Hendrick Motorsports star Kyle Larson has got the racing world admiring him after the stunt that he pulled in Kansas to grab the checkered flag. Using a near-impossible gap between race leader Chris Buescher and the wall in the final lap, he catapulted ahead to the checkered flag with a margin of 0.001 seconds. Amongst those who were floored by the move is Kevin Harvick.
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The retired icon spoke about the maneuver on his podcast ‘Harvick Happy Hour’ and detailed how it was possible only because of Larson’s racing intelligence. He said, “There’s just a lot of little things that happen right there. Just have to have an incredibly high racing IQ to execute. Kyle Larson is just willing to do things that other people aren’t. He’s not worried about making a mistake.”
“If he would have crashed right there and spun out and finished last car on the lead lap he’d have been fine with it. It’s not going to affect him.” Harvick contended that Larson’s do-or-die attitude separated him from the other drivers and put him on a pedestal. He continued noting how those in his #9 Hendrick Motorsports crew supported and helped build this winner’s mindset.
“He has this support system behind him that has this ability to just push those things immediately aside and just reset,” he said. “They support him because they know that he’s probably the most talented guy out there and that he is going to do whatever it takes to win the race.” Key amongst those in Larson’s support system is crew chief Cliff Daniels.
“Never bet against yourself”: Cliff Daniels’ reaction to Kansas victory
The 2024 season is Daniels’ fourth season working with Kyle Larson in the #5 Hendrick team. The duo have been highly successful in their time together and the memorable victory in Kansas was a portrayal of the same. After ensuring that his driver had been named the winner, Daniels spoke to NASCAR’s Jesse Punch on the pit road and opened up on his thoughts.
He said, “Never at any point did I expect ‘Hey, we’re just going to go walk away and win this thing’. I knew that if we could do the things to keep ourselves in contention, stay in the game if it came down to something at the end… We knew we had a great pit crew, knew Kyle is one of the best restarters in the business and, you know, never bet against yourself.” Daniels, Larson, and their crew will face their next challenge in the Darlington Raceway this weekend.
