Larson crew chief sees late strategy call at Darlington as a ‘net wash’

Kyle Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports team taking its chances on older tires in the final stint of the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway did not turn out to be the winning call. However, it was not a bad call, either.

“We had talked about that was probably going to be a pretty logical move in our case to stay out and take the lead,” Larson’s crew chief, Cliff Daniels, said, after the No. 5 Chevy finished fifth. “If you pit from fourth and come out fourth or fifth, that’s about all you’re going to have. So, it’s kind of a net wash, I would say, but we gave ourselves the opportunity to be up front.

“Kyle did a great job on the restart and holding on as long as he did. Yeah, it’s just one of those things.”

The final caution flew with 33 laps to go for rain, which resulted in a near eight-minute red flag. Daniels kept his driver, who was in the top five, on track while most of the field chose fresh tires. Larson took the lead with two Team Penske drivers, Austin Cindric and Joey Logano, plus Ryan Preece staying out with him.

“If we had pitted from fourth and had to come around the (No.) 54 into our pit stall, that’s one element of a potential hiccup or a small delay in the stop,” explained Daniels. “So, thinking through that, I was like, 'OK, if we take tires, we’re going to come out fourth or fifth, and it’s going to be really hard to win from there.' Historically, there have been a lot of calls with guys with four laps on tires staying out, and with the old downforce package, I think it was probably a little easier to block back then versus what it is now.

“So I was concerned it was going to be a little too easy to get passed with this package. But at the end of the day, if it rains or you get another caution and you’re the leader and can hold onto it for a little while, then you have another opportunity.”

Larson jumped away on the restart with 24 laps to go to establish a healthy gap. But Christopher Bell quickly established himself as the leader of the drivers on fresher tires, and it took only a lap to get to second place. The cat-and-mouse game was on from there.

“I was fully on board with that call,” said Larson. “I was surprised that those guys pitted in front of me. I thought the (No.) 19 was a really strong car and could maintain the lead from not pitting, so when they all pitted in front of me, and we got to stay out, I was super happy. For as many cars that were on the lead lap, I thought more would stay out, though, and at least have those guys restarting on the fourth or fifth row. But when they started on the third row, and Bell got to second so fast, I knew it was going to be hard.

“I was able to manage the beginning of the run the way I wanted to because, as I said, I was hoping more stayed out, and I could get a gap and run the lines I wanted to run and build my tires to the place I wanted to. But I went straight into defense and actually held him off longer than I thought I could. Right before he passed me, I thought we were getting close enough to where I could maybe hold him off for the rest of the time, but he did a good job of building some runs on me to get me moving around again. He did a great job, but so did our team. I was super happy with the result.”

Larson led 99 laps Sunday night. The top-five finish was his first at the track since the fall race of 2024.