CONCORD, N.C. - So, maybe Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol wasn't necessarily what everyone expected, especially after Saturday's practice session produced rapidly wearing tires reminiscent of last spring's event at the 0.533-mile short track.
And that was just fine with Kyle Larson and the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team.
With the sun popping out from behind the clouds and the track temperature warming on Sunday, rubber was laid into the race track instead of marbling up and subsequently, falloff was at a minimum. It was a race that played out much the same as the fall race last September and in more ways than one.
Larson put on a similar performance in both events, sweeping stages and cruising to victory. Out of 1,000 laps run between the fall and Sunday's race, Larson led 873 of them.
"Our car balance is just really good. I could tell right away in practice this time around my car was extremely good," Larson said in postrace interviews. "When I spend 800 and something laps out front, you just become a better leader and a better driver at managing the pace and learning what it takes to set guys up and what to look for in passing and keeping that buffer to seconds.
"I think just experience to go along with a good car and a track that I've really always ran well here. Just knew now I kind of have the team and car to go along with it."
It was just another in a long list of impressive showings from the 32-year-old.
"I've seen him race so many different types of cars and do extraordinary things and dominate races," Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon said. "To me it's just all about what are the records that he can break or what are the things that he can do next.
"I'm just glad that he's a part of our organization and that we get to go race with him and he's teamed up with Cliff Daniels, which I think they make just a great pairing for crew chief/driver."
Speaking of Daniels, perhaps he was faced with the biggest quandary on Sunday, along with the rest of the crew chiefs on pit road.
Again, with significant tire degradation expected, cars opened the race by dropping to the bottom lane and tiptoeing around the 0.533-mile short track, in order to preserve tires. But as the track slowly started to darken, particularly on corner exit, more and more evidence mounted that tire wear wouldn't be an issue at all.
Larson was one of the first to throw caution to the wind, smashing the accelerator, rocketing to the lead and seizing control of the event for good. Yet, it was a gamble, and one that could have had catastrophic consequences should it have been the wrong one.
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"We certainly had kind of a two-part conversation around what it would look like for a rubber race," Daniels said. "It wasn't a fully rubbered-in race, but certainly the tires made it. Then the conversation around what it would be like if it was kind of a chaos type race with a lot of tire wear.
"To be honest, our learning experience from last year when it was the kind of the chaos race was a well-balanced car was still going to give you the best potential to manage it on either side. So, our focus just in practice, even though we went really fast for what our run was and wore out our tires really quickly, it gave us a great read on the balance of the car and a couple of little things we could take into today, knowing that, again, either way the race could potentially go.
"We're just trying to set ourselves up for the best opportunity for longevity, for pace, you know, for Kyle being able to manage the runs with the tire degradation in mind. Certainly, no right answer, but we were hopeful that a balanced car would present a decent potential for either scenario."
Fast cars, heavy hearts; Remembering Jon Edwards
The sudden passing of Hendrick Motorsports' director of race communications, Jon Edwards, was felt throughout the NASCAR garage over the weekend.
Media members, fans, NASCAR representatives and even rival drivers took to social media to share their own Jon Edwards stories. Tributes were also run on FS1 and CW during races in the NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and CRAFTSMAN Truck Series.
Over the course of his three-plus-decades in NASCAR PR, Edwards spent significant time working alongside Gordon and over the past few years, Larson. Naturally, both were asked about Edwards and his impact on the organization and their lives.
"I mean, worked with Jon for a long, long time. You know, and I think, honestly, I feel like - and Jon would probably want this to be a broader discussion about just what PR folks do - the dedication that they have, commitment, and this balance they have of connecting a team or a driver with the media, with the fans, with the sponsors, and also allowing them to stay focused on their job, and he was the best," Gordon said. "I get to work with the best, and so did Kyle. Now I think others that he's mentored will get to carry that on, and today we get to carry it on with a win."
Certainly, Larson earning a pair of wins (he also won Saturday's Xfinity Series race) felt like a fitting tribute. Still, the weekend was a tough one for the organization.
Yet, in NASCAR, the show must go on. And so, it did.
And Edwards wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
"Walking in today it was different. Yeah, it was tough. You know, I think that we've gone through a lot as an organization over 40 years," Gordon said. "Jon would want us to be here racing and would want us to - I don't even think he would want us to honor him. He would want us to not say his name at all. He wants to go under the radar and be this kind of unsung hero, I guess. There's no other way to do it, any other way for a great like him.
"But, yeah, I think we've just ... sometimes it's therapeutic, but it's also not really an option either. You just try to learn from it and grow from it and bond together as an organization, as a team together, and I think that's what Jon is going to do in this case for us."