UPDATE: Hendrick Motorsports spent over $3 million on its bid to enter Kyle Larson in this year’s Indianapolis 500, according to people familiar with the matter, highlighting the significant investment the celebrated NASCAR team put into the effort.
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HMS’s spending on the effort revealed how much it had to lose tangibly with little to no return on investment if it gave up on the effort. The scale of HMS’s investment had not been previously reported. The spending included items like the cost of the sponsorship, multiple test sessions for Larson in the months before the race at Indianapolis and Phoenix, buying a suite and having about 80 people on site for the race ,between guests and employees, and a significant number of private airplane flights both in the lead-up to the race and during the week of the race itself to shuttle Larson back and forth from Charlotte to Indianapolis.
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While HMS could decide to enter the Indy 500 again next with Larson and McLaren, it’s not yet clear whether the team will elect to do so following the controversy that erupted with the way this year’s race played out.
ORIGINAL POST: The Arrow McLaren team want to host NASCAR Cup champion Kyle Larson for another run at the Indianapolis 500. According to McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, the topic has already been raised with their co-entrants at Hendrick Motorsports.
“We have spoken about it, and we just want to give them a little bit of space to think it through,” Brown told RACER prior to the running of Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. “I would love to have Kyle and the Hendrick organization back next year. I think we can win it with him. Kyle Larson could stick the car on a pole and win the Indy 500. He was as strong as anyone all day and the drive he did, the way he conducted himself with the team, sponsors, media, fans, was just first class. Working with Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon and their whole organization was amazing. We’d love to do it again.”
— Racer —