Inside Kyle Larson's Martinsville dilemma as Cliff Daniels weighs risky late-stage call against Christopher Bell

Kyle Larson's crew chief, Cliff Daniels, shared his thoughts about the Hendrick Motorsports drivers' risky late-stage call against Christopher Bell, his nearest competitor in the Championship 4. Speaking to the media, Daniels stated that his driver will do his best to qualify in the last round and make the right decisions at the right moment.

Both Larson and Bell are the favorites to go through to the final round of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Championship. However, a win by one of the four drivers under the playoff cutline will take away the opportunity from one of them.

As Daniels and Larson will try to avoid such a situation, they are all set to make the most of it. Larson, who starts from third place, will start with an advantage over Bell. However, prior to the race, here's what Daniels told the media about Larson's race preparation at Martinsville:

"We've looked at that from both different angles of what would it look like to do that and what would it look like not to do that and you know ultimately, I think there is a scenario where is and Bell would probably end up being very similar to each other on what they found look like unless there was some big disparity in our running positions." "I think that almost dictated in the moment if we're really close on track, we may end up matching each other and then if we're not then either of us could end up doing something different. So we've looked at it both ways and ultimately we got to make the right decision in a moment," he further added.

Besides Larson and Bell, William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, and Chase Elliott are other contenders for the Championship 4 berth. Byron, who started the race from pole position, is one of the strongest contenders.

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Christopher Bell shared his concern against Kyle Larson

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell let his feelings known against Kyle Larson. Bell, speaking about how he looked forward to his tussle with the Hendrick Motorsports driver, told the media:

NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Larson - Source: Imagn

"Yeah I think. He's obviously been pretty good at Martinsville. The Hendrick cars have been really good at Martinsville in the past. So yeah just going to have to be good there, and it's going to be wild Bob, it's going to be wild."

Before the race, Kyle Larson was in third place in the playoff standings with +37 points to his name, followed by +36 points of Bell. William Byron is in fifth place with -36, and Joey Logano is in sixth place with -38 points. Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott are at the end with -47 and -62 points in the cutline.

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Edited by Sabyasachi Biswas