“We Were a 32nd Place Car” – Kyle Larson’s Crew Chief Calls Out Hendrick Motorsports’ Equipment as He Blames Himself for Kyle Larson’s Poor Performance

Yung Money, aka Kyle Larson’s 2023 season, is a far cry from his 2021 championship comeback. Aside from securing two Cup Series wins at Richmond and Martinsville, he also bagged the $1 million cheque at the All-Star race at North Wilkesboro. However, plagued by wrecks and subpar team performance, the #5 Hendrick Motorsports driver finds himself at the 9th position on NASCAR’s 2023 Cup Series standings.

In light of the poor performance, Kyle Larson’s crew chief has now spoken out, blaming himself for the #5 HMS team’s poor performance.   

“I’m Gonna Share Most of the Blame”: Kyle Larson’s Crew Chief Blames Himself

Amid the preparation for the upcoming Chicago Street Circuit, Kyle Larson’s crew chief, Cliff Daniels appeared on the MRN Crew Call podcast. Speaking to MRN’s Steve Post and Jimmie Johnson’s crew chief, Todd Gordon, Daniels discussed the HMS #5 team’s preparation for Chicago. When questioned by Steve Post regarding his team’s performance this season, Daniels said he mostly shares the blame for Kyle Larson’s slow season.

“Yeah, we started the year incredibly strong. We were actually looking at the statistics the other day with the team. If you just look on the sheet for our finishing position, for the first three months of the season you’d be like, ‘Man you guys are all over the place’. But of the first 18 events, at some point towards the end of the 18 events, in 14 of them, the #5 car had a shot to win.”

“That includes Daytona, Talladega, obviously wrecked out of Darlington, wrecked out of Dover, and some other races like that. But we were really strong at the beginning of the year. And then unfortunately, and I’m gonna share most of the blame on this, I’m looking at the schedule in front of me now, I guess it was Charlotte, Gateway, Sonoma, and Nashville.”

“Candidly we’ve been a little off our game to start the race for those four events. Kind of sad about that. A little disappointed about that, but on the flip side, our team and Kyle (Larson), we’ve done a great job of executing at the end of those races to have a shot,” revealed Cliff Daniels.

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The HMS #5 crew chief then spoke out about how he and his team had to constantly work on the car to dial in race-winning setup.

“Horrendous”: Kyle Larson’s Crew Chief Calls Out HMS’ Equipment

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During the podcast, Kyle Larson’s crew chief went on ranting about how he felt the #5 was a ‘32nd’ position car at Gateway before having to work on it. Revealing that the race at Sonoma was passable, as Larson was in the top 10 for most of the race, Daniels said how the #5 car fell behind again at Nashville. The crew chief then further iterated his point, revealing how the #5 car required constant adjustments before finishing in the top 5 at Nashville. 

Cliff Daniels said, “Charlotte we started out terrible, by the end of the race I think that one of the last restarts before we crashed, we were 2nd or 3rd. Gateway I genuinely think we were a 32nd Place car for the first 50 laps of that race, which is just horrendous. But then we really got to work on the car, had a couple good restarts, did a little bit of strategy, and got up front at the end. There were five restarts at the end of Gateway, and we were on the front row for four of them right, which is crazy. Sonoma was just kind of an okay day, we were top 10 car most of the day, and then Nashville, again to start the race in Nashville we fell through the field like a boat anchor, and then got to work on our car, and came out with the top five.”

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While the crew chief believes that there is still a lot of untapped potential, will Kyle Larson’s monster talent dominate in the upcoming races?