Information overload on the radio is just how Larson wants and likes it

A fast race car and an overload of information are Kyle Larson’s secret weapons.

Well, they aren’t so much secret. Larson usually does have a fast Chevrolet from Hendrick Motorsports, which has helped make him a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion. The information, on the other hand, is something that he has found that he needs from crew chief Cliff Daniels.

Daniels is at no loss for words – usually under caution – when filling Larson in on how the race is progressing, who is experiencing what, and the outlook for the rest of the run or the race. It has made the radio communications on the No. 5 team sound more like dissertations than race talk.

But it’s all by design.

“I feel like Cliff and I have great communication on the radio during the race, and when things are going normally, and I’m running up front, there are a lot of times you don’t see people or see what’s going on,” Larson explains. “It just helps paint a picture for the race for me and what others are dealing with and strategy, and it just helps me plan ahead and not be surprised by something. I don’t know – I like all the information.

“I think he gives me a lot, but it’s enough, and I think it just goes back on that. It just helps me plan, and off the MBS stuff that we do here as a company, I’m a paced person, and I like planning. It helps me, I think, just get to the finish better.”

Larson and Daniels have made it work. Admittedly, it at first drove Daniels crazy when Larson would ask so many questions about things that weren’t happening in their team bubble.

The communication between the two can also be highly entertaining to listen to. Daniels is the ultimate cheerleader and hype man, never getting too high or too low on the radio. One of the most memorable is his Coca-Cola 600 pep talk to Larson from 2022, when Larson was lamenting what a terrible race he was having and putting himself down from behind the wheel.

Daniels, however, turned it into a speech about how they made good TV, then recounted all their problems in a lighthearted manner. It was all to say they were going to have a good second half of the race, and Larson went on to say he’d get over it by halfway in the race.

“I think before I ever got to work with Cliff, I had concerns of (how) he’s a mini Chad Knaus, and he’s tough on the radio, and critical … that I didn’t think that I would mesh well with,” Larson says. “But quickly, when I got to work with him and obviously work with him on the radio, I learned that I really like that, and it was really good for me and kind of helped keep me on track. I think he’s a really, really smart individual, really good at reading people, and probably read that I needed more of it, and we’ve gotten to a good place, a great place, I think, for a long time now.”

Off track and on, Daniels and Larson are always sharing information. Chris Graythen/Getty Images

The duo was paired together in 2021 when Larson signed with Hendrick Motorsports. It was the second year for Daniels as a Cup Series crew chief.

In addition to winning two titles, Larson and Daniels have won 25 races together.

“He’s always continuing to mold himself in how he communicates, and you definitely hear a lot less of the critical moments on the radio now,” Larson says. “Rarely do you ever hear him get down on me on the radio – which I think sometimes in the past, I’ve been deserving of it, and definitely in the current [drought], I’m still deserving of it. But those moments on the radio aren’t good for the public. So, it’s good to talk about on Mondays and stuff.

“I think that’s really helped us move to the next level too.”

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