NTT INDYCAR SERIES: 109TH RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500

May 13, 2025

Marcus Ericsson

Kyle Larson

Alexander Rossi

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: With practice canceled for the rest of the day, we're going to bring up Kyle Larson and Marcus Ericsson. Joined now by driver of the No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet, Alexander Rossi, former Indianapolis 500 champion, seventh quick today. You had to wait out the rain, finally got some time out there. What did you guys learn?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Well, I think we just validated the car that we built in the open test. There were some small technical issues we were working through today, but the good thing is the car balance is as expected, and the speed of it seems okay. It felt good in the couple laps we got. Pretty positive start as at one point today we didn't think we'd get any running, so all in all, it's always a good day when you get to get on track here.

Q. Can you take us through what these last 72, 96 hours have been like for you, trying to get ready for the biggest race on your calendar and dealing with a lot off track, too --

ALEXANDER ROSSI: The podcast?

Q. Yeah, just juggling that with Tim and James --

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Yeah, I was surprised about it, too. I had a kid -- well, I didn't have a kid, my wife had a kid. We didn't tell anyone because why would we. It's been a pretty awesome journey. Wednesday was an unbelievable kind of experience, more so than I could have imagined. So it was really special. It was very cool, and very thankful for Kelly and Ben has been awesome.

Yeah, I don't know what else to say beyond that, but it's been crazy but in the best kind of way possible.

Q. Does the name have any significance?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: No. Funny story about that. So Kelly was convinced we were going to have a girl, so she had like 40 girl names, and we agreed upon one, and we kind of had a boy name, and then when we found out it was a boy, we were like, well, we don't really have any other options, so that's it.

Q. Just to clarify --

ALEXANDER ROSSI: The middle name is her late father, but the first name, no.

Q. Did Ben come before the SONSIO GP?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Wednesday, yeah.

Q. How are you in these first couple days, how are you finding balancing being present here, giving your team your all and trying to help Kelly and your family out at home as much as possible?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: I mean, it's pretty straightforward because we had nine months, as it works, to plan for this. So obviously May isn't the time you would choose, but it is what it is, and her mom is here from Toronto. It's actually in some ways an advantage because I'm 25 minutes down the road. So yeah, while it's the busiest time for us in terms of the biggest race in the world, July would have been a lot worse.

We're managing it. It's fine. My priority for 80, 70 percent of the day is here, and the rest of the time that I can give, I will give at home.

THE MODERATOR: Also joined by Kyle Larson and Marcus Ericsson. Marcus, talk about your day.

MARCUS ERICSSON: Yeah, we had a good day. I think we sort of just continued where we left off in the open test a couple weeks ago, and I thought the car was really good. I think it looks really good, as well. It stands out on track with the Allegra Honda. That looks really good out there. It feels really good, as well.

I think we had a good car in traffic. It was a smooth day running through the program, and already in a place where I'm pretty happy with how it feels, and to be there on day one, it's a good spot because then you can really work on just the finer details instead of having to make big swings at things. It was a good first day.

THE MODERATOR: Kyle Larson, back in the No. 17 hendrickcars.com Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, qualified fifth last year, in pursuit of the full Hendrick 1100 this year. Talk about your day today, Kyle.

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, our day was good. Kind of took it easy to start in clean air, made sure our balance was comfortable, which it was, so was happy about that. Then yeah, just there at the end kind of finally got in some traffic and as normal kind of had some understeer. But just happy with the first day. It was a nice smooth day. Good place to start from.

Q. Alex, having the baby, did it either change your perspective or change your focus or change anything about last weekend and so far this week?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: No. No, it hasn't changed anything.

Q. For Kyle, are you involved at all with any sort of preparation for the All-Star Race while you're here? Are you juggling two things, or when you're here, are you focused on here and then --

KYLE LARSON: Yeah. Yeah, just focused on Indy now. Before I left Kansas, Cliff and I talked, maybe if there was time on Saturday during qualifying, we could get together and just talk about how their practice went and stuff like that and get prepared for the race on Sunday.

But yeah, I think it's nice that we are so kind of well-organized over there that I can completely shut myself off from them for a handful of days to really try and learn this and get prepared for the 500 because there's just a lot that's a little bit unfamiliar that you've got to get refamiliarized with this week.

Q. Kyle, is the nice thing about today you really know what to expect when you get in the car today as opposed to last year when everything was kind of new?

KYLE LARSON: Not really. It doesn't seem any different. So no, it's just practice. It's not a huge deal. Last year was just practice, as well.

You have plenty of time to make some laps.

Q. Marcus, you're all swept up in Pacer mania. How do you feel about tonight, and how cool is it that the city of Indianapolis has these two huge storylines going on at the same time?

MARCUS ERICSSON: Yeah, it's great. It's going to be exciting to watch tonight, so I need to get out of here soon to catch the start of the game.

No, but it's been fun to follow. I went to the game on Sunday, which was a lot of fun. So hopefully we're able to catch a few more games. I'm hearing if we go through, we're going to race -- they're going to play on Sunday of Indy 500, which will be a heck of a sports day here in Indy, so that's pretty cool.

KYLE LARSON: I hope they lose tonight so we can go on Thursday.

MARCUS ERICSSON: That would be good, yeah. That's a good point.

THE MODERATOR: I think the Pacers are seven-point underdogs tonight --

MARCUS ERICSSON: They're playing well, though. I think they're going to wrap it up tonight. I can feel it.

Q. Kyle, John spent three years on this program getting everything straight, doing everything with your schedule. I know Ashley probably is on top of it. But is there any sort of difficulty or anything because John had all of that so buttoned up for you?

KYLE LARSON: I think just -- had he been here, it would have been more organized weeks ago. But I feel like since he passed, it was kind of like quick decisions on who's going to be the team around me.

I would say to this point, though, now that we're here, it's well-organized, and that's a lot due to Ashley and everybody at Arrow McLaren, as well.

I think everybody with John out here worked much harder to make sure it was smooth operating, which it's been so far.

Q. Did you make sure Ashley enjoyed her first trip to Kokomo?

KYLE LARSON: She's a dirt girl. She likes it. I'm sure she had a good time. I don't know if Ashley ever has a bad time.

Q. Marcus, you have a new sponsor. They're calling your car the "Mucus Mobile" because Allegra is an allergy --

MARCUS ERICSSON: So I'm the Mucus Mobile?

Q. The Mucus Wagon, sorry. Did the Mucus Wagon feel fast?

MARCUS ERICSSON: It felt fast today. Keep working on that, we'll be all right. It looks good, even though it's called a Mucus Wagon. I don't know if that's the best nickname. You guys are so funny.

Q. Kyle, I know you told folks at NASCAR maybe last weekend that you planned on, if you get to the Fast Six this year, foregoing the opportunity to run for pole and heading off to make sure you could compete in the All-Star Race on Sunday. Can you tell us a little bit more about that decision and if that was ultimately you, or if that was you talking with Rick and Jeff and making a cumulative decision? How did you come to that?

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I think just always for me and definitely for Rick and Hendrick Motorsports, I think no matter through this whole experience, especially this year, Cup should be the priority. Yeah, I just assume we're going to run the All-Star Race no matter what.

Hopefully we run into that predicament because that means our car is fast, and two, yes, it would be extremely nice to go for the pole at the Indianapolis 500, but at the same time it's hard to turn down an opportunity to race for a million dollars.

Like I said, I hope we're in that predicament.

Q. Alex and Marcus, if you could have a million dollars or Indy 500 pole, what would you take?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: I'd just like a race for a million dollars, besides this one. We can start there. I'm glad I don't have to make that decision.

MARCUS ERICSSON: Sounds like a good problem to have.

KYLE LARSON: That's fair. We'd also like to race for a $3 million share, too.

Q. What's harder, a racehorse or a baby, Alex?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Probably the racehorse because it costs more at this point.

Q. Kyle, did you practice at all in any traffic today --

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, just right there at the end. I don't know, six, seven laps maybe, and I was in the front two or three cars. I felt balance-wise okay, just a little bit draggy. I felt like people could pass me earlier down the straightaway than when I would pass them, it would be later down the straightaway. I think we could work on that probably and work on the balance maybe a little bit, but I could also do some things differently in the cockpit. I was more so just trying to hit my marks today than worry about adjusting on things.

I think we can get better, but it was a good start today.

Q. Do you have the weight jacker down and everything --

KYLE LARSON: I'm not touching that thing for qualifying.

Q. Is it weird having Bob here?

KYLE LARSON: It is. It's probably more weird for them, though.