Kyle Larson’s Crew Chief Wary of Toyota & Ford’s Overhaul Despite Dominant Vegas Showing

Chevrolet once again proved why it is one of the winningest manufacturers of NASCAR after it swept the first three race weekends in the Cup Series. While the victories at Daytona and at Atlanta were dramatic, Kyle Larson’s invincible performance at Las Vegas proved that the golden bowtie belonged to a league of its own. Moreover, positing itself in the victory lane in all three race series on a single weekend speaks hugely of the unchallenged dominance of Chevrolet.

While the victories are assuredly sweet, it is also to be noted that the other two manufacturers are not far behind as competitors. Joe Gibbs Racing has already secured a victory in the Xfinity Series. As a result, it seems that Kyle Larson’s crew chief is already fretting over the other manufacturers stepping up their game for the remaining races of the season.

Kyle Larson’s crew chief acknowledges the pressure

Throughout the race, Hendrick Motorsports speedster Kyle Larson seemed to be unattainable by his fellow drivers on the track of Las Vegas. Apart from sweeping both stages of the race, Larson went on to win his first victory of the season. While Larson never seemed to lift his leg from the throttle and steered clear of any on-track debacle, the #5 Chevrolet driver did encounter steep competition from Tyler Reddick and was on the verge of snatching Larson’s victory. 

Nevertheless, as a manufacturer still enjoys an advantage over its competitors, Larson’s crew chief Cliff Daniels believes that they still have to be wary of the newly unveiled versions of the Toyota Camry and Ford’s Dark Mustang.

In a candid conversation on Sirius XM, Daniels stated how Chevrolet has to continually revisit the drawing board to maintain the lead. He expressed, “We do have an advantage of this being the third year with our Chevy Camaro car that is all the information that we have of it and we are continuing to chip away and find what we have with our Camaro.”

Read More: Kyle Larson Not Worried About His “Legacy” as He Slowly Creeps Up NASCAR’s All Time Win List

“And then at the same time with other guys coming in and we know that they have a new car submission and they are kind of learning it every week. I think two things can be true at once. I think we may have had the touch of being just barely ahead of them in time and figured out stuff more and more and they have a high ceiling to keep doing it better. And that’s going to put pressure back on us to keep refining everything that we have with our Camaro.”

“When they have digested all their notes and they are coming up with their plan for Texas that we have done the same and we can match that at one point of the race. I was looking at the lap times through the top twenty. It was really tight and put us in an urgency to push ourselves ahead,” Larson’s crew chief added. 

Although Larson dominated, having led a total of 181 laps in the race, the driver did have to face an aggressive Tyler Reddick, who challenged him till the end of the start-finish line. However, Reddick fell short of speed to catch up with the HMS driver, which eventually resulted in a cat-and-mouse game. Finally, the 23XI Racing driver settled for the second position in the race.

Losing out to Larson, Tyler Redick vents his frustration

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Frustrated with the loss, Reddick stated to the media after the completion of the race, “It’s the name of the next generation game, right? You get the lead, you’ve got to hold on to it. Yeah, [Kyle Larson] did a really good job there of pretty much taking away every option I had to close the gap. Yeah, he seemed pretty good in the middle, and I was obviously really good on the bottom.”

“He just never let me have it. I kept trying to run higher and higher and he was kind of running right in the middle of the racetrack there, was kind of pretty efficient to block both lanes.”

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With a victory already early in the season, Kyle Larson has found the impetus that he needs to carry forward deeper into the season. With the next race in Phoenix, it will be interesting to see how the driver fares, months after contending for the championship.