WATCH: Cliff Daniels’ Unheard Message to Hendrick Star Kyle Larson “After All the Sh*t” They Went Through in Darlington

This year simply hasn’t been the way Kyle Larson would’ve expected it to be. While in 2021, the Hendrick Motorsports driver took the NASCAR world by storm with his Cup Series title on the back of 10 wins, this year he hasn’t been able to even come close to that.

Now, this isn’t to say that in the span of a year, Larson has degraded from being one of the best racecar drivers in the world to a struggling one. He is still that talented and that capable.

The problem, or rather, one of the biggest problems Larson has faced this season, has been mechanical issues.

Such was also the case in Darlington in the first playoff race of the season as the #5 driver, suffered problems under the hood. Or did he?

Because what his crew chief Cliff Daniels had to say, says otherwise.

“I’m really hesitant to say this after all of the s**t that we’ve been through but it seems like your car was pretty good there,” Daniels told the defending Cup champ.

Speaking after the race as he managed to scramble through for a very impressive P12, the Hendrick Motorsports driver opened up on the problems he faced in the race.

“It felt like it was blowing up,” Larson said. “It sounded like it was down a cylinder. It was slow like it was down a cylinder.”

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“I don’t know if it was fuel pressure or what.”

Kyle Larson reflects on one of the best finishes of the year against Sheldon Creed

Despite his Cup race going the way it did, Kyle Larson still had something positive to take from Darlington. That being the impressive display of racing he put up against Sheldon Creed in the Xfinity Series race where he finished P5 from having a shot at victory.

The defending Cup champion gave a masterclass in how to drive with ferocity along with having respect for your competitor, which is a fine line that seems to be lost in modern-day NASCAR.

“It’s just fun racing. It’s just hard,” Larson said in a post-race interview. “I’ve got a lot of respect for Sheldon. He’s a really hard racer, and it was cool to battle him for the win there.”

“I was racing hard to try and get Rick (Hendrick) a win with the #17. Just came up a little short. Had a blast, though.”

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