Just three months after winning the title, Kyle Larson came back to his championship arena. And the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion performed better than any of his teammates. Nevertheless, the scope for doing more at Phoenix Raceway was a lot, as even rival Denny Hamlin saw. The latter dissected the struggles faced by Rick Hendrick’s team as a collective.

Denny Hamlin’s rival stood out

“Larson, Cliff Daniels, you got to give them credit. They take a 15th-place car every Phoenix and finish in the top five with it,” Denny Hamlin said in an ‘Actions Detrimental’ episode. “Larson did an amazing job on restarts, like gaining chunks of spots, like two or three cautions come out. And it was like if it ever just went green, like his pace, his actual pace was not good.”

Indeed, Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team gritted their teeth for the Straight Talk 500 race. Starting from a front row spot, Larson overcame an early pit road miscue and dodged a lot of debilitating cautions. He ran side-by-side with Ty Gibbs for the lead as the day’s final caution flew with 19 laps to go. And with a two-tire call from crew chief Cliff Daniels, Larson could salvage a third-place result.

In comparison, Kyle Larson’s teammates did not look so good. William Byron, driving the No. 24 Chevy, suffered a cut tire early in the race. He lacked the pace to win the race and instead relied on restarts to fetch a 7th-place result, his first top ten of the season. Chase Elliott was mired in traffic throughout the race, with his No. 9 Chevy getting caught in two crashes before a 23rd-place finish. Alex Bowman, sidelined due to vertigo, had his No. 48 driven by Anthony Alfredo – the latter finished 33rd.

“It just seemed like Hendrick in general were not as strong as they usually were, and Penske was good. Gibbs was good,” Denny Hamlin continued. “I thought William Byron was less than exciting compared to where he’s been there at that track in the past. So, he was kind of an underperformer compared to what I would say is the status quo Phoenix race. Um, I guess we can talk Chase Elliott was not good either, right? He was involved in an accident early.”

Kyle Larson himself was not satisfied with his team’s effort. “It’s concerning,” he said. “William’s had his moments of being pretty strong. I feel like the rest of us three have always been really bad. We just were worse today.”

Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin scrutinized his own efforts in Phoenix in a dim light.

Persevering through many mishaps

Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs waved Joe Gibbs Racing‘s colors in Phoenix. Yet Denny Hamlin was also right there, finishing 5th. He overcame immense trouble for that result. The No. 11 team faced problems on pit road that limited their ability to stay near the front. Although it showed steady speed, the team did not have the pace needed to match the leaders who controlled the race in the closing laps.

Denny Hamlin reflected critically, “Not enough. That’s a good overall summary. We just didn’t have the ‘it’ that we needed. I felt like I was always just a little behind the 20 and the 12. I thought we were kind of the next tier of cars, but we didn’t have anything more than that.”

“We had some issues when we did have track position. We didn’t have a great day on pit road. They had a great day when we were kind of in the middle of the pack. But those are the ebbs and flows. Everyone is trying to get reps and rhythm for the season. We’ve just got to work on it and get a little better for sure.”

Clearly, a number of Cup Series stars need to work on their pace. Let’s wait and see how Denny Hamlin and his HMS rivals perform in the upcoming races.