Kyle Larson won’t be making his third attempt at “The Double” this year, the near-mythical 1100-mile feat in American motorsports that sees the driver attempt to finish all 500 miles of the Indianapolis 500 and all 600 miles of the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte on the same day. However, Prime Video has racing fans covered with the timely release of “Kyle Larson vs. The Double” on Thursday.
The aptly-titled documentary clocks in around the 1 hour and 45 minute mark, chronicling Larson’s turbulent attempts in 2024 and 2025. From his stunning practice run at Indy in 2024 and the complications brought on by a rain delay later that weekend to a 2025 attempt that left Larson and his fanbase heartbroken, critically acclaimed director Cynthia Hill and her team were there chronicling it all for an audience to eventually tune into.
Hill, who directed “What Happened, Brittany Murphy?” and “Burden of Proof” for HBO, made her own return to racing by directing this documentary for Prime Video after previously directing “Road To Race Day” in 2016, which was a well-received inside look at the Hendrick Motorsports operation run by the legendary Rick Hendrick and family. She recently sat down with The Sporting Tribune for an exclusive Q&A ahead of the release of “Kyle Larson vs. The Double” to give readers an inside look at what they can expect.
What was it about Kyle’s attempts at The Double that made you feel like this was a story worth telling?
I mean, just the magnitude of the feat. Kyle's pretty badass, and it seemed like an opportunity to follow somebody trying to attempt something extraordinary.
How did your approach to creating this documentary compare to some of your non-NASCAR work? And how did this experience compare to working with Hendrick Motorsports on Road to Race Day back in 2016?
Compared to other projects I've worked on, it's a lot faster. You've got to keep up with Kyle and cars, and the logistics of this one was insane. To get from point A to point B to D, E, F, G. It was pretty much go, go, go all the time. And trying to maintain the same pace as Kyle with his schedule, is… yeah, that took a bit of getting used to.
The documentary gives a pretty detailed look into Kyle’s lifelong journey in racing, complete with all the home movies from when he was just a little kid. Why was it important for you to tell this story from the very beginning and not just center it around the attempt itself?
I thought it was a more complete story if you knew who Kyle was. Maybe his fan base has a more in-depth knowledge of where he came from and his history in the sport, but I felt like it was so important for an audience to understand how he got there, and not just this particular attempt. For me and the whole team that I was working with, the story just became so much more richer once you understood his background.
When these two attempts at The Double didn’t necessarily go as planned, were there any thoughts of scrapping the project altogether? Or was it a situation where you realized you still had a meaningful story to tell, even if it wasn’t the one you initially planned?
There was never any discussion about scrapping the project. I think for any kind of story, that you spend this kind of time documenting someone's life in general, if you're there long enough, it's interesting. The outcome was obviously disappointing for Kyle and his team, and the teams, and the family, and folks around him, but for the narrative of the film itself, it was more about the journey to get there. It still in my opinion, was a great story, no matter the ending.
Did you have to make any major changes to the creative direction of the documentary based off the results of the attempts, and if so, what? Was there a contingency plan beforehand in case this happened, or was it more go with the flow?
No, not for the second attempt. We just knew that the second attempt was going to be the third act, and we knew moving into it that our first act was this, our second act was this part, and then our third act would be the second attempt. No matter how it ended, that's the shape of the film, and then you're there documenting that, and just holding on and trying to enjoy the ride.
How was your experience working with Kyle? Did you learn anything about him that you weren’t expecting to, or was there anything that surprised you?
I think people close to him know this, but he is so zen. Just kind of steady as you go most of the time. He doesn't have these extreme highs and lows, and the other thing I think that goes in tandem with that is that when he does have a disappointment, makes a mistake, or even has a win, those moments don't live very long in his head space.
He quickly moves on, and so we talk about that. Like ‘Wow, man, you're so quick to move on from stuff’. He's like, ‘You have to. If you're focusing on what you did five minutes ago, 10 minutes ago, the last race, you cannot focus on what's in front of you’. And if he's going to win races, he's got to be in the present, he can't be thinking about the past.
Did making this documentary give you a different appreciation for just how difficult of a feat this is to achieve? What do you appreciate most about the feat and even just the attempt?
Oh, yeah, of course. I think just the physicality of it, having to endure 1100 miles. Those two races, the back and forth and the qualifying and all of that was so much and it had to happen exactly the way that it's planned. If anything's off, then you can't do it. I think it's just the way that the races are scheduled, it's almost impossible unless the timing is perfect.
What are you most proud about with this documentary and why should everyone tune in starting May 21?
I think for me, it's just being able to really get inside Kyle's world and having that kind of access that shows up close and personal what this process was and what the toll is on someone. When you're pursuing something that is of that magnitude, and the disappointment of it or the excitement of it.
There's just so many moments in the film that you are up and down, and up and down, and because of that, I think if you're a race fan, you're like, ‘Holy moly, this is amazing’. I've never been inside the world like this before. If you're not a race fan, you're just going to love it for the story, just like, “Oh my gosh, somebody is actually doing this’. It's just a human story.
It's about wanting something and trying to achieve something great. The support system, the family, and the family story to me was so important to include, to really understand the fuller picture of who Kyle is, and the people around him. I think it's a film that race fans are going to love, and it's a film that, if you're not a race fan, you're still going to love.