The pep talk that took the No. 5 back to victory lane

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | October 24, 2022 12:14 PM ET

Cliff Daniels essentially gave his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team a kick in the ass before Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

No longer eligible for the championship, it was time to lay everything out on the table. To face the mistakes that played into their elimination in the Round of 12 and take a hard look at how many times they’ve been their own worst enemy. It happened in a pre-race gathering – driver Kyle Larson included – where Daniels gave an admittedly colorful speech.

“If you look at the 5 car throughout the course of the season, we’ve had great cars. So, on performance, we have not been down,” Daniels said. “It’s been execution. It’s execution from me, the guys on pit road, Kyle at times, and we’ve had so many fast cars that I’ve been getting frustrated showing up at the racetrack knowing that we’re going to have another fast car and even having a sliver of doubt of our execution – because I know that our team when we’re at our full potential, we have a lot of potential.”

Larson has laid plenty of blame on himself for making mistakes this season. A mistake he made at the Charlotte Roval, hitting the wall and breaking a toe link, ultimately cost him a spot in the third round. Larson said afterwards that it was proof he still has to improve after having a 2021 in which everything went right.

The ’22 playoffs have not gone well for Larson and his team. They cannot defend their driver’s championship (they are still eligible for the owners’ championship) and had three top-10 finishes in the first seven playoff races. Daniels honed in on driving home the point about their playoff performance.

“I went through our playoffs and how many mistakes that we’ve made since the start of the playoffs and how many of those things have been in our hands that we have had control over and we just haven’t,” said Daniels. “It really it starts with me; we haven’t done a great job of grasping.

“My words [today] were focus and discipline, and it takes a lot of focus and a lot of discipline to run the fence for all the laps that he did, and it takes a lot of focus and discipline to go through seven or eight pit stops like we did today, and the guys had a phenomenal day on pit road.

“That was really the moral of it because he knows we’ve had great race cars, I know we’ve had great race cars and for whatever reason, somewhere along the way, it’s been a little mistake over here in this department. Then we’d fix that and we’d come back over here and have a little mistake over here, over here, over here, and we just needed a day to get it all right, and finally, we did.”
Cliff Daniels (left) rallied his troops to get the reigning champions back on form. (Matthew T. Thacker/Motorsport Images)

You know how the group responded. Larson “kicked their [expletive] ass” in the Dixie Vodka 400. There were no mistakes as Larson swept all three stages and led 199 of 267 laps. On pit road, the team continually got him off in a quick manner to either hold their position or retake the race lead.

Larson put on a clinic of running the fence, the key to success at Homestead. Homestead is a Larson track, and he’s been long overdue for a win, but given his propensity for mistakes this year, it wouldn’t have been a surprise to see him fence his Chevrolet and ruin his day.

But he did. Well, Larson did get it against the wall a few times, but as he said in his post-race interview, the Next Gen is tough enough that it didn’t end his day like in years past.

“It did everything I wanted it to against the wall,” Larson said. “The ride quality was great into [Turn] 3. It turned where I needed it to turn on entry so I could carry speed. It turned on exit, so I could just stay committed to the throttle. It wasn’t too loose on exit or too tight where I had to bail out of the throttle at all. It was a good car to go along with the comfort, I guess that I have up there.”

Sunday was another example in the curious case of Larson and the No. 5 team. Wait for something to bite them or for it to be self-inflicted, but if nothing goes wrong, then what they did is what is expected from them. But this is a season when you don’t know which team is going show up on any given weekend.

Daniels is touted as one of the best leaders in the garage, which he showed Sunday. Given all that has happened to his team this year, time will tell if it’s the turning point they needed.

“It means a lot,” Daniels said of winning after a tough few weeks. “It means a lot to the team, because, like I was just alluding to, we have such a core group and a lot of strength in our group. I told them all if we do our job, at our worst, we’re going to be really good and if we do our job, at our best we’re going to be great. So that’s the window, really good to great if we would just do our job, and we did today.

“It means a lot to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports who have been giving us fast race cars all year long. I know it means a lot to Mr. H. I don’t think it quite sank into him yet when we were talking about it in Victory Lane that we were locked into the owner’s deal in Phoenix. But yeah, the Roval was disappointing to get knocked out of the driver championship. But to have the reflection on the team be that we’re still in it, we’ve had a very character-building year, and we’ve had to be tough through the adversity and learn from our mistakes to still be in it and have a lot is pretty special.”

 

Larson dominates Homestead as battles rage behind

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | October 23, 2022 6:50 PM ET

Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team put together a mistake-free day Sunday at Homestead-Miami and whipped the NASCAR Cup Series field to the victory in the Dixie Vodka 400.

Larson led 199 of 267 laps and swept all three stages. He led the final 22 laps after taking the lead for the final time off pit road following the last round of stops. The No. 5 team got Larson off pit road first over Denny Hamlin while Martin Truex Jr., who had been leading, was spun into his pit stall by Larson.
Martin Truex Jr. SPINS entering pit road!

He had help from Kyle Larson. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/enJPinUvxs

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC)

Truex noticed his pit stall late and wasn’t pulled to the left to begin turning in. Larson wasn’t expecting Truex to slow in front of him.

“I was just going behind him, and he had a hard left and was hard on the brakes at the same time, and I ran right into the back of him,” Larson said of the contact. “My team said he was late turning into his stall, but if it was my fault, I’m sorry. I don’t think it was, but it’s hard to see on this pit road. I don’t know if fans and people realize when you’ve got debris all over your windshield, the sun shining straight in your face, it’s hard to see your stall, so I hate that (it happened). He was definitely the one I was going to have to beat. He was really good that last long run too.

“What a fun day,” he continued. “I’ve always wanted to race here during the day at Homestead. We could rip the wall and we finally have a car tough enough for me to be able to run the wall and finish the race. A lot of fun today. I hope we can do it again in a couple of weeks.”

On the final restart with 17 laps to go, Larson didn’t initially drive away from Ross Chastain and AJ Allmendinger, but when the pair started to do battle for the runner-up spot, Larson cruised to the win.

Chastain and Allmendinger finished second and third, respectively. Austin Dillon finished fourth and Brad Keselowski finished fifth.

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Two cautions in the final stage changed the complexion of the race. The first came during a round of green-flag pit stops on lap 211 when Ryan Blaney spun on the access road after completing his stop.

Larson was still on track and pitted under caution, while Truex and Chastain had already made their stops and inherited the top two spots. Truex had nearly 2s on Larson when the final caution flew with 23 laps to go and sent the field to pit road for the last time, leading to Truex’s spin.

He led 28 laps on the day and restarted 19th after his pit road woe, ultimately charging to a sixth-place finish.

Denny Hamlin finished seventh, Kevin Harvick eighth, Kyle Busch ninth and Daniel Suarez 10th. Christopher Bell finished 11th and William Byron finished 12th after starting from the pole. Byron appeared to be the best playoff driver through the first two stages before fading with an ill-handling car.

Chase Elliott finished 14th, Blaney 17th and Joey Logano 18th. Chase Briscoe was the worst-finishing playoff driver in last after crashing out on lap 161.

There are three spots in the championship race still up for grabs after Sunday’s race, as Larson is no longer championship-eligible after being eliminated in the last round. Sunday was Larson’s third win of the season and first at Homestead.

“It was definitely the best run we’ve had all year long,” Larson said. “We’ve been capable of it; I feel like many weekends, we just haven’t put it all together. Cliff gave a great speech this morning and got us all ready to go and focused, and did my best to keep it out of the wall. I got into the wall a few times, but I could still make speed doing that. Amazing race car. I knew that last run was going to be short enough where I was going to be in some trouble there, but thankfully AJ and Ross were racing hard behind me.

“Happy for our team,” the California native said. “We get to go race for an owner’s title in Phoenix in a couple of weeks. So, we’re still technically not out of it. I know I can’t win the championship, but it means more to me to win it as a team, so we’re going to go to Phoenix and try to get another championship.”

There were five caution flags throughout the afternoon. Larson was one of five leaders and 11 lead changes.

He is the fifth non-playoff driver to win one of the eight playoff races so far.

 

Repeated unforced errors make Martinsville a must-win for Blaney

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | October 23, 2022 8:46 PM ET

Ryan Blaney bluntly criticized himself for his spin off the access road at Homestead-Miami Speedway, ending a potentially top-10 day.

“Downshifted like a dumb (expletive),” he said.

The miscue happened on lap 211 after Team Penske had serviced Blaney’s No. 12 Ford. He was running inside the top five before coming down pit road under green.

“We were in a decent spot running third on the green flag stop, and then I just made a mistake,” he said. “That is two weeks in a row I made a mistake, and it cost us a good run. I couldn’t get back up through the field after that. It was an unfortunate end of the day again, due to a driver mistake again.”

Blaney was never a factor on Sunday. He finished a disappointing 17th after earning points in the first two stages by crossing the line ninth (Stage 1) and fourth (Stage 2).

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The mistake eliminated the ground he was hoping to make in the postseason. Having entered the day seventh on the grid and 11 points below the cutline, he moved up one spot to sixth after Homestead but is now 18 points below a transfer spot.

Martinsville Speedway is the final elimination race in the postseason. It will cut the field from eight down to the four drivers competing for the championship – which Blaney has never done.

“Being as many points as we are out, it’s kind of like a must-win,” he said. “I don’t see us making up that many points, so just go to try to put yourself in position to win the race.”

Blaney has never won at Martinsville – also still winless this year — but has shown speed at the Virginia paperclip in the past. He hopes to have the same speed as he did in the spring when he finished fourth — his fifth top-five finish in the last seven Martinsville races.

“I don’t think we can point our way in, honestly,” he said, while also acknowledging the best thing to do is run upfront because you never know what might happen. “I think we’re too far out.”

 

'The driver just made a mistake' - Briscoe now in playoff jeopardy

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | October 23, 2022 8:31 PM ET

Chase Briscoe’s exit from Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway was driver error.

On lap 161, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver got loose and hit the wall in Turn 2. The contact resulted in heavy damage to the right side of his Ford Mustang, including one of the control arms — a piece that cannot be repaired on pit road. Because Briscoe was under the Damaged Vehicle Policy, he couldn’t go to the garage for repairs until meeting minimum speed.

It was an unlikely task, so the No. 14 failed to finish the Dixie Vodka 400 and placed 36th on the results sheet. It was his first DNF of the postseason.

“The driver just made a mistake,” said Briscoe. “I was really, really loose that run. We were really tight every other run. That green-flag run, we tried to get really free on the other side of it… I was hanging on with everything I had. It felt like I was on ice.

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“Honestly, I wasn’t even running hard,” he continued. “I was trying to just get to the caution. We kept getting freer. I got sideways and had the wheel all the way to the right and ended up head-on into the wall. It is really frustrating to have it be something of my own doing. I am better than…crashing by myself.”

Briscoe’s Stewart-Haas Racing team was one of the teams that tested at Homestead a few weeks ago and felt they’d have a car to compete. But Sunday ended up being a struggle, which surprised him.

Before the crash, he had been lapped by eventual winner Kyle Larson while running 20th.

“It is really unfortunate,” Briscoe continued. “It makes our job easier next week, I guess. We don’t have to worry about points. We (have) to go to Martinsville and win.”

Briscoe dropped to last on the playoff grid and is 44 points below a transfer spot.

 

Truex charges to sixth at Homestead after pit road spin

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | October 23, 2022 7:34 PM ET

Martin Truex Jr. was hit with another racing woe Sunday, taking away a good opportunity to win for the first time this season at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

He was in control of the Dixie Vodka 400 when the final caution flew with 23 laps to go. The yellow flag for a Tyler Reddick crash of Turn 2 erased a nearly 2s lead Truex held on the dominant Kyle Larson.

But the caution wasn’t the issue — pit road was.

Truex was spun by Larson as the No. 19 turned into his pit stall. He ended up in it backward, and the pit stop was completed, but he went from the lead to the 19th position.

Truex charged to a sixth-place finish. He led 28 laps and admitted the incident was a mix of noticing his pit stall late and how difficult it is for a driver to see on pit road as the sun was setting.

“It was definitely a little bit of both of that,” Truex said. “It was really hard to see through these windshields right now with the sun like that and all the stuff covering it. I did see my box late, for sure. So I slowed down before I turned out of the way of the No. 5 there. Obviously partly on me. I didn’t expect to get turned around. Glad nobody got hurt there.

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“Overall, just disappointing,” he explained. “To have a good day going like that and have a shot at winning and couldn’t close the deal… Hate it for my team. It’s been one of those years. Thanks to Bass Bro, Tracker, Cabela’s, Toyota, everybody that supports us and all our fans. We’re going to keep digging and win a bunch of races once we get through this rough patch.”

Larson went on to win the race and said he didn’t feel it was his fault but apologized if it was. The Hendrick driver also acknowledged how tough the Homestead pit road is and that he ran into Truex when the No. 19 checked up.

“I was just going behind him, and he had a hard left and was hard on the brakes at the same time, and I ran right into the back of him,” Larson said of the contact. “My team said he was late turning into his stall, but if it was my fault, I’m sorry. I don’t think it was, but it’s hard to see on this pit road.

“I don’t know if fans and people realize when you’ve got debris all over your windshield, the sun shining straight in your face, it’s hard to see your stall, so I hate that (it happened),” he said. “He was definitely the one I was going to have to beat. He was really good that last long run too.”

Despite finishing the regular season in the top five in points, Truex missed the playoffs because of the absence of a win. He has led over 500 laps this season, however, and has been amongst the most consistent drivers (with 15 top-10 finishes) when things have gone the No. 19 team’s way.

 

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