INDIANAPOLIS — The NTT INDYCAR SERIES will take to the famed 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval next week in a three-day session.

On Oct. 11, it will mark Rookie Orientation with fellow rookie drivers for next season Linus Lundqvist, Marcus Armstrong and Tom Blomqvist taking part. It will be split into 2 sessions, 10-12 pm between all three and 1-5 pm for Armstrong and Lundqvist.

On Oct. 12, Kyle Larson will make his oval debut completing his ROP. Also, on the 12th begins and two-day Hybrid test session. Chevy and Honda will each field two cars on what’s expected to be the first oval action that this Hybrid technology has faced.

Honda will have Colton Herta and Alex Palou with Chevy having Alexander Rossi and Will Power.

Hybrid testing will run first from 9-11 am ET, followed by Larsons ROP at 11-2. Then it’s back to hybrid testing from 2-6 pm.

Friday will be 2 of the 4 drivers back with Marcus Ericsson instead of Herta and David Malukas instead of Rossi. There will be no ROPs. It will run from 9-12 pm then 1-5 pm.

For Larson, this is his chance to calm some nerves.

“I have thought about that a little bit, so I am nervous when I do think about that,” Larson said here in August. “But I think once I get in the car, a lot of those nerves will hopefully go away after a few laps, and it will feel like home, just like all the other race cars I drive.”

He’s only done simulator work thus far and did so at Mid-Ohio.

“I did Mid-Ohio, and it was — I would say like when I first got in it, I thought I would be out of control and go in the grass, all this stuff,” he said on Sunday morning. “I was like, okay, I feel like I’m doing all right, like I felt like I got into a rhythm.

“They were just, the engineers and stuff were staying pretty quiet. They would chime in like, hey, you know, everything looks good. Just keep working on your braking zones and stuff. Okay, more brake pressure, whatever, go a little deeper. Yep, that’s a little better. And I’m like, well, how much more do I need? They’re like, well, you need about a thousand more pounds of brake pressure. I’m like what?

“So the max brake pressure there is like 2,800 pounds. That’s insane. I’ve never pushed anything that hard. Like for instance, here into turn one we’d be like 800 pounds of brake pressure max. So trying to get your brain wrapped around slamming the pedal that hard and releasing it quickly but also like maintaining some was just super difficult for me. I couldn’t ever figure it out. I felt like I regressed once I got closer to the max brake pressure stuff.

“Then, yeah, Felix Rosenqvist, he showed up and was way faster than me, so it was starting to get frustrating. It was just eye opening to see data, right? Like I’ve always heard about the downforce cars and braking and all that, but I’ve never seen the telemetry of what they’re doing behind the wheel. So that was definitely interesting. To see how consistent, they can be while pushing that hard was pretty wild, definitely eye opening.

“Like I’ve said in other interviews, no matter the result from this whole experience, I’m going to come out of it a better race car driver. I already have, I think, just in the short amount of time I spent in the simulator.

“It’s definitely having the support that I do from the teammates at Arrow McLaren as well as Chevrolet and drivers who have raced INDYCAR stuff before as well as stock cars. I’ll have a lot of people to lean on to soak up a lot of knowledge. So very, very thankful for that.”

Larson has driven a lot of cars and that’s by design. He’s a racer. 

That’s where Larson feels his best and more in his element. It’s a big reason as to why Rick Hendrick softened his stance on allowing his Cup drivers to take part in extracurricular activities outside of their Cup cars.

See, before Larson came aboard, it was always a firm no on doing anything like that. Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and everyone else only typically raced in the Cup Series and rarely moonlighted even in an Xfinity car or anything else.

Then with a shot to get Larson and give him a redemption tour in 2021, Larson maintained that it was a big part of his life in dirt racing and wherever he ended up, it would be with stipulations that he was allowed to continue doing so.

Chip Ganassi, his last employer, allowed him to do so but put limits on it. Hendrick was swayed by Jeff Gordon to allow Larson to race on dirt and it was a decision that led to immediate success.

The 2021 championship doesn’t likely come if Larson isn’t on dirt throughout the season. Mr. Hendrick never has had any hesitation though about it. Even with Chase Elliott getting injured off track while snowboarding in Colorado or Alex Bowman missing three races due to injury from a sprint car crash in a series that Larson runs, Hendrick could have put an end back to it. He didn’t. Larson is appreciative.

This is what makes Larson click. I don’t think there’s many drivers in the world that are as well versed and an all-around talented race car driver as Larson. Racing on dirt is an art and Larson is Picasso on it.

To take him away from those opportunities doesn’t let Kyle Larson be just that, Kyle Larson. Drivers have talked over the years on how you can’t take much from a dirt car obviously to a Cup car, but what you can take over is repetition and confidence.

“Just try to raise as much as I can get as much seat time as I can,” Larson told me. “I believe yes, it does help your mentality and your confidence.

The thing with racing is, it’s very much momentum based. NASCAR with this Next Gen has proven to be harder to keep that momentum with so much up and down results. Does running dirt help Larson mentally when he’s going through any rough patches?

“Well, I’ve had a great year on dirt but on the Cup season has been very up and down,” he told me. “Speed wise has been good, but results wise has been up and down. So I would say it doesn’t matter.”

It’s more personally helping him than anything else.

“Of course, Kyle put a lot of pressure on me, and I’m used to that with cars, but it’s all good,” Hendrick said. “We’re real excited. Do it with Chevrolet too. Never raced anything but a Chevrolet, so we can do that. Again, we’re real honored to be able to even come participate in this event. So we’re excited.

“We all talked about it. Kyle wanted to do it. We’re just very fortunate that Arrow McLaren were able to put it together for us. So I can’t wait to have that car in the museum.”

Larson hasn’t won NASCAR’s Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, but if he’s going to win INDYCAR’s, it takes a lot of preparation. That’s what brought him here in May. What brings him to the GM facility in North Carolina. What brings him back to Indy to the McLaren shop. He’s all-in. 

“I’m kind of glad that Kyle said, This is something I’d really like to do one day,” Jeff Gordon said. “Do you think this is something that Mr. Hendrick and Hendrick Cars would want to support?

“We’re happy that that’s all going to come true in 2024.

“I think for today, it’s such a different world, right? This car. I think as a driver, driving a race car is sort of natural of what you need to go fast, to compete. But you’re talking about Indianapolis at 230-plus miles per hour, what it takes to get comfortable, what kind of language there is for a driver of the types of things that they’re talking about versus a stockcar or a sprint car.

“For us, I think on the Hendrick Motorsports side, it’s building this relationship with Arrow McLaren so that next year we can do everything we can to maximize its full potential, get Kyle everything he needs, to get Arrow McLaren everything they need, to make sure that this effort goes as smooth as possible and gives them the best opportunity to get a great result.

“I did say to him he’s going to be able to live out a dream of mine. I go back to the mid to late ’80s when I was living here in Indiana, raced all around here. Every race car driver’s dream, if you race around Indianapolis, is to get here, to compete at this facility.

“I watched guys like Rich Vogler, a few other competitors I raced with, come over here and do that. Certainly it was on my radar. But NASCAR came calling. Once that happened, I kind of shifted my focus to that.

“I don’t know if really the right opportunity or it ever became serious enough after that to become a reality. So to me, this is equally as exciting because, one, I sure as heck right now don’t want to drive into turn one at 238 miles, whatever they’re running (smiling), but Kyle does. Kyle is capable of it.

“The fact that Rick has never been to the Indy 500, we’re going to go to Le Mans this year, next year he’s going to come to the Indy 500, that’s extremely exciting for our organization, as well as the things we can learn from Arrow McLaren in what they do here to compete for this event. I think there’s crossover we can learn from one another.

“Super excited. Excited for Kyle. As well as he has the ability. When he has the equipment and the resources, the people surrounding him, he has the ability to go do extraordinary things. We’ve seen him do it in other cars. I have no doubt that he’ll be able to do that in the Indy 500 next year, as well.”

I asked Gordon if this is maybe the start to HMS joining the NTT INDYCAR SERIES in the future one day.

“I know what Rick’s answer would be if he was sitting here. It would be an absolute no (smiling),” he said.

“He loves racing. He loves cars. When he comes here next year, he might change his mind a little bit. NASCAR is always going to be our primary focus, where our history, our legacy lies.

“I will say that if you want to run a good business, you have to diversify yourself. We’ve seen ourselves get into GM defense manufacturing, we’re seeing ourselves go to Le Mans. We’ve dabbled a little bit in IMSA. We have a great relationship with Chevrolet and our friends at GM.

“If there’s something that makes sense for us as a company, as Hendrick Motorsports, then we’re certainly going to look at it, look at whether or not it makes sense for us or not.”

Larson says that not only is this his dream, it’s his dads too. This is the No. 1 race in his dads book which is why it didn’t fall too far to the younger Larson to race here. He feels like his dad may miss half the race next year due to tears in his eyes from being so happy in that moment.

As far as why now, he says that when he was with Ganassi, despite everyone thinking he’d race here, he just wasn’t ready yet. He didn’t feel he accomplished anything yet in NASCAR to merit the focus of doing both. Now, as a 2021 Cup champion, he feels like he’s done enough to try a new venture.

Good thing too. This is going to be a massive story next May.