Ricardo Juncos. “We’re starting out with a strategic alliance and we’ll see how that may evolve from here.”

Arrow McLaren has announced a couple leadership position changes among members of its team, including a promotion for Tony Kanaan.

The longtime racer recently hung up his helmet following a farewell drive at this past year’s Indy 500, and taking on a Special Advisor role within Arrow McLaren.

Kanaan will now transition into a more formal position within the team’s management, and will become Sporting Director for the growing IndyCar program.

He will still work closely with drivers during race weekends, but will now also help to strengthen partner relationships and serve as a resource for the entire team on and off the track.

“My role as special advisor was really an opportunity for me to test the waters of being on the other side of a team—as a leader and no longer a driver,” said Kanaan.

“I was able to observe how the team is run, make suggestions on where we can improve and help out with the commercial side of the team.

“I found out pretty quickly that this side isn’t too bad. I really like it actually and thought I have more to contribute in the day-to-day, outside of just race weekends.

“I’m looking forward to this new role where I will be more engrained with the team, having unique experience to contribute and make Arrow McLaren even better.”

Included in the management announcement was a title change for Gavin Ward, who will transition from Racing Director to Team Principal.

The title better reflects the wide areas of responsibility Ward has been tasked with recently, and he will report directly to Zak Brown, McLaren Racing CEO.

Arrow McLaren’s drivers finished fourth, ninth, and 12th in the 2023 championship, and the team will look to climb even higher with the latest internal rearrangement.

McLaren has announced that its star IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward will take part in a Free Practice 1 Formula 1 session later this year.

The Mexican driver will hop behind the wheel of the MCL60 for the opening session of the Abu Dhabi race weekend, which is the final race of the season and takes place on November 26.

O’Ward first sampled modern F1 machinery when he took part in a young driver test in 2021, and then drove in FP1 for McLaren at Abu Dhabi last season.

The initial invitation to test an F1 car was extended in part due to O’Ward’s successes in IndyCar, where he made good on a bet he had with McLaren CEO Zak Brown by winning his first IndyCar race at Texas Motor Speedway.

By rule, once per year every F1 entry on the grid has to be driven during FP1 by a driver that has no more than two grand prix starts.

The rule allows prospective talent a legitimate chance to break into the sport, but also forces teams to scramble a bit towards the end of the year to find a suitable driver to run the Friday session.

O’Ward will fulfil the second of the team’s two required FP1 rookie outings for the year, with Oscar Piastri making his run for McLaren at Bahrain.

O’Ward finished fourth in the championship in this year’s recently completed IndyCar season, finishing on the podium seven times but failing to secure a win.

The 24-year-old continues to be Arrow McLaren’s top driver in the American series, and will stay with the team for a fifth season in 2024.

O’Ward seems to have stuck to his plan to focus on IndyCar during that series’ season, and will devote a bit of time to continue his slow-and-steady F1 ambitions now that he has more available time.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown distributed a letter to the Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team late Friday detailing that Alex Palou no longer has intentions to join the team in 2024.

The 2021 champion reportedly informed Brown of his decision recently, despite multiple assurances that he would be joining the Papaya squad in one form or another next season.

The contents of the letter, which was first reported by the Associated Press, contained pointed language from Brown that made clear his disappointment with the newest development.

“We dedicated a lot of time, money and resources preparing to welcome Alex [Palou] into our team because we believed in him and were looking forward to IndyCar wins with him,” Brown wrote in the letter to the team.

“Coming out of his team dispute last fall, we were assured by Alex of his commitment to Arrow McLaren reflected in the contract he entered into with us.

“We have paid him a significant first payment toward his 2024 season in addition to the millions of dollars toward developing him in our Formula 1 testing program and in his reserve driver role with a potential drive in F1 in the future.

“Unfortunately, it now appears our belief, commitment, investment and trust in Alex was misplaced as it is not being reciprocated.”

The news was unexpected, both in the timing and the method with which it was disseminated.

Palou was famously involved in a messy contract dispute last year, in which Chip Ganassi Racing claimed it had exercised a contract extension with the driver, and Palou claimed he had signed with McLaren.

The battle went all the way to court, and eventually an agreement was reached where Palou continued to drive for Ganassi this season while being allowed to test with McLaren on a few occasions.

Those tests included a couple outings in Formula 1 machinery, which is a prized opportunity that is not usually offered unless the driver will be able to contribute to the team in the future.

Despite Palou purposely saying next to nothing publicly all season about his contract status for 2024, it is apparent from the letter Brown sent to the team that an agreement was in place for him to join McLaren in 2024.

Brown wrote that he still expects Palou to honor his deal for next season, but is already working on options that don’t include the Spaniard.

One possible scenario that started this latest round of contract changes is that Chip Ganassi, who still wants Palou on his team despite the dispute last year, offered Palou a hefty sum of money to keep him where he is in the #10.

Ganassi and his team do not comment on contracts until they are finalized, however, and offered no comment on this situation.

It’s not hard to imagine that he is pleased with his young driver, who appears to be well on his way to earning his second championship in three years.

Based on how last year’s contract talks progressed, there may well be more twists to the story yet before everything is finalized.

However it shakes out, there are numerous other driver agreements that have been delayed, waiting to see where Palou ends up. Some of those may well start falling into place soon on account of the latest developments.

The biggest talking point of the first IndyCar practice session on the Toronto street course was the new bumps that were introduced in a repaved section of the track.

A few corners were resurfaced since the series visited last year, and the dips that were created to accommodate the existing drainage grates and manhole covers are quite severe.

The cars were seen to be scraping their front wings and carrying wheels off the ground as the drivers traversed the large dips in the smoothest way they could find.

Felix Rosenqvist, who went third quickest in the opening session, even compared the experience to rally driving, where planning is needed to make sure the car lands the right way on the other side of a jump.

“It kind of reminds me a bit of rally driving,” said Rosenqvist after the Friday practice session. “Like you have to set the car up before the jump and then you have to land in the right place.

“It’s like a rally approach but way less jumping, obviously. Yeah, it makes you think. I think it’s kind of rare to have that in IndyCar, so it’s a new challenge for sure.

“Going into [Turn] 10, there’s a massive bump right on entry, so you kind of have to go through that. There’s no choice, you have to go through it.

“Then as a car, it kind of lands on the bump, you have to turn in, and if you take it with too much speed it’s really easy to just go straight.

“I think we saw a couple of drivers, me including, trying that. Yeah, you’re just mixing it up with different the lines and stuff. Was kind of interesting.

“Then 11, the new tarmac kind of ends right at the apex, so you can send it in pretty hard, but then it gets bumpy on exit. Yeah, it’s a complete inverted approach to the section, but I thought it was fun.”

All of the drivers spent a good portion of the afternoon searching for the best way to navigate the dips, which sit right in the middle of the racing line.

Additional track time will bring extra grip to the track as well, which may help to create a viable path that misses the worst of the obstacles as the weekend progresses.

A second practice session on Saturday morning will give drivers a chance to find the best line before qualifying takes place later in the afternoon.

Following his final race behind the wheel at the most recent Indianapolis 500, Tony Kanaan has joined Arrow McLaren as a special advisor.

His new role outside the cockpit will keep him engaged in the sport now that his driving career has wound down following a very successful 25 years in the sport.

The longtime veteran will travel with the team to races and tests, and will provide guidance and strategy to the team’s three drivers as well as the crew.

He will also help the team with commercial partnerships and business development, an area that neither Kanaan nor Arrow McLaren have struggled to be successful.

“I had said that I wasn’t going to leave racing or the NTT IndyCar Series, so I’m very excited to join the Arrow McLaren team in this role,” said Kanaan.

“Zak [Brown] and Gavin [Ward] have a great vision for where this team is headed and what we can accomplish, so I look forward to helping us get there and making the team and the series even better. This team works hard and has a lot of fun. That’s what racing is about, and it’s why I love being part of the team.”

Kanaan joined Arrow McLaren in late 2022 in order to race as a fourth driver for the team in the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500.

He quickly became an integral part of the team and an asset to the entire operation, which has desires to grow into the top outfits in American open wheel racing.

“I’m thrilled to have Tony join Arrow McLaren and our McLaren Racing family in a more formalized capacity following his brilliant IndyCar career,” said McLaren CEO Zak Brown.

“He’s a racer, and he knows how to win. Having him around our team and mentoring our drivers can only make us stronger contenders in the NTT IndyCar Series championship.”

During Sunday’s IndyCar race around the streets of Detroit, Felix Rosenqvist and Alexander Rossi found themselves battling against each other for a spot on the podium.

There was not just one swap of position, but a few different instances of side by side action from the team-mates in the closing laps.

The bosses in the pit lane gave them leave to battle it out as they saw fit, and both drivers were skilled enough to keep their cars in one piece. Although, they didn’t give each other much extra room either.

Speaking after the race, Rosenqvist talked about his respect for Rossi and how he feels there was no problem to be fighting his team-mate so hard for position.

“I mean, we race hard, but I think we also race fair,” said Rosenqvist. “Obviously we like each other. We don’t have any intentions to put each other in the wall. But, yeah, it was tight.

“I think the move wasn’t really high-risk. I was completely alongside him into [turn] three. Yeah, just gets tight, man. It’s so close. He squeezed me a little bit on entry, I squeezed him a little bit on exit.

“I think it’s a good problem to have. The Arrow McLaren cars have been up there every race. You’re going to find yourself in a situation where you’re fighting team-mates.

“I think it’s something we’ll discuss internally if we can manage it differently. Obviously there were no team calls on this one, which is cool. They let us battle it out on the track.

“I think Will [Power, with Team Penske] can explain how it works when you have a lot of good cars at the front. It’s a good problem to have.”

Despite the close quarters, everything worked out quite well for the two Arrow McLaren drivers this past weekend. Rosenqvist earned his first podium of the season and Rossi came home just behind in fifth.

The team’s three drivers have logged a combined 10 top-five finishes so far this season, putting them second for that particular statistic behind the Chip Ganassi Racing squad.

Fans always appreciate an extra helping of side by side racing, and will be hoping that the team continues to allow their drivers to race each other in future races despite the high risk.

A full set of 27 IndyCar drivers tackled the brand new street course around downtown Detroit, and it was Pato O’Ward that put in the fastest lap of the afternoon.

The Mexican driver used his well-known fast hands to wrestle his Arrow McLaren Chevy around the tricky course in a time of 1:03.0773.

With only nine turns, it was the tracks bumps and elevation changes that challenged the drivers the most.

Just behind on the timesheets was Scott Dixon, who completed his own lap in 0.0986 seconds slower in his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

A pair of Andretti Autosport drivers Alexander Rossi and Kyle Kirkwood took the third and fourth positions respectively. Alex Palou rounded out the top five.

The fastest rookie in the afternoon was Marcus Ericsson, who has built a reputation for being the best rookie in the field in the few races that have been run so far.

There were numerous red flags for drivers that went long on their braking zones and ended up needing help to get going from the runoff areas.

The Juncos Hollinger Racing rookie Agustin Canapino was the first to need assistance from the AMR safety crew in the turn 1 runoff.

Graham Rahal was next to get stranded. Then Ericsson, McLaughlin, Palou, and even O’Ward also brought out successive red flags throughout the session.

Only a couple actually hit the wall, and only Canapino had any damage to his car. But each still lost valuable time to learn the new street course.

There were numerous other incidents where drivers used the runoff but then were able to successfully spin their cars around, or reverse in the tight quarters, and get going again on their own.

The number of mistimed corner entries were mostly on account of the track surface, which is quite bumpy and built from many different surface types. Turns 3, 4 and 5 had the most activity, but nearly every corner saw some momentary troubles.

As the track builds up rubber over the weekend, there will likely be less instances of drivers running long. But it is something to keep an eye on throughout the weekend.

Drivers will have another practice session Saturday morning, then qualifying will take place at 1:15 PM Eastern time.

Arrow McLaren announced today that it will be taking over the current Andretti Autosport facility when that team vacates the property in 2025.

The Indianapolis facility is nearly triple the size of McLaren’s current home, which will give the growing team room to expand.

Included at the facility are larger workshop and transportation areas, as well as a gym and larger office areas.

With Arrow McLaren adding an additional full time car this season, and adding personnel to match the 50% growth, the ready-made location will help the team continue its rise through the ranks.

“I’m excited for the team to have a new home – one that has plenty of space and is fit for purpose as we compete for wins and championships,” said McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown.

“Arrow McLaren has had quick growth over the past year, and this facility not only gives the team the space they need today but what we envision our growth to be in North America in the years to come.”

Arrow McLaren had previously announced that it would construct a brand new facility for this purpose, and the plan was to begin construction at the end of 2022.

But when Andretti announced last August the construction of their own new facility, a pre-configured workshop was suddenly up for grabs.

The current Andretti shop will trade hands when that team moves into their new facility in 2025, and will save McLaren from the expense of building a facility from the ground up.

The previously-planned new construction was going to have 97,000 ft² (9011 m²) of floor space, and the Andretti facility has 89,000 ft² (8268 m²).

There will undoubtedly be upgrades made as well, meaning there was likely a negligible trade off in usability in the decision.