The Memorial Day Double. Double Duty. The Indy-Charlotte Double. The 500/600 Double.

What Kyle Larson will attempt to do this weekend — contest the Indianapolis 500, IndyCar’s biggest race, and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR‘s longest race, on the same day — has so many nicknames that reading the list will leave you with double vision. That’s fitting. Because Larson’s goal will be not only to complete the Double, perhaps even win one or both ends of it, but also do what he can to ensure he and the two teams depending on him are not placed in double jeopardy.

To understand the difficulty of driving two races on two very different racetracks in two race cars that might as well be from two different galaxies, let’s look back at the two-lane road that was paved for Larson by his NASCAR/IndyCar double duty forefathers. A five-pack of drivers who have attempted — or will attempt — to wrap their two hands around the steering wheels of two dissimilar machines and depending on a fleet of other varied vehicles to get from one event to the other, all while staring at the weather radar, gloved fingers crossed.

The Early Years: 1911-93

The Indianapolis 500 took its first green flag on May 30, 1911, on what was then known as Decoration Day. The 500, like Decoration Day, was always on the 30th, no matter what day of the week that fell upon, and quickly became recognized as one of the world’s most prestigious sporting events. In 1960, NASCAR ran its first World 600, also scheduled around Decoration Day, but instead of the 30th it was held on the closest Sunday to the holiday.

The separate dates allowed for a handful of crossover moves. NASCAR stars such as Junior Johnson, Curtis Turner, Neil Bonnett attempted to qualify at Indy but came up short. Drivers such as Bobby Johns and “Chargin'” Charlie Glotzbach also chose to skip Charlotte to concentrate on Indy efforts. NASCAR legend Bobby Allison made a pair of Indy starts. In 1965, Ford flew in NASCAR’s famed Wood Brothers crew to pit the cars of Johns and Jim Clark. Clark won the race, which was a huge boost toward his second Formula One world title (Indy was included in the F1 schedule then).

From 1967 to 1971, a total of six drivers ran both races. The first was Cale Yarborough, suffering a mechanical failure at Charlotte and finishing 41st, and three days later finished 17th at Indy after a late spin. In 1969, LeeRoy Yarbrough won at Charlotte but finished 23rd at Indy. The most successful Double Duty racer was Donnie Allison, who won the World 600 on May 24, 1970, and finished fourth at Indy six days later. The next year he earned top-six finishes in back-to-back days, running sixth behind Al Unser in the Indy 500 on Saturday, finishing second behind Glotzbach at Charlotte, and then flying back to Indy for the awards dinner that night.

In 1974, following the standardization of Memorial Day as a Monday holiday, the Indy 500 permanently moved to Sunday, the same day as what was about to be renamed the Coca-Cola 600. Double Duty was parked.

“It was fun, but it would also kick your butt, even when the races were several days apart,” Allison remembered in January on the night of his induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. “But me and Cale and brother Bobby, we looked at running both as a badge of honor. Like, OK, you are a real racer’s racer if you can pull that off. And Kyle Larson certainly fits that description, though I don’t know how he’s stacking up that schedule to do it. Just tell him to get some fluids in him. I think I sweated out half myself, and I had time to recover. He won’t.”

The OG, John Andretti: 1994

Hydration wasn’t John Andretti’s problem on May 29, 1994. It was quite the opposite. The man needed somewhere to pee.

The modern-age Double Duty godfather had no plans to attempt both races in 1994. He had entered the season merely hoping to secure a ride for one or the other. On the NASCAR side, he had landed a ride with the sponsor-less and cash-strapped team of owner Billy Hagan. But he also had made a half-dozen Indy 500 starts and was riding a streak of three consecutive top-10 finishes. That’s why Charlotte Motor Speedway president and P.T. Barnum-esque promoter Humpy Wheeler called Andretti into his office that spring. Wheeler said he had done the math and believed it was possible for someone to run both races, all 1,100 miles, in one day, and he told Andretti that if anyone could pull it off, it was him.

The seed was planted. Andretti, son of Aldo and nephew of Mario, couldn’t resist. So, he went to his godfather, A.J. Foyt, and secured a car for Indy. Then he mapped out a schedule of 11 flights, crisscrossing the 580-mile distance between Concord, North Carolina and Speedway, Indiana. Then he cut a deal with a private jet company to manage that crisscrossing … and, oh yeah, the much longer, 2,220-mile trips the weekend before, between the Cup Series event at Sonoma Raceway and Indy 500 qualifying.

On race day, Andretti finished a solid 10th at Indy after starting on Row 3 and running as high as third. From there, the real race was on.

In a striking contrast to Larson’s harmonic cross-series coordination efforts this year, in 1994, Indianapolis Motor Speedway refused to allow Andretti to land a helicopter at the racetrack. That cost him 20 precious minutes, going from a golf cart to a van and through race day traffic to a chopper blocks away from the track. Once he was in the air, however, he received help from air traffic controllers; a pilot who had once wheeled Air Force One; and Wheeler, who not only allowed Andretti to land inside Charlotte Motor Speedway but had a helicopter parked at the end of the runway in Statesville, North Carolina, and had it buzz the grandstand en route to a touchdown on the front straightaway to the roar of the crowd, all just as the national anthem was beginning.

“The good news is that we were smart enough to have IV bags on the plane so that I would be plenty hydrated and I felt great when we got there,” Andretti recalled in 2019, roughly a year before he died of cancer. “The bad news is that I was too hydrated and I had to pee so bad, but there was no time. They ran me to the car. I’ve never been one of those guys who can just pee in his suit during a race, so I was dying. The crankshaft broke halfway through the race and we were out. I was bummed, but I was also really happy because I could finally get to the bathroom!”

Smoke on the Water (he didn’t drink), Tony Stewart: 1999, 2001

Tony Stewart spent the mid-’90s juggling two big league day jobs as a full-time racer in the Indy Racing League and NASCAR’s Busch (now Xfinity) Series, winning the 1997 IRL championship while also making the transition into his first ride with Joe Gibbs Racing. So, when Gibbs gave Stewart permission to run the 1999 Indy 500 for his old IRL crew chief Larry Curry, the transition of getting back into an IndyCar was easy.

Running both races was not.

“Man, I was such an idiot that first year. Nutrition was not really my thing, and I sure proved it,” Stewart recalls, laughing, and reminding how proud he used to be of his three-trips-to-McDonald’s-a-day diet. “The morning of the 500, I think I had a couple of mini bagels. I put an energy bar in my car, but when I dug it out, it was all melted from the heat. On the plane to Charlotte, I drank a Gatorade and maybe ate a hamburger or something. That was it. I swear to you, when we got the final 100 laps of the 600, I was hallucinating. A piece of trash flew by the car and in my mind, it looked like a pink-spotted elephant running down the back straightaway.”

Still, he finished ninth at Indy, although four laps down, and followed that with a fourth-place run in Charlotte over a total of 7 hours, 13 minutes and 41 seconds of racing. When he climbed from his car, Stewart’s legs gave out and he collapsed.

“I said that night there was no way I was doing it again, but two years later I had the chance with Chip Ganassi at Indy. Joe said I could, but this time he was getting me help.”

Gibbs, a Pro Football Hall of Famer, called the Carolina Panthers and recruited a trainer to spend the entire month of May with Stewart, monitoring and coaching up his food and water intake, as well as his sleep habits. The racer responded with sixth- and third-place finishes, becoming the first and still only driver to complete all 1,100 miles.

“That’ll be the biggest challenge for Kyle, and it’s probably the part he’s not yet thought about, not the nutrition or any of that, but the length of the day,” Stewart says of Larson, who he believes could win one or even both races. “And the adrenaline spikes. He’s going to have one after Indy. He’s going to have one during driver introductions before Indy. He’s going to have one when he lands at Charlotte before he even gets in the car … but he’s driving a great race car at Indy [Arrow McLaren Racing] and he’s driving a great race car in Charlotte [Hendrick Motorsports]. He’s got a great group of people around him. You have to have the people to help you manage all of that. Like I did.”

Mr. Five-Time (sort of), Robby Gordon: 1997, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004

Robby Gordon has won in stock cars, open wheels, motorcycles, sports cars and off-road trucks, so it seems only natural that he would be the racer who has attempted Double Duty the most. In fact, he’s the one who officially turned that phrase into racing jargon and even sold “Double Duty” fan packages to ride along with him on his flight from Indiana to North Carolina. Gordon has pulled off more two-race weekends than can be listed, from Indy Racing League/CART double entries that crossed over political divisions to NASCAR-to-Baja 1000 commutes that streaked across the U.S. map from Atlantic to Pacific.

The Californian’s first attempt was the second ever, when he ran both races in 1997, but the 500 was delayed two full days because of rain. In 2000, rain delayed the Indianapolis green flag three hours. Gordon decided to stay at Indy and let backup driver P.J. Jones start the 600. It was the right call, as Gordon finished sixth, then took over his stock car in Charlotte midrace and finished 35th. Rain also foiled his last attempt, in 2004, as Indy was red-flagged with a storm so strong it was assumed the event would be postponed, so Gordon left for Charlotte. However, the 500 was restarted; backup driver Jaques Lazier dropped out with a broken axle while Gordon finished 20th in the 600.

His other two Double Duty runs — the dry ones — were a mixed bag of finishes, although in 2002 he came within one lap of completing the full 1,100 miles.

“Unfortunately, rain is kind of the theme of my Double attempts,” Gordon recalled last month as he raced in the Stadium Super Trucks Series during IndyCar’s Long Beach Grand Prix weekend. “When I watch Larson, that’s the one thing I hope he doesn’t have to deal with. Not even the rain, but the decisions that have to be made because of the rain. For me, the childhood dream was always Indy, but for most of those years, my full-time job was in NASCAR with Richard Childress. So, making that call, of where to go when you can only run one, that’s no fun, man.”

The last Double (until now), Kurt Busch: 2014

After Gordon’s final Double Duty, Indianapolis made sweeping changes to its May schedule, including moving the waving of green flag for the first time since 1963, a full one hour later, from noon to 1 p.m. ET. Andretti, Gordon and Stewart had all cut it close to making it to Charlotte, missing prerace drivers meetings and literally running to their stock cars for the Coca-Cola 600’s 5:30 p.m. ET start. The move was made to grab a bigger West Coast TV audience (full disclosure: ESPN/ABC didn’t fight the idea), but it also eliminated the chances for Double Duty attempts from the likes of Indy 500 winners Juan Pablo Montoya and Dario Franchitti or even NASCAR aces Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.

“This is dumbest thing I’ve seen the Indianapolis Motor Speedway do,” Stewart said at the time.

When Indy finally did move its start time back to the traditional high noon, it didn’t take long for another Double Duty attempt to go on the books. Kurt Busch, who had tested an open-wheel racer for Bobby Rahal in 2003, drove for Andretti Autosport at Indy in 2014 and wowed the IndyCar regulars as he took his time, picked his spots, and worked his way up to a sixth-place finish and Indy 500 Rookie of the Year honors. His trip to Charlotte was flawless, having conferred with John Andretti and his new Cup Series car owner, Stewart. He soaked up a bag and a half of saline IV; drank a 20-ounce concoction of B12 vitamin, liquid oxygen, sugar, potassium and beet juice; scarfed down an energy bar, a bag of beef jerky and a box of raisins; and even sneaked in a 20-minute nap.

Unfortunately, none of that could help his No. 41 Chevy, which blew an engine two-thirds of the way through the 600. The next year he completed another sort of Indianapolis Double Duty, winning the Brickyard 400 for the first time.

“The way the racing business works now, at least the way it has worked as my generation was coming up, they want you to specialize,” Busch says now. “Us racers, we hate that. We want to drive everything before our careers are over. That’s the way that Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt and Cale Yarborough, all those old-school guys, did it.

“Kyle Larson has always been one of those guys. So, to see him do the Double, it will be fine. But it’s been a decade since I did it, and it had been a decade since anyone did it before me. Maybe this will open the door for guys who deserve a shot from being denied in the future.”

NEW YORK — Mark Messier first met Chris Kreider when the New York Rangers forward was playing at Boston College over a dozen years ago.

“He looked like he was going 100 mph standing still on the ice. He looked like a Ferrari,” Messier said. “You don’t realize how big he is until you get up next to him. He’s so perfectly proportioned.”

It’s the 30th anniversary of the Rangers’ last Stanley Cup victory in 1994, perhaps the signature moment in Messier’s Hockey Hall of Fame career. He won league MVP twice and playoff MVP once, and he’s third all time in career points scored. But that image of Messier becoming the first Rangers player in 54 years to lift the Cup — after successfully guaranteeing victory in the Eastern Conference finals as their captain — still defines him decades later.

“I’ll tell you what: You make your money in the regular season, but you make your name in the playoffs,” Messier said. “And Chris Kreider is a playoff performer.”

No one has scored more postseason goals in Rangers history than Kreider’s 47 tallies in 117 games. The 33-year-old winger is also second to defenseman Dan Girardi (122 games) in team history in postseason appearances. When the games matter most, Kreider has mattered the most for the Rangers.

“At the end of the day, there’s a lot of things you have to do inside of the game. But one thing I know you have to do is put the puck in the net, and he has an incredible knack for that,” said coach Peter Laviolette, who led the Rangers to the President’s Trophy in his first season with New York. “Chris has been a great leader on this team. We needed to have a big performance in Game 6, and I thought he really delivered.”

If Kreider’s reputation as a playoff star wasn’t already cemented, it became concrete after his natural hat trick in the third period to eliminate the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 6 of their second-round series. Only two other players in NHL history have had a natural hat trick in the third period that included a series-clinching goal — the others were Jake Guentzel with Pittsburgh in 2018 and Ottawa forward Jack Darragh in 1920.

“I think we were down on ourselves after the first two periods [of Game 6]. Whenever you’re in a spot like that, you need your big players to come up big, and that’s what Chris did,” Rangers center Vincent Trocheck said.

Kreider’s hat trick sent the Rangers to the Eastern Conference finals, where they’ll face the Florida Panthers starting Wednesday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+) for the chance to play for the Stanley Cup.

It also inspired one of the Stanley Cup playoffs’ oddest images: Kreider removing hats that were thrown on his lawn by celebrating neighbors after his victorious team returned from Raleigh last week.

The things you wake up to….

A photo of Chris Kreider picking hats up off of his lawn after scoring a 3rd period hat trick in Game 6 in Carolina to help the Rangers advance to the Eastern Conference Final #NYR #NHL pic.twitter.com/5mf2jeoMnI

— Jay Recher (@jayRecher) May 18, 2024

“I can’t believe he picked them up by himself. He should’ve had someone else go pick them up,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba joked.

Those hats on the grass are indicative of Kreider’s importance to Rangers fans and his status as a franchise icon. “He is right up there with the best of them,” said Ryan Callahan, who played eight seasons with the Rangers.

Callahan sees the Rangers’ recent history as a series of eras. There was the generation that won in 1994, with homegrown players like Brian Leetch and Mike Richter blending with imports like Messier. Then came the Henrik Lundqvist generation, which crossed over with the early part of Kreider’s career. But this generation, according to Callahan, “is definitely Chris Kreider’s generation” with the Rangers.

“If they go on to win a Cup, I could see his number in the rafters. That’s how impactful he’s been on this generation,” Callahan said. “Even if they don’t, who knows? He’s had so much success there.”

MESSIER SAID THAT Kreider is a “conscientious” player.

He plays in all situations and makes a difference in each phase of the game. Kreider has averaged 3:40 per game on the power play in this playoff run, when he has two goals and two assists, and he has averaged 1:59 per game on the penalty kill, where he has a shorthanded goal and an assist. His mind is on all facets of the game, at all times. His teammates have described him as “very intelligent,” on and off the ice.

“He’s a thinker. At times early in his career, I think he might have been paralyzed with a little too much thought and perhaps was too hard on himself,” Messier said. “Those are the things that come with maturity.”

Understanding the plight of a young player, Kreider took a rookie under his wing this season — a 6-foot-7 one at that. Forward Matt Rempe became Kreider’s teammate at the Rangers’ Stadium Series game at MetLife Stadium, and he said Kreider has been a valuable advisor during a turbulent first year in the NHL.

“He’s been so good to me. Like a big brother. I talk to him every day. He gives me books to read. We talk about bulls— fantasy books that we’re reading,” Rempe said. “For the last two months, I’ve just been reading all the books he’s been giving me.”

Kreider has been known as the Rangers’ renaissance man during his 12-season NHL career, which began after they drafted him 19th overall out of Boston College in 2009. Teammates have noted the Massachusetts native has a noticeable intellectual curiosity.

Kreider speaks multiple languages, including Spanish and Russian. Along with his fantasy book recommendations to Rempe, Kreider once put together a summer reading list for CNBC that spanned from Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” to Daniel Coyle’s “The Talent Code,” which argues that greatness isn’t born but can be grown within an individual.

“This book will change your perspective on what society has labeled ‘natural talent,’ and will hopefully convince you that you can teach yourself basically anything if you work smart,” he said at the time.

Kreider has his share of talents, starting with his speed. “I think his speed is just tremendous,” said Callahan, who would later face Kreider as an opponent with the Tampa Bay Lightning. “It’s straight-line speed. It’s not east-to-west speed or anything like that. The kind of speed when you’re on the ice against him, it’s almost intimidating the power he has coming at you.”

But as “The Talent Code” proffers, there are other aspects to Kreider’s game that weren’t inherent. Things he has taught himself through the years.

“When I first played with him, he wasn’t known for being a net-front presence guy who tipped the puck or anything like that. I think he’s kind of evolved,” Callahan said. “He realized with his strength and his size that if he goes to that area he could do damage.”

Rangers goalie Jonathan Quick has known Kreider for a while, having skated and trained with him during the summer. But he’s seeing a different side of Kreider as a teammate, having previously been acquainted with his back while Kreider was planted in front of the crease.

“It’s difficult to play against him because he’s not trying to do one thing every time. He has different things he could do; you’re trying to figure out which one he is going to do,” Quick explained. “He could score on tips, he could score on screens, he could score dropping off with the chop. He’s as good as there is in front of the net.”

True to form, Kreider’s natural hat trick in Game 6 against Carolina totaled just 18 feet in distance for the three goals.

The combination of speed and immovability in front of the net makes Kreider a unique talent in today’s NHL.

“What makes him special is his speed and his size. I think he’s one of the true power forwards that are left in the league,” Callahan said. “He’s like an old-school power forward where he’s fast, he’s big and strong.”

The NHL has seen elite players add to their games as they age. Steve Yzerman went from being an offensive dynamo to a Selke Trophy-winning, two-way player. Jaromir Jagr went from skating through defensemen with Connor McDavid-like precision to more of a power forward later in his career. Callahan said it takes a special player to augment what they already do with new tricks.

“I think there’s a lot of guys that are set in their ways, right? That had success as they were younger and they get stubborn. They feel like that’s the way they have to produce,” he said. “Kreider realized that with his size and his strength that if he gets to that front of the net, he’s going to get a lot of opportunities if he goes to those dirty areas, he is going to get a lot of opportunities. You don’t see that often, guys adding that extra element to their game at the pro level.”

But one of the biggest lessons Kreider has learned through his career is when to rise to the occasion, said his coach.

“He’s learned that in the biggest moments, some guys really step up and they’re able to deliver what can make a hockey game go your way. He’s one of those guys,” Laviolette said.

Just don’t ask Kreider if he savors those moments.

play

E:60: ‘No Easy Victories – The 1994 New York Rangers’ trailer

Premiering June 4 at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN and ESPN Plus, relive the journey of the Rangers’ chase for the Stanley Cup in 1994.

KREIDER SAT IN HIS dressing room stall at the Rangers’ practice facility near Tarrytown. He was a few days removed from Game 6 in Raleigh, and a few days before facing the Panthers in the conference finals.

Did he think about the enormity of that moment against the Hurricanes during the break?

“You turn the page,” he said.

What about immediately after Game 6? Did he savor it even a little bit?

Kreider pretended to hold an open book in his left hand, then pretended to turn a large page from one side to another with his right hand, drawing laughter from the assembled media.

“I mean, we’re in the middle of a playoff run. Got a ways to go. We’ve got to prepare for our first game [against Florida],” he said.

Linemate Jack Roslovic, whom the Rangers acquired at the trade deadline from Columbus, has come to know this dichotomy of Chris Kreider: the dry humor blended with stoic focus on the task at hand.

“Just an awesome human,” he said. “He’s very light, but very serious.”

Does Kreider typically strike the balance well behind the scenes?

“Most of the time. Except for when he’s having a bad day,” Roslovic said.

The days on the ice have been mostly good for Kreider over the past few seasons. He had 10 postseason goals in the Rangers’ run to the Eastern Conference finals in 2022. In last year’s disappointing seven-game loss to the New Jersey Devils, Kreider had six goals. His hat trick against the Hurricanes gives him seven goals in 10 games in the 2024 playoffs.

In the regular season, Kreider is seventh among all NHL players in goals scored over the past three seasons (127), including a career-high 52 tallies in 2021-22. This season, he passed Adam Graves (280) on the Rangers’ all-time goal-scoring list, leaving him behind only Rod Gilbert (406) and Jean Ratelle (336).

“It’s cool, especially for an organization like the Rangers, an Original Six team, all the legends, all the names, big names, who have played here and he’s getting up there with those records,” said Mika Zibanejad, who has been Kreider’s friend and frequent linemate since the Rangers acquired him in 2016. “Just the fact that he’s been here his whole career and has been able to do what he’s done is impressive.”

Gilbert’s No. 7 and Ratelle’s No. 19 hang from the rafters at Madison Square Garden. So does No. 11, for both Vic Hadfield and Messier, the latter of whom believes Kreider’s longevity and productivity with the Rangers could result in his No. 20 joining those legends in the Garden ceiling.

“One of the great things about Chris is that he was drafted by the Rangers and he’s played his whole career there,” Messier said. “You think about Brian Leetch and Mike Richter, the players that were drafted and played their entire careers there. … Chris came in, got out of college and really carved out a niche for himself with the Rangers. He’s turned into a bona fide star.”

Kreider could end up with his name on a banner in the MSG rafters one day. But more important for him at the moment is being eight wins away from helping this Rangers team earn its own banner inside the Garden and a place in history.

“When you go to Madison Square Garden, you see our ’94 championship banner hanging there. That will never be taken down,” Messier said. “To have a banner raised above the biggest stage in New York City, maybe the biggest cathedral in sports, is pretty powerful.”

That’s the legacy Chris Kreider is creating, goal after goal, moment after moment for the Rangers.

And so we begin. My annual college football series typically starts in February, but the effects of the spring portal window — namely, that I didn’t want to write a preview that would be outdated within days — dictated that we wait a bit. But now it’s time. Starting in a few days, we’ll preview one conference per week.

First, however, we must update the numbers. I released initial 2024 SP+ projections in early February, as is customary, but now that almost every team has released official 2024 rosters (still waiting on you, Air Force and Coastal Carolina) and the spring portal dance has mostly slowed to a crawl, it’s time to do it again.

Below are updated SP+ projections for the coming season. A quick reminder: Preseason projections are based on three factors.

1. Returning production. The returning production numbers are based on rosters I have updated as much as possible to account for transfers and attrition. The combination of last year’s SP+ ratings and adjustments based on returning production makes up more than half of the projections formula.

2. Recent recruiting. This piece informs us of the caliber of a team’s potential replacements (and/or new stars) in the lineup. It is determined by the past few years of recruiting rankings in diminishing order (meaning the most recent class carries the most weight). This is also impacted by the recruiting rankings of incoming transfers, an acknowledgment that the art of roster management is now heavily dictated by the transfer portal. This piece makes up about one-third of the projections formula.

3. Recent history. Using a sliver of information from the previous four seasons or so gives us a good measure of overall program health. It stands to reason that a team that has played well for one year is less likely to duplicate that effort than a team that has been good for years on end (and vice versa), right?

(One other reminder: SP+ is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking, and along those lines, these projections aren’t intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the season. These are simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have been able to gather to date.)