“That was not my call”: Kyle Larson’s crew chief reveals the championship-winning decision that sealed their second NASCAR crown

Cliff Daniels shared his thoughts on the key pit-stop strategy that delivered Kyle Larson his second NASCAR Cup Series championship at Phoenix. The No. 5 crew chief publicly credited his team's engineers for the bold two-tire call, which proved instrumental in gaining the track position needed to defeat the dominant Denny Hamlin.

Larson, the Hendrick Motorsports driver, became a multi-time NASCAR champion and brought home the Rick Hendrick-owned organization's 15th Cup Series title without leading a single lap in the final race.

While Larson's Chevy wasn't the fastest compared to Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota, the unwanted caution due to William Byron's tire failure gave Larson and Daniels a shot to make a gutsy call with two laps to go. This helped Larson finish a couple of spots ahead of Hamlin at P3.

Speaking to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, crew chief Daniels said:

"So the first thing I want to say, Cal Stewart's been a race engineer on the #5 team for a long time. He's been my lead engineer for the last couple years. Brian Ross, he's been an engineer with us for a little while. Shelton Ware, Nathan would be, those guys were talking to me as we were just working through things and understanding strategy and where we were." "I was very much on the fence the first time that we were going to take rights [two right side tires]. And I'm going to 100 % give those guys the credit. That was not my call. Those guys said, 'Hey man, we need, we have to do something different,'" added Cliff Daniels.

Denny Hamlin, who dominated qualifying and the main event with the fastest car in the entire field, ultimately saw his bid for a maiden Cup Series championship foiled by one critical pit call of taking four tires instead of two.

Meanwhile, the 33-year-old Kyle Larson, who had a very tipsy-torvy year, proved why resilience and to mindset to never quit became a major turning point in the NASCAR championship race.

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"I wasn't expecting": Kyle Larson's boss Rick Hendrick reflects on the driver's second NASCAR championship

Kyle Larson and Rick Hendrick - NASCAR Cup Series Championship - Source: Getty

Out of the 4 Championship contenders, Denny Hamlin and William Byron were the only ones who led a race and showed speed at Phoenix Raceway. However, a late-race tire failure for Byron blew his chances and accidentally became a catalyst in helping Kyle Larson win his second NASCAR title.

Reflecting on the same, HMS boss Rick Hendrick said (via SiriusXM NASCAR Radio):

"They never give up and work hard together. It was an unbelievable day, and this is probably the most nerve-wrecking race in being a Championship with ups and downs and blown tires." "I don't think I've ever been excited in all 15 as I was cause I wasn't expecting, I thought it was over and then all of a sudden, here we were and man I think I was going nuts," added Hendrick.

On the other hand, Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney showed their unprecedented dominance at Phoenix, Arizona, by taking the win and ending the year strong.

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Edited by Sashwat Deo