In the heart of Sin City, the first race of the playoffs, Round of 8, proved to be a ticket-booking extravaganza as HMS extraordinaire Kyle Larson snagged a one-way pass to the Championship 4. He drove his car straight into Victory Lane, leaving his competitors eating dust. Larson is vying for his second championship title in 2023 with the same crew chief who’s been in his ear for years. This dynamic duo was forged in the fires of doubt back in 2019 when Cliff Daniels joined forces with Larson.

Fast forward to today, and Kyle Larson is on the brink of clinching his second championship. The team boss finally spilled the beans, revealing the secret sauce behind this successful partnership.

Hendrick Motorsports’ subdued engineer and laid-back speedster create a winning chemistry

The No. 5 crew chief, Cliff Daniels, spent 50 races with Jimmie Johnson and had a track record that was less than impressive: no wins, just five top-5s, and an average finish of 18.2, all while the seven-time Cup champion was closing out his illustrious career. It’s not exactly the kind of resume that screams “promising future.”

So, what was the big idea behind pairing Daniels with the red-hot Kyle Larson? Rick Hendrick, the mastermind behind Hendrick Motorsports, shed some light on the subject. When asked about the decision, Hendrick acknowledged that it was time for Daniels to move on, and the opportunity to partner with Larson was too enticing to pass up. Larson’s wealth of experience behind the wheel was just too alluring for the team, and they took a calculated risk.

Hendrick explained, “Well, I think it was time to move him, and the opening was there. Bringing Kyle on, Kyle had a lot of experience driving all kinds of cars, and we felt like that was just a good combination at the time. And there again, did not know the leadership skills that Cliff had, and that we could see the drive and the desire, but he was a little bit more subdued as an engineer than he has been as a crew chief.”

While Daniels may have been more subdued as an engineer, his leadership skills and determination shone through in his new role. When you’re dealing with a legend like Jimmie Johnson, making the right pairing is crucial, and Hendrick didn’t want to make a misstep. With Kyle, they saw the potential for a dynamic duo, and boy, did that gamble pay off.

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Hendrick emphasized, “So, when you’ve got a champion like Jimmie Johnson, you try to make sure that you put the right person with them, and you don’t want to make a mistake. With Kyle, we just felt like Cliff had shown he was ready, and one, that’s an awesome combination as it’s proven to be. Two, Cliff is a very intense guy, and Kyle is a little bit of a laid-back guy, but they click, and the marriage there has been a very good one.”

The key ingredient in this triumphant recipe? Chemistry. Despite their different personalities—Daniels, the intense engineer, and Larson, the laid-back speed demon – “They like each other, respect each other, and they want to work together, and that’s the secret sauce in this business. There, sometimes, you put two together, and the chemistry just isn’t there, and it has worked with these two.”

A chilled approach by Kyle Larson in 2019

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In a sport where milliseconds make the difference between glory and the forgotten middle of the pack, it’s intriguing when you come across a driver as cool as a cucumber. Kyle Larson, the man who’s been setting tracks ablaze, just couldn’t be bothered about who was calling the shots in his pit. “I didn’t really know Cliff, so it was hard for me to have an opinion on somebody I didn’t know,” Larson revealed.

But behind the scenes, there was another side to this story. Cliff Daniels, the man at the center of it all, was well aware of the cutthroat nature of their sport. He acknowledged the cold, hard reality, saying, “It’s a results-driven business.”

After a season that left much to be desired, Daniels couldn’t help but contemplate the possibility of unemployment, confessing, “I remember telling my wife at the end of the year, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to have a job.’ … If you just average our finishing position, regardless of fast car or not, it was not a good year. And if our company has decisions to make moving forward, I get it. I can’t dispute that.”

With one last stop at Phoenix to wrap up this season, do you think this duo can deliver once again?

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