Attempting ‘The Double’ is by no means an easy feat, but it is a bucket-list item for many racers. As Katherine Legge gets ready to check that off her list, her attempt has drawn attention from fans, viewers, and even fellow racers. 

Frontstretch recently caught up with a few NASCAR drivers, including Bubba Wallace Jr. and Chris Buescher. With Legge’s attempt at the Double being a key question, the drivers were asked if they ever had plans to do the same, sometime soon. 

The answers were quite interesting, to say the least. Wallace flat-out denied having any intentions of attempting the Double. He respects the challenge too much to treat it casually.

“Nope. None. No whatsoever. I think it's b*****. I just read where Katherine Legge is doing it, so I'm super pumped for her. She's been awesome and learning her way into this sport, but to see her announcing the double is freaking cool. So I'm definitely cheering for her, and hopefully that goes well."

While he respects Legge going for it, he feels he lacks the prep time for it and is better focusing on his current races.  

"The reason I say no is that there's so much time and effort that goes into that. Right now, I don't have enough time to think about how much I have to do to prep for it. I don't want to be the one to just make a phone call and say, 'Hey, I want to do this next year.'

"I feel like that's years of prep, and I don't have that time right now. So I'll just go run my one race and be good.”

Buescher seemed to echo Wallace’s thoughts, adding that he prefers stock-car racing more than open-wheel racing. He admitted being curious about the two-seater ride experience in IndyCar, but does not feel comfortable being a passenger. 

“I've never been an open wheel guy, I guess, and I don't have the experience in that world. I started on motorcycles instead of go-karts, and it would be a lot of fun to run that fast. But no, I'm sticking to full fenders."

That's not on my radar. No. I give people a ton of credit, all the drivers in any car trying to run that race at those speeds, and to be that close. It's a blast to watch. But no, I'm not going to try it. Hard no. I've thought about trying to take a ride in the two-seater around there just to see what it's like, but I'm a really bad passenger, so yeah, I think it's a hard no.”

These comments also seem to be quite close to what Kyle Larson shed some light upon not too long ago. 

Kyle Larson: “I was so burnt out”

On the SPEED podcast with Kevin Harvick and Will Buxton, the No.5 HMS driver spoke of exhaustion from his IndyCar and Cup Series commitments, which led him to skip the Adelaide 500 last season.

He explained that coming fresh off the Double, he felt recharging in the off-season was a bigger priority than participating in the Australian series, after just days of being at home.

Larson is widely regarded as one of the most versatile drivers, but this shows that even he can be affected after attempting the Double, which takes a physical and mental toll on drivers. 

What Larson said next further validates Wallace’s thoughts from the Frontstretch interview; he could look at participating in the Supercars series once his full-time Cup Series career slows down. One needs sufficient prep time to adapt to multiple racing disciplines and then be good at them.

“Maybe something like that in the future, when my racing career slows down more, would be fun. But outside of that, I don't really have any thoughts or bucket list, you know, race cars or events at the moment. I think that sort of stuff will probably come when I'm done full-time racing and I'll actually have the time to commit to something like that.”

What do you think about drivers attempting the Double? 

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Written by

Aaradhya Singh

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason