INDIANAPOLIS — The reason Kyle Busch hasn't run the Indianapolis 500 is his boss. The reason Kyle Larson hasn't run it is, well, maybe himself.

He said team owner Chip Ganassi would love him to do the 500. Ganassi, who also runs one of the top teams in IndyCar, has spoken openly about how Larson would be near or at the top of his list if they added a fifth car for Indy.

"I think they are all just kind of waiting on me at this point to say I want to do it," Larson said.

So what is Larson waiting on? He would say bravery.

Three years ago, Larson was trying to get Ganassi to let him do the "May Double" of running the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600. He now admits seeing crashes like those of Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon this year made him a little nervous.

"'It kind of makes me think twice about it," he said.

He said he will get the courage to do it some day. It could be next year or the year after.

The other factor is wanting to be with the best cars. Larson said IndyCar tends to work in a way in which one manufacturer is good one year, then another is better the next. Maybe politics played a part in the matter, he said.

“I want to time it at the right time where whatever manufacturer Chip is with is the best," he joked.

Larson said he hasn't talked to any IndyCar drivers about the team, but he has people in the Ganassi family he can reach out to. Dixon, for example, is also with Ganassi, and Larson called him "the best in racing."

The main person he would want to speak with is Kurt Busch. Busch ran the 500 in 2014 and finished sixth after qualifying 12th. He said Busch would be best because he knows the transition from NASCAR to IndyCar.

Larson, who qualified 25th Saturday for Sunday's Brickyard 400, has fared well in his IMS career. In three Brickyard 400s, he has finished seventh, ninth and fifth. He mentioned how Chip Ganassi drivers as a whole have done well, with Jaime McMurray winning in 2010 and Juan Pablo Montoya taking second in 2007. Larson wondered if the IndyCar connections have carried over at IMS.

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He was asked if he's been down to the IMS museum basement, the section off limits to the public that reportedly has a collection that would impress racing fanatics. He said famed IMS historian Donald Davidson gave him and his parents a tour one year.

His father, Mike, is also well-versed in racing history, so Mike and Davidson were quizzing each other.

Larson said he wasn't as taken aback. He's not exactly a "car guy." What blew him away were the sprint cars. Larson was impressed by what the old-time sprint car drivers were strapping, or not strapping, themselves into. It was a perfect answer for the state of Indiana, where sprint and dirt racing is beloved.

“That’s what I’m really into.”