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.”
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.”
While fans in Edmonton and Dallas are always singing about how they have friends in low places, only one of them has the high ground in the Western Conference finals. And that’s the Oilers after their 6-1 win Sunday in Game 3 to take a 2-1 series lead.
With the series tied heading into Sunday, the objective for Game 3 was to gain a firm grasp of the conference finals, and the Oilers did just that by having five players with multipoint performances. As for the Stars, losing Game 3 left them trailing a series for the second time this postseason, with the only other such occurrence coming after Game 1 against the Colorado Avalanche in the first round.
Now that the Oilers are in control of the series, what does it mean for them going forward? What must the Stars do differently ahead of Game 4 for them to return home tied rather than a game away from elimination? Ryan S. Clark and Greg Wyshynski examine those questions while delving into what lies ahead for two teams that not only faced each other in the conference finals last season but between them have been involved in every conference final since 2020.
Edmonton Oilers Grade: A
Much could change between now and whenever the playoffs end. But for now, the argument could be made that this was the most important playoff game the Oilers have had this postseason.
The Oilers have had numerous strong performances, such as Game 3 against the Los Angeles Kings in the first round or their final two games against the Vegas Golden Knights in the conference semifinals. But what made the Oilers’ performance in Game 3 against Dallas arguably their most important was that they found a balance between being difficult in the defensive zone while not relying on a shutout to accomplish that objective.
The Stars finished with 37 shots, 13 high-danger chances in 5-on-5 play and scored only once. Connor McDavid has repeatedly stressed that the Oilers can play defense, and that has been made clear over their past five games. But Sunday proved they didn’t need Stuart Skinner or their defensive structure to blank an opponent to win. — Ryan S. Clark
Dallas Stars Grade: C+
The final score doesn’t reflect the majority of this game, which Dallas coach Pete DeBoer can mine for positives among the many (many) negatives and some mitigating circumstances. Having Roope Hintz warm up but not be able to go because of the foot injury he suffered from a Darnell Nurse slash in Game 2? That’s deflating. Having the on-ice officials miss a delay of game call on Brett Kulak in the first period only to have Evan Bouchard open the scoring 10 seconds later? Also deflating.
So it’s to the Stars’ credit that they got to their game at 5-on-5 in Game 3 better than they have in any game of the series, at least before Edmonton ran up the score in the third. The results weren’t there and a loss is a loss — and a loss by this margin is difficult to stomach — but their second period and the performances from some of their slumbering depth players give the Stars at least a glimmer.
However, there’s no question Edmonton has this thing in well in-hand and the Stars have to find a way to solve Skinner, which is not something I thought I’d be writing at this stage of the postseason. — Greg Wyshynski
Three Stars of Game 3
Two goals and an assist for his seventh career multigoal playoff game. Hyman’s second goal was the Oilers’ fourth off the rush, the most in one game by any team this postseason. Hyman also was plus-5 Sunday.
Bouchard scored his sixth goal of the postseason and these two were on the ice for the first two Edmonton goals. At 5-on-5 this postseason, the Oilers are outscoring their opponents 7-1, and 5-0 in this series, when Bouchard and Kulak are on the ice.
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Connor McDavid restores Oilers’ 2-goal lead
Connor McDavid finds the back of the net to restore the Oilers’ two-goal lead vs. the Stars.
3. Connor McDavid C, Oilers
For all the talk about the lack of goals from the best hockey player in the world (which was odd because he had 20 points in 13 games and was a plus-7 entering Game 3 despite having only three goals), McDavid punched out a pair of tucks for his sixth career multigoal playoff game. Also, seeing McDavid with the puck barreling toward the net on a 3-on-1 is nightmare fuel for opponents. — Arda Öcal
Players to watch in Game 4
Zach Hyman LW, Oilers
To go from 16 goals last postseason to just three goals entering Game 3 of the conference finals is one way to assess Hyman. Another is to realize that he’s been the most physical player on a team that is among the tallest and heaviest in the NHL.
Hyman came into Game 3 leading the NHL with 99 hits. He remained physical Sunday by leading the way with six hits in a game that saw the Oilers continue their punishing style with 47. But to then see Hyman score two goals and finish with three points in addition to that physicality? It once again adds to the narrative that the Oilers might not only have more dimensions than last year’s team, they could be better than the team that finished Stanley Cup runner-up in 2024. — Clark
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Zach Hyman’s 2nd goal puts Oilers up 4
Zach Hyman taps home his second goal of the game to put the Oilers up 5-1 vs. the Stars.
This is the first two-game losing streak for the Dallas goaltender in the playoffs. A lot of what happened in Game 3 wasn’t necessarily on him — a Connor McDavid beauty and a Zach Hyman breakaway were among the Edmonton tallies — but outside of the third period of Game 1, he’s not been a difference-maker in this series. Oettinger came into the game leading the playoffs with 5.58 goals saved above expected, according to Stathletes. The Stars have been able to depend on him as a slump-breaker. But this is his third game with a save percentage south of .900 in the series. As the Stars try to build on some positives from this game, they need Otter to provide the foundation for it — and in the process, silence those “U.S. backup!” chants from the Oilers fans. — Wyshynski
Big questions for Game 4
Are the Oilers about to do to the Stars what they did to the Golden Knights?
Simply put, the Oilers are where hope goes to die. Teams in a championship window that have yet to win a title are always being judged on their evolution. What the Oilers did to the Stars a year ago in the conference finals by winning the last three games showed that they could close out a series after trailing. This postseason Edmonton has shown a calculated and methodical coldness when it comes to putting away opponents.
The Golden Knights won Game 3 on a last-second goal to create the belief they may have found an opening. They didn’t score again for the rest of the playoffs after being in the top five of goals per game throughout the regular season. Breaking out for six goals to open the series seemed to be a sign the Stars may have found an opening. Since then? They’ve scored only once in the last six periods while facing questions about what’s happened to another team that went from being in the top five in goals per game in the regular season. — Clark
Can Dallas make Edmonton uncomfortable at all?
Our colleague Mark Messier made this point between periods of Game 3: The Stars have yet to do anything to get McDavid or Leon Draisaitl off their games. That extends to the rest of the Oilers. Outside of an anomalous run of three power-play goals in the third period of Game 1, there have been precious few instances of the Stars carrying play for long stretches or putting a scare into Edmonton at 5-on-5.
They had that for a bit in Game 3 with a dominant second period: plus-14 in shot attempts, plus-11 in scoring chances and a 10-1 advantage in high-danger shot attempts. But they were digging out of a 2-0 hole, only managed to get one goal of their own on the board and then McDavid stuck a dagger in them with 19 seconds left in the second.
The Stars need a lead. They need zone time. They need to get their rush game going: Skinner had a .897 save percentage on shots off the rush entering the game. Edmonton is playing with a champion’s confidence. Dallas has to find a way to inject a little doubt into its opponent or this series is going to end quickly. — Wyshynski
Stuart Skinner made 33 saves in the Edmonton net to improve to 4-4 in the postseason this year, his first victory in the playoffs that wasn’t a shutout.
“We had a bit of a dip, they had a bit of push,” Nugent-Hopkins said of the Stars’ play in the second period, lauding Skinner for keeping the team in it. “He stepped up big time for us, and made some big saves. You need your goalies to do that.”
The Oilers have won two straight since their third-period collapse in Game 1 in Dallas, and improved to 10-3 in the postseason since dropping the first two games of their first-round series vs. the Los Angeles Kings.
Jason Robertson scored for the Stars, who are hoping to avoid being knocked out in the third round by the Oilers for a second consecutive season.
“They were definitely the better team in the second period,” Skinner said of the Stars. “And we kind of knew that going into the third. So, we just had to reset.”
Jake Oettinger stopped 18 shots in Dallas’ net, falling to 5-10 in his career in West final contests.
STOCKHOLM — Buffalo Sabres star forward Tage Thompson scored the winner 2:02 into overtime, and Team USA outlasted Switzerland 1-0 in the final of the ice hockey world championship at Avicii Arena on Sunday.
It is the first on-ice trophy for USA Hockey in this tournament in 92 years, after the Americans brought it home back in 1933. And it was an emotional one. As Team USA posed for its championship photo at center ice, players held up a No. 13 jersey of Johnny Gaudreau, the former NHL and USA Hockey star forward who died tragically last August when he and his brother, Matthew, were hit by an allegedly drunken and enraged driver as they cycled at night in New Jersey.
Thompson, who had 44 goals and 72 points with the Sabres this season, is hoping to polish off his resume for a spot on the U.S. roster for the 2026 Olympics, and he’s off to a great start. A Team USA reserve for the 4 Nations Face-Off in February who did not suit up, Thompson made the most of his time playing with a host of young NHL forwards who either did not make, or have been eliminated from, the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Thompson’s shot, off passes from Utah Hockey Club forward Logan Cooley and Nashville Predators defenseman Brady Skjei, flew past the blocker of Swiss goaltender Leonardo Genoni, ending a dramatic but tight title game. Team USA outshot Switzerland 40-25.
Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman capped off the shutout in the final, finishing with 25 saves a year after his NHL teammate, David Pastrnak led the Czech Republic to this same title.
“We did it, the wait is over,” Swayman said in a post to USA Hockey fans on the organization’s social media platforms. “Thanks for sticking along with us. It’s going to be a great summer.”
The Americans were also formally awarded the title in 1960 when they won the Olympic tournament and the worlds did not take place. But they hadn’t won it on the ice in more than nine decades.
The Swiss played without injured star center Nico Hischier, the captain of the New Jersey Devils. After the loss, Genoni was named the tournament’s MVP.
Earlier Sunday, Sweden defeated Denmark 6-2 in the bronze medal game. Calgary Flames center Mikael Backlund and Minnesota Wild forward Marcus Johansson scored two goals each for the hosts, marking the second-straight third-place finish for Sweden. The fourth-place result was the best-ever finish for Denmark.