CONCORD, N.C. -- Cliff Daniels’ second full season as a NASCAR Cup Series crew chief has been full of accomplishments and proud moments during a historic year for Hendrick Motorsports.
When Kyle Larson was signed to the team last October, Daniels was named the crew chief of the revived No. 5 team and was paired with Larson for the first time in their careers. The duo have been nothing short of impressive, posting four wins, 10 top-five finishes – including four runner-up results – and 12 top-10s.
“I think a lot of the foundation of our team being really strong was starting this year knowing we had a really good opportunity with Kyle and Kyle coming in knowing he had a really good opportunity with Hendrick Motorsports,” Daniels said. “The timing of that worked out really well, and we all came into it with a healthy respect of the opportunity we had in front of us.”
Daniels and Larson currently are on a hot streak with three points-paying victories in a row on top of claiming the $1 million prize at the All-Star Race on June 13. The duo also brought home Hendrick Motorsports’ record-breaking 269th win in the Cup Series.
After his dominating win at the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, Larson has two non-Cup races this week before he travels to Pennsylvania for the doubleheader at Pocono Raceway. “The Tricky Triangle” has served Larson well – he has three top-five finishes and six top-10s at the track, including a second-place result in 2018.
“I know he has a good history at Pocono,” Daniels said. “He likes the track a lot. Unfortunately, we don’t have great data points from the last two or three years at Hendrick Motorsports. Our cars haven’t been amazing at Pocono, for whatever reason. We’re going to dig in pretty deep and try to figure out what we’ve been missing. Hearing the way he describes the place and how he likes to drive it certainly helps us know what to look for.”
Larson also has been doing extracurricular races outside of the Cup Series, hitting the track in dirt and sprint cars during the week. While it seems exhausting, Daniels lauded Larson for being so passionate about his love of racing and how he is able to get the feel of any racetrack.
“It keeps him so fresh and so sharp just with his skills,” Daniels said. “Cup cars, sprint cars, it doesn’t matter what kind of car – that helps him so much. And then he can describe to me different tracks and things that he sees and experiences that helps him with that. It helps me to try and give him a car that’s drivable and comfortable. He can adapt to it when he gets in and goes fast.”
While the momentum is all on the No. 5 team’s side heading into the doubleheader, Daniels knows how cyclical racing in the Cup Series can be. While Larson appears to have been nearly flawless over the past several weeks, Daniels is taking notes from every race to figure out how the team can perform even better for the following weekend.
“The last couple of weeks have played out ok, but it doesn’t mean that we don’t make mistakes,” Daniels explained. “I think to quite a few races this year where we didn’t make the best call or we didn’t make the best adjustment. We just try really hard to learn from those situations. The way these races play out, a lot of it is circumstantial.
“Confidence is a hard thing to come by and we’re just trying to stay very solid in our homework and our prep for situations that maybe went well or didn’t go well in the past just to make sure that we’re built well in the future.”
The doubleheader at Pocono Raceway will kick off on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN. The drivers will be starting their engines again the very next afternoon on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.