CONCORD, N.C. -- In Sunday’s inaugural Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, teammates Kyle Larson and William Byron were chasing down another 1-2 finish for Hendrick Motorsports in the final laps of the race but had to come up with a new game plan when both drivers realized they would both be short on fuel.
Larson managed to defend the lead from the second-place driver, who had more fuel and fresher tires. Byron earned a third-place finish, which still was a difficult task, according to former No. 5 crew chief and Hendrick Motorsports project manager Keith Rodden.
“The way the fuel situation played out there, the No. 24 needed to save more fuel from lap 232 until lap 300,” Rodden said. “Basically, the No. 24 had to save more gas than the No. 5 and they had to do that in 68 laps. That makes it tough because you are sitting there trying to figure out how to not get passed by the person behind you, how to win the race, and how to make sure you finish the race on enough fuel.”
Larson, who was in the lead when each team implemented their fuel-saving strategy, managed to stay in front of the field in the final stage and stretched his remaining fuel through the last 81 laps of the 300-lap event to win his third points-paying race in a row.
“What Kyle was able to do yesterday was when he was saving gas, he was still able to run within the fastest lap on the racetrack on every lap, he didn’t slow down that much,” Rodden said. “What’s impressive about Kyle is that he figured out a way to save fuel and to maintain his pace; to maintain and stretch his lead on the field.”
Byron, who had less fuel than teammate Larson, had to be more conservative while maintaining his front-running position. The 23-year-old driver put together a solid day after finishing stage two in fourth before moving into second as the final stage progressed.
“It just kind of snowballed from there where William and Kyle are being coached big time by (crew chiefs) Rudy (Fugle) and Cliff (Daniels) on, ‘Hey, you need to save,’” Rodden said. “You have all of this going on, you are trying to not get passed, the No. 24 is trying to make sure he holds up the No. 4 and whomever else is behind him.”
The unsung heroes for both teams as they crunched the fuel mileage numbers were the two fuelers, Brandon Harder with the No. 5 team and Landon Walker with the No. 24 crew. Rodden stressed how important it is to know you have the right amount of fuel put into the car to help make those accurate decisions about saving fuel.
“The main thing is having confidence in your fueler that the last time you were on pit road, it was full,” Rodden said. “Harder on the No. 5 and Landon Walker on the No. 24, whatever they had done, it was good because the thing that you don’t talk about that can bite you is that you didn’t put in as much gas as you thought on the pit stop, and I think they would’ve been in big trouble if that had happened.”
The effort paid off and Larson now has four wins on the year while Byron has posted seven top-five finishes in 2021. The teammates will try to extend Hendrick Motorsports’ win streak to six and seven races this weekend when the crews head to Pocono Raceway. The first race at ‘the Tricky Triangle’ will be Saturday, June 26 at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN. The second race of the doubleheader weekend will take place Sunday, June 27 at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.