“We had the biggest mess of a pit stop I think I’ve ever seen,” Kyle Larson lamented in Las Vegas. The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team executed a dominant performance at the Charlotte Roval. Leading 62 of 109 laps, Larson edged Christopher Bell for the win. But a week later, Bell had somebody else to block him from the winner’s seat – Joey Logano. And the latter’s performance wowed Larson’s team who themselves made an egregious pit stop mistake.

The spotlight fell on Joey Logano’s fuel mileage game, the same strategy that pushed the No. 22 car to the Nashville victory till the last drop. Team Penske was prepared this time, and consciously made their final pit stop on lap 195. After that, Logano put his foot down until he reached Victory Lane – and Larson’s crew chief could not help but praise him.

Logano receives praise amidst Kyle Larson’s slip-up

Rolling off the starting line in 5th place, Kyle Larson looked poised to linger in the front row. He faded to 10th at the end of stage 1 but soon stormed back to the top five during the second stage. However, things went haywire when Larson made a green-flag pit stop on Lap 125. The No. 5 team slipped up – excessive attention on tightening the right-rear wheel led to never changing the left-rear one. So Larson had to make an additional pit stop that put him two laps down. Even after experiencing this hullabaloo, Rick Hendrick’s star somehow came from behind and salvaged an 11th-place finish.

Meanwhile, Joey Logano‘s team struck gold with their fuel mileage strategy. So in a post-race interview, Kyle Larson’s crew chief, Cliff Daniels, could not help but salute them. “I think a lot of the field knew that they were going to be close right there. I guess, never doubt Joey Logano and Paul Wolfe when it comes to fuel mileage races. They’re so good at it and obviously, they made it work today.” But the reality about his own team soon dawned on Daniels: “Unfortunately, we had several things that set us back.” 

Daniels explained why Kyle Larson had to pit in the first place – Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Dillon crashed in stage 1. “We actually had a chunk of Austin Dillon’s wheel – still had a 3 sticker on it – that tells you how big his hit was over there. So there was a big piece of the wheel that separated itself and that’s what came in our nose. So first thing, we had to get that fixed. That’s what put us back there. And then the pit stop – super unfortunate how that went down.” But eventually, Daniels patted his team on the back for piecing together a respectable finish. “I was really proud of Kyle, really proud of the team for still coming back after what kind of a mess all that was.”

Kyle Larson’s own reaction after the race was not so hunky dory, as he harped on the bad side.

Larson expected more from his team

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After all, Hendrick Motorsports‘ golden boy held the last two victories in Sin City. In 2023, he swept both stages and led a race-high 133 laps to win the South Point 400. When NASCAR returned to Las Vegas in March this year, Kyle Larson fended off a hard-charging Tyler Reddick and beat him to the finish line by 0.441 seconds. These two wins loomed large on his horizon – in addition to an almost certain Championship 4 appearance given his season-high 6 wins. So Kyle Larson was not happy when his team executed faulty pit stops that stuttered his progress. He continued his playoff trend of faltering in each round’s first race.

“It was a messy, messy day. None of the first races in the rounds have been clean, at all, for us,” Larson said. But he went on to acknowledge his team’s effort nonetheless. “This was a long, hard-fought 11th-place finish. We just had a lot of unfortunate things happen with the debris that got stuck on our nose. We were able to overcome that and I thought we were going to be fine…had a strong finish in the second stage. Then we had the issues on the pit stop and just had to fight from there. We got the most we could out of the rest of the day. I’m proud of this No. 5 Chevy team for the rebound and having a clean rest of the race.”

Kyle Larson stands third on the playoff grid, 35 points above the elimination line. His time to shine may come forth as the Round of 8 shifts to Homestead, Miami for the next race.