NASCAR is rolling into the Sunflower State this weekend. But echoes from Kyle Larson’s dominant night in Thunder Valley still ring loud for the masses. From leading almost 92% of all laps to sweeping both stages and eventually the race, if there could be but a word to describe his performance, “spotless,” would probably be it.

However, the reception from the general audience is proof that Kyle Larson is suffering from his own success. 73%—That’s how many people voted “No” on Jeff Gluck’s complementary poll assessing viewer satisfaction after Bristol. Well, the #5 driver might have had his replies ready for that demographic on social media. But former Hendrick crew chief-turned-NBC broadcaster Steve Letarte’s casual comparisons might leave him scrambling for answers.

Dale Jr & Jeff Gordon’s ex-pit boss critiques Kyle Larson’s dominance.

Heading to Kansas as the second seed, Kyle Larson’s looking at a different type of sweep on race day. Early in May at Kansas, he beat out Chris Buescher by the closest margin of victory in the history of NASCAR. Ironically, that race tops Jeff Gluck’s “good race” poll for all races run until Kansas in the 2024 Cup Series season. So technically, Larson now holds the distinction of winning both the best-rated and the worst-rated race, according to fan feedback.

There’s no denying that Kyle Larson’s dominance has reached sensory overload levels, and even Steve Letarte appears to be feeling the effects. On the September 28 episode of NBC’s Inside The Playoffs, Letarte candidly remarked, “Well, I do think that while it perhaps does stink up the show, you want to tip your hat to him, right?” It’s a sentiment many NASCAR fans are grappling with after Larson led an astounding 462 of 500 laps at Bristol. He drew an interesting comparison to golf, noting, “If a golfer wins you know going away by 10 strokes, we all talk about how impressive it was.”

Letarte continued, “So For Larson, I’m going to say, ‘Hey, great job!’ And If it wasn’t in the playoffs, I would have harassed him to maybe slow down a little bit and make it more entertaining.” That is quite the hot take coming from someone who’s made a living calling it how it is on the highest stage. Regardless, very few people know the sport like Letarte. And thanks to over a decade of experience at Hendrick Motorsports with drivers like Dale Earnhardt Jr and Jeff Gordon, who currently serves as the organization’s Vice Chairman, Letarte’s words still hold heavy weight.

Besides, the man is no stranger to making audacious pit strategies. Back in 2014 at Pocono, he made Dale Jr pit twice within ten laps, F1-style, which had helped the #88 team perform a season sweep of his own on the racetrack. Nevertheless, Cliff Daniels isn’t doing all that bad as the pit boss of the #5 team. And with all the discussions putting his crew’s hard work in somewhat of a negative light, Daniels had some choice words of his own to defend their well-deserved victory.

Cliff Daniels speaks up

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Twice Larson entered pit road at the Bristol Night Race under caution. Both times, he led the pack to the rest of the cars as they merged back onto the racing surface. It wasn’t just tire management or a fast car, or finding the correct groove. The entire #5 team worked like clockwork last Sunday. Although everyone was surprised by the near-negligent tire fall-off, Cliff Daniels had some interesting inferences to make about the circumstances on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

“Look, let’s be honest with ourselves,” Daniels began. “The Bristol race, everyone wants to say, was so amazing in the spring because of the tire coming apart… Well, no. It was the tire coming apart that created chaos.” 

In Daniels’s eyes, the Food City 500 “wasn’t a good race.” Why? “The chaos was fun for the moment, but that’s not sustainable,” said the #5 team crew chief. Wrapping up his thoughts, Daniels declared, “That type of chaos is not what our sport needs on a weekly basis. We don’t need chaos and calamity… We need good pure racing.” Though the Goodyear tires and the Next-Gen machine make it hard to not fight for that extra inch, simply because of the platform’s drive toward total parity. Larson is well on his way to becoming the most successful driver in this contentious era in NASCAR.

Can he add to his record with a repeat at Kansas this Sunday? As the Round of 12 looms in the foreground, he must pull all the stops necessary to make that happen.