Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels say the team left plenty of points on the table during the season.
- Larson went into the Bank of America 400 ranked fifth in points, almost a cinch to advance into the Round of 8 of the Championship Playoff Series.
- Larson drove into the wall late in the race at Charlotte.
- His team made repairs and got him back running, but by finishing 35th, five laps down, he fell two points shy of remaining in the championship hunt going to Las Vegas.
Kyle Larson is as respected and admired as any driver in the NASCAR Cup Series garage. Teammates and rivals alike acknowledge his enormous talent in stock cars on asphalt and in open-wheel cars on dirt. They marvel at how he recovered from a career-threatening disciplinary suspension in 2020 to stun the industry by becoming the 2021 Cup Series champion.
After a painful Sunday afternoon at the Charlotte Roval, they also have to respect his humility and honesty.
Larson went into the Bank of America 400 ranked fifth in points, almost a cinch to advance into the Round of 8 in the Championship Playoff Series. He ran well early, finishing sixth in Stage 1 and third in Stage 2. But he inexplicably drove into the wall late in the race, causing severe damage to the right-rear of his Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 Chevrolet.
His team made repairs and got him back running, but by finishing 35th, five laps down, he fell two points shy of remaining in the championship hunt going to Las Vegas, Homestead, and Martinsville. Chase Briscoe nabbed the final spot in the Round of 8, no thanks (according to NASCAR’s investigation) to the attempted aid from teammate Cole Custer. Custer was penalized after the race for slowing down and blocking contenders from catching and possibly taking away points from Briscoe.
If there had been a sword nearby, he would willingly have fallen on it. Seldom do championship-level drivers speak so ill of themselves with an entire series watching.
“I made way too many mistakes all year long,” Larson said, “and I made another one today. There’s definitely no other person to blame but myself. Ultimately, it cost us an opportunity to go chase another championship. I’m just extremely mad at myself. I let the team down a number of times this year and I let them down in a big way today.
“And it was for no reason, either. I wasn’t even pushing that hard at that moment when I screwed up (by hitting the wall). I got loose and it caught me off guard. I made way too many mistakes this whole year and you can’t win a championship like that. It’s no surprise I made another mistake today and took us out of contention.”
Kyle Larson, left, and crew chief Cliff Daniels, right, will have plenty to talk about this NASCAR offseason.
Chris GraythenGetty Images
Larson was right about that… he endured a rollercoaster of a season. After winning 10 races and the championship last year, he goes into this year’s last four races with victories only at Las Vegas early in the year and Watkins Glen in August. The best he can finish in points is ninth, his current position.
But crew chief Cliff Daniels isn’t willing to let his driver take the fall for what his team will consider a lost season. Without even having to think hard, he quickly found upwards of 60 points lost to engine failures.
“We blew three engines, so that’s on the company,” he said several days after Charlotte. “That shouldn’t happen to a company like ours. For me, I made some bad pit strategy calls trying to get stage points at New Hampshire and Sonoma. That didn’t work, so that’s 100 percent on me for costing us positions and points. Kyle wrecked today and had some spins and poor restarts during the season, so that’s on him. The pit crew had some bad stops, too, so that’s on them.
“As a team, we’ve had multiple races where someone made a mistake…”
“I understand where Kyle’s coming from when he said what he said Sunday. He was dejected and sad and mad at himself. He’d made a (driving) mistake he shouldn’t have made. As a team, we’ve had multiple races where someone made a mistake, so it’s certainly not all on him.”
During another media session after the 400, Daniels said Larson’s self-flagellation late Sunday afternoon was an emotion of the moment. Larson, he said, was focused on the disappointment of that specific race; Daniels, on the other hand, was looking at the bigger picture of the first 32 races.
“I stand by it: there’s probably nobody better—and only a few similar to—the talent level of Kyle Larson in the world right now, much less in Cup racing,” he told a NASCAR site. “I will always stand behind him (because) I have every reason to stand behind him. He’s been incredible since we’ve been together and I know he’s owning some of his mistakes.
“But, as the leader of the team I own the mistakes of things on pit road, when we miss the setup, or miss the call, or whatever the situation might be. We’ve had some mechanical issues, so it doesn’t all fall on his shoulders. He’s trying to take a lot of the blame, but the way it shook out there’s no single individual—not even him—to blame.”
Larson is something of an introvert, a careful thinker unwilling to take anything at face value. He accepts that despite his Cup Series championship and countless other major racing accolades in recent years, he still has much to learn.
“We’re gonna continue to fight, continue to work hard to be better for the rest of this season as well as be more prepared for next year,” he said after Charlotte. “I’ve learned there are still a lot of areas to get better and smarter and do a better job. Last year seemed good; I was on my game and things were working out. Every area was better as far as the driver goes.
“I just have to figure out how to get back to that point; to keep working on my craft; to get better and make a lot fewer mistakes.”
Keyword: Cole Custer Is Not the Reason Kyle Larson Missed NASCAR Round of 8