CONCORD, N.C. – Kyle Larson took home his fifth win last Sunday at Watkins Glen International after his pit crew executed a flawless stop midway through the race, which gave the No. 5 team the lead after the field cycled through pit road.
At the time, Larson was in second and followed the No. 19 car of Martin Truex Jr. to pit road on lap 57. Despite a rougher pit stop earlier in the race, the No. 5 pit crew buckled down and performed a speedy four-tire pit stop to help give Larson the lead.
“I don’t think there was any pressure at all,” said RJ Barnette, the tire carrier for the No. 5 pit crew. “I have been doing this for a long time, so I am kind of used to those situations. To be honest, that is the situation you want to be in. You want to come down second, you want to have the opportunity to prove your value, prove your worth, and help your driver and your team out.”
The No. 5 pit crew is no stranger to success on pit road. They currently hold the fastest average four-tire pit top time at 13.66 seconds and have the third-fastest four-tire pit stop this season, clocking in at 12.12 seconds at Nashville Superspeedway in June.
“I think Kyle does a really good job for us on pit road,” said Calvin Teague, the rear tire changer for the No. 5 team. “He is one of the faster guys in the Cup Series, driver-wise, on pit road and he uses that to his advantage. We have a lot of veterans and a couple young guys on the team, but we just try to go out there and do the best job we can each and every time. We know what our responsibility is and we just go out there and have a lot of fun as well.”
With the win at Watkins Glen, Larson is now the points leader with three races left in the regular season. The No. 5 team now is focused on continuing to ride its momentum through the rest of the season.
“I think it was a goal for us to be good this year,” Barnette said. “We wanted to be first, and now that we have gotten here, our job now is to increase the gap between us and second. We are not letting up; we have no intention of slowing down at all. We want to be first and we plan to stay here.”
Be sure to tune in this Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on NBC to see Larson and the rest of the Hendrick Motorsports drivers take on the debut event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.