“That thing just swapped ends!” Denny Hamlin Breaks Down Kyle Larson’s Dream Ruining Indy 500 Wreck

Joe Gibbs Racing veteran Denny Hamlin gave his verdict on Kyle Larson’s wreck at the 2025 Indy 500, while racing with Arrow McLaren.

“That thing just swapped ends!” Denny Hamlin Breaks Down Kyle Larson’s Dream Ruining Indy 500 Wreck

Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin (Via IMAGO)

Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson’s second attempt at the Indy 500-Coke 600 double ended the same way as the debut effort in 2024 did, utter disappointment. He crashed out at Indy in a restart on the 93ed lap and has two separate incident that made him DNF at Charlotte. His close friend and on-track foe Denny Hamlin assessed the wreck in the latest episode of his podcast.

In the Actions Detrimental podcast, Denny Hamlin revealed that he didn’t get to watch Kyle Larson’s Indy 500 wreck that made him pack up early for Charlotte, owing to his NASCAR commitments. But after watching the replays, he pointed out that it was an odd wreck considering the race just restarted and none of the cars were up to the pace yet.

Unfortunately, it didn’t, you know, fortunately or unfortunately, missed the Kyle Larson wreck. Just such an odd wreck, because it wasn’t — it appeared they weren’t up to speed yet.

Denny Hamlin said via Actions Detrimental podcast.

He pointed out that the pack were racing around 160mph when the incident occurred and considering the how capable of a racer Kyle Larson is, it’s a cruising speed for him. The Joe Gibbs Racing veteran believes the Arrow McLaren might have hit a weird air pocket and that resulted the car getting into the wall.

Like, if you look at how fast he was going when he crashed, it was, I don’t know, I estimate like, 160? They were not up to speed yet, but I guess he just hit a weird pocket of air there or something, and that thing just swapped ends.

Denny Hamlin added.

Kyle Larson, talking about the incident after the race, pointed out that he was a little too eager at the moment of the wreck and he lost the control of the car, after getting a little too close to Takuma Sato, who was racing ahead of him. He rushed his way back to Charlotte hoping to redeem himself, only to get caught up in two separate wrecks.

Denny Hamlin didn’t get to see the whole Indy 500

In the same conversation, Denny Hamlin explained how he followed the Indy 500, while also tending to his NASCAR commitments. His schedule was filled with meet and greets, media commitments and more, hence he didn’t get to watch the race a lot. He watched the first 60-70 laps then the last 30 laps, witnessing Alex Palou continuing his dominance of 2025 securing the win.

Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin (Via IMAGO)

I got to watch a little bit of [the Indianapolis 500]. You know, with my schedule and all the appearances and whatnot that I had, meet and greets, I didn’t get to watch a lot of it. I got to watch the first 60 or 70 [laps], and then I didn’t get to see but the last 30. So, I missed the action in between.

Denny Hamlin said.

Just like almost all the drivers in the garage, then the Team Penske racers, Denny Hamlin would have loves to see Kyle Larson pulling of a special win. But fate had other plans and NASCAR fans have to continue their wait to see a stock car driver pulling of an Indy 500 win for some more time. Maybe Kyle Larson can attempt the double once more before he retires from the sort.

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