CONCORD, N.C. -- Everything Kyle Larson, Cliff Daniels and the No. 5 team have worked for all season long comes down to this weekend with the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 event at Phoenix Raceway.
The No. 5 crew have had a storybook year almost right out of the gate. In Larson’s first season with Hendrick Motorsports, he’s posted nine points-paying wins, 19 top-five results, 25-top-10s, 2,474 laps led and 17 stage wins, all career bests for the 29-year-old driver. Crew chief Daniels has been by his side through every milestone, marking personal bests for himself in the two full seasons he’s been atop the pit box.
“I think knowing Cliff now and knowing his confidence, you would never guess that he hadn’t ever won a Cup Series race before or hadn’t competed in the playoffs as a Cup crew chief just because of how driven and focused (he is) and how his leadership is,” Larson said. “It’s unmatched. It’s no surprise to me that we’ve been able to have success with him leading our team. We’ve accomplished a lot together this year and it’d be cool to each get our first championship.”
Daniels said the pair had to get comfortable with each other quickly after Larson was signed by Hendrick Motorsports in October 2020. They had four months to prepare for the 2021 season, which meant their goals needed to be clear and the trust in each other needed to be established quickly.
“So much of our approach every week was very consistent race to race, week after week, even through the summer months of how he studied himself or other drivers and the track in the race that we had coming up,” Daniels said. “The common threads of the process behind that preparation were so consistent that we've learned how to keep that part of it the same. Of course, every week looks different, every track looks different, but it’s kind of fitting that a template week after week was created.”
Larson and the No. 5 team have been nothing short of models in consistency. On two separate occasions this season, Larson has won three races in a row. Aside from his nine wins this year, he has six runner-up results, putting him in the top two for 43% of the Cup Series races held in 2021. Larson and Daniels will do what they can to bring that momentum to Phoenix this weekend. Luckily for the California native, he as a stellar track record at the Arizona venue. In his last five races there, Larson’s worse finish of seventh was from earlier this season. Overall, he has five top-five finishes – including a runner-up result – and eight top-10s at the 1-mile venue.
“It’s definitely the most important race ever in my career,” Larson said. “I’m fortunate that it’s at Phoenix. It’s a track I haven’t won at before, but I’ve had some really good runs there, and earlier this year we had a really, really good race car. I just made two mistakes and sped on pit road two different times. If I can clean up those mistakes, I think we’ll have a great shot to win. It’ll be tough, but I’m looking forward to a chance to race for a championship.”
Larson will get his chance to earn his and Daniels’ first Cup Series title this Sunday. The championship race will begin at 3 p.m. ET and air on NBC.