Kyle Larson’s crew chief reveals what made him change his “four-tire stop” decision

Kyle Larson's crew chief, Cliff Daniels unraveled how he directed the crew to have a four-tire stop for his driver at the season-ending Championship 4 race at the Phoenix Raceway. Speaking to the media after the race, Daniels credited a group of engineers who pushed him to go for the strategy, which turned out to be a fruitful one.

After qualifying for the final round of the season at Martinsville, Larson was in contention for the title for the third time in five years. He was contesting against his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, William Byron, and Joe Gibbs Racing stars Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe.

As the race started, he was far from being a favorite given how strong Hamlin looked that particular day. However, a caution late into the race (in the final stage) changed everything for the drivers. Hamlin, who was leading the race with two laps to go, had to fall back as the grid got closer.

Taking advantage of the restart, Blaney took the lead, while Hamlin fell back. Meanwhile, Larson, with a superior tire advantage, got the better of the #11 driver and finished the race in third place, way ahead of Hamlin.

As the #5 driver was able to finish ahead of Hamlin, he claimed his second title of his career in the NASCAR Cup Series. Thanks to a brilliant pit stop strategy, Cliff Daniels and his team helped the #5 driver stay shared till he crossed the finish line.

"So something that I want to acknowledge, and I think these guys deserve a lot of credit," Daniels said ASAP Sports. "There's a group of engineers, that one is here at the track, we have some others in the war room and on an intercom with me. Cal Stewart, Brian Ross, Shelton Ware, Nathan Woodby [phonetics], kind of a team of guys that were on the intercom with me talking throughout the day. I'm going to give those guys the first bit of credit." "I can't remember what place we were in at the time when the first caution came out that we took rights. They pushed me. Almost a no-brainer to do something different. I wanted to have a really fast, efficient, four-tire stop, gain a couple. We were going to restart probably in the top eight. That wasn't going to be enough. Those guys are like, Hey, man, think about doing something different here," he further added.

Ryan Blaney of Team Penske won the race as he finished ahead of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing's Brad Keselowski. Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, and Kyle Larson finished within the Top five.

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Kyle Larson let his feelings known after winning at Phoenix

Following his Championship win at the Phoenix Raceway, Kyle Larson shared his thoughts. Speaking to the media after the race, here's what the Hendrick Motorsports star said:

Kyle Larson (5) and crew pose for photos following his championship victory of the Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway - Source: Imagn

"I mean, really, I'm just speechless. I can't believe it. We had an average car at best. We had the right front go down, lost a lap. Got saved by the caution. Did the wave-around. Was really bad that run. We took two tires. I was like, Oh, God, here we go. We're going to go to the back now."

Thanks to his P3, Larson won the title as Hamlin came home in P6. Chase Briscoe, and William Byron, other Championship contenders, have finished in 18th and 33rd places, respectively.

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Edited by Sabyasachi Biswas