INDIANAPOLIS – In the heat of the moment, Kyle Larson called his pressure-packed May 26 “one of the most disappointing (days)” the NASCAR Cup series champ has experienced.

Despite attempting something that only four of the 800 other Indianapolis 500 starters in the race’s 108-year history had ever dared to try, Larson left his failed ‘Double’ attempt this May that included both highs – winning Rookie of the Year and qualifying 5^th – and lows – speeding on pitlane and finishing 18^th with potentially a top-5 car – shouldering the burden of letting down family, friends, fans, team members and even those working on a documentary of his journey.

“What I thought could be one of the best days of my life quickly turned into one of the most disappointing ones I’ve ever experienced,” Larson wrote on social media May 27, partnered with wistful black-and-white photos of a dream left unrealized. “So much time, money and effort went into this experience, and it just kills me to have it all end the way it did.

“I feel like I let so many people down.”

Sunday evening, Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon, reflecting on his own experiences during a chaotic Month of May spent orchestrating Larson’s childhood dream in the shadows, remembered a poignant lesson a close friend shared during the countless hours spent at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway two months ago:

“This place can bring the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.”

Gordon continued. “It’s that kind of emotional place where so much is riding on it. There’s so much history here,” Gordon said. “When days like today happen, it just doesn’t feel any better as a competitor, and yet, when we weren’t able to get the finish there at the end of that race in May, it was a pretty big low.

“I think that’s just Indianapolis. You’re pushing all the time, Sometimes, you’re pushing and you’re not going to get the results you’re hoping for. And days like today, you’re going to push, and you do.”

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Kissing the bricks, shotgunning a beer

Fittingly, Hendrick Motorsports’ widespread, unbridled joy centered around the Yard of Bricks Sunday evening, just as the muted tones of the sun falling behind the Paddock Penthouse grandstands harkened back to the celebrations of Team Penske’s 20^th Indy 500 victory earlier this year.

While its 75-year-old team owner contorted himself through a small, gated hole in the catch fence, using a hard-sided suitcase as a step stool, to sign autographs and take selfies with diehard fans, Larson’s wife Katelyn found herself with a Busch Light in one hand and a pocketknife in the other. Before well-meaning Penske Enertainment employees could finish asking her to kindly step off the bricks, Larson’s wife was stooped over, head tilted sideways, already shotgunning her celebratory beer with exuberance – the perfect chaser for lips caked with grit and rubber left from kissing bricks.

Soon, Larson, as well as Gordon and Larson’s crew chief Cliff Daniels, joined Rick Hendrick climbing through the fence door to thank those who waited through rounds and rounds of photos and interviews to congratulate their heroes and, even for a second or two, share the moment of a lifetime. Somewhere along the way, Hendrick managed to pen his signature in sharpie on the back of Gordon’s white, starched shirt.

The five-time Brickyard 400 winner – and winner of the event’s first edition 30 years ago – was none the wiser. Sunday may have marked HMS’s 11th ‘crown jewel’ victory at the Racing Capital of the World, but there seemed to be an aura that marked Sunday’s -- Larson’s first and the team’s first since Kasey Kahne’s unexpected triumph in 2017.

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“I think being here for the Month of May, it just makes you appreciate this that much more,” Gordon said. “I just feel like today, especially with that No. 5 and the paint scheme – the one that (Kyle) was going to run that day, this just seemed to bring it full-circle and made it very special.

“I can tell how much this (win) means to Kyle, and that to me is what this race and this track is all about.”

The paint scheme HMS rolled out for Sunday’s Brickyard 400 was largely Larson’s idea, Gordon noted – a nod to the unfinished business of May, where after qualifying 10^th for the Coke 600 in a bespoke blue and white livery that also featured a splash of McLaren papaya, Larson missed the back-half of the ‘Double’ altogether, after storms delayed the start of the 500 and forced an early end to the 600 Larson flew to in hopes of hopping in mid-race.

Therein lay as much – if not more – of the pain Larson struggled with as the Month of May closed. “He knows he let his team down when he didn’t get to be behind the wheel in Charlotte,” Gordon said Sunday. “He pushed for (the return of the Coke 600 livery), and you saw what he was pushing for on the racetrack when he was driving Sunday, too.

“He was driving with a lot of passion and wanting, in some ways, to make it up to his team and his guys, as well as himself.”

'Driving with a purpose'

With 30 laps to go, Larson found himself buried outside the top-20, his team having fallen into a later pit strategy. The decision was made, in part, by the 2021 Cup champ’s ability to juggle saving fuel and managing his position in the strung-out parade of cars. When he found opportunities to move up, Larson wasted little time executing the move before going back to coasting through the ends of the straights.

And when it was ‘go time’, Larson morphed into one of few cars all afternoon seemingly able to pass cars on demand. “He was coming through the field like a rocket,” Hendrick said.

By Lap 143, Larson sat 8^th. Three laps later, 6^th. Two more, and he’d gotten by his 400-less rival Denny Hamlin for 5^th. By Lap 149, Larson had snagged 4^th from Zane Smith, and just inside 10 to go, Larson moved ahead of Daniel Hemric for 3^rd – trailing only 2018 400 winner Brad Keselowski and defending Cup champ Ryan Blaney. Though both were nursing various levels of fuel scares, it quickly became clear that passes of either – let alone both – may not be so simple.

Luck, as it turned out, would be on his side. With Kyle Busch’s single-car crash with under three laps to go to force the first of two overtimes, Keselowski’s tank would suck dry its final drop of fuel just as the field gained steam ready to take the green flag at the end of Lap 161. At the last moment, the race leader pulled into the pits to top off on fuel, leaving Larson to inherit the premier spot on the racetrack: on the bottom of the front row, with a confused and quickly enraged Ryan Blaney next to him just a nose ahead.

Larson pounced, ripping the lead out of the hands of Team Penske namesake and IMS track owner Roger Penske just as cars began pinballing at the entrance to Turn 1, forcing a lengthy red flag that Larson would survive.

“I just enjoyed watching him work that traffic, whether it was to get a small run off Turn 4 and then go into Turn 1 and dive in there, or just make them look in the mirror or force their spotter to say something,” Gordon said of Larson’s aggressive driving style down the stretch Sunday. “It’s all about creativity and finding ways to pass. I enjoyed that a lot today, watching Kyle come up through the field.

“You could just tell he had a lot of passion behind the wheel today. You could tell he was driving with a purpose.”

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The next target: Kissing the bricks in May

Larson was hesitant to characterize his first Brickyard 400 victory – which marked his third Cup ‘crown jewel’ win of his career – as his biggest yet across his 11-year career. But because of what happened earlier this year with the 500, winning the 28^th Brickyard 400 remains unlike anything he’s captured, Larson said. With it, he hopes to join a list of nine drivers who went on to win a Cup championship the same season as a Brickyard 400 win, as he takes back control over the regular season points race with just four races left before the Round of 16 begins.

“The Brickyard is always an important race because of where it is on the season. Yes, we get to celebrate this for two weeks (because of the Summer Olympics break), but it’s such a big event, and the best teams seem to win this race,” Gordon said. “You need to make that known within the garage area that we’re here to win this championship.

“Hopefully a big win like this builds the momentum and confidence that you need to get through the rest of the season and get it done.”

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But those worries are for another day.

This evening, Hendrick is still tickled by the fact he up-and-decided to worm his way through the fence and mingle among the fans on a whim. Having already won here 10 times in his career, including five with Gordon and four with Jimmie Johnson; there’s something about Sunday’s that feels different – perhaps, as Gordon, noted, a deeper connection to the core of IMS, it’s history and it’s fans because of the rollercoaster the Month of May put him through.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever been this excited,” Hendrick said – an almost absurd notion for the winningest owner in NASCAR history whose team was largely launched into stardom on the back of Gordon’s win at IMS 30 years ago. “I know the first one, watching this guy get the inaugural race (win), that was unbelievable.

“I don’t remember much from 30 years ago. But this feels awfully good.”

Larson seemed to put the onus on another May return squarely on Hendrick’s shoulders, playing to the crowd post-race when he slyly said, “How ‘bout we come back next May and try to kiss the bricks in the Indy car? I hope we can announce something soon. See you all next May.” Hendrick was asked post-race about the status of any such plans, which he made clear haven’t yet been set in stone.

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But knowing how much another opportunity would mean to Larson – and how that simple notion put Year 1’s plan into motion – the gravity of IMS in May seems likely to be hard to ignore. There’s more history to be claimed.

“We definitely have been talking about it and, I think, weighing what’s important to everybody. It sounds good so far, but things could change,” Larson said. “I would obviously love to do it. I think everybody knows I’d love to do it because in my mind, I didn’t get to do it this year. I didn’t get to at least attempt ‘The Double’.

“Hopefully someday I can get a chance to win the 500. I’ve won on the dirt track in the BC39 and got to kiss the bricks there. Now today the 400. I guess there’s one more to check off.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports bask in Brickyard 400 win after tumultuous May