Cliff Daniels gives surprising take on Kyle Larson chances to win Brickyard 400 without late cautions

On the latest episode of the Dale Jr. Download, Kyle Larson’s crew chief Cliff Daniels joined Dale Earnhardt Jr. to discuss the No. 5 team’s Brickyard 400 victory.

While the No. 5 was the fastest car on the track for much of the final stage, Larson was the beneficiary of some late-race cautions that propelled him to victory. That was something Earnhardt Jr. wanted to touch on with Daniels, during his appearance on the NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee’s show.

“As the race was playing out, it looked like, even though you know, [Ryan] Blaney was relatively quick, you guys, you know we’re able to be more aggressive because of your situation with fuel, some of the cars we’re trying to save to make it to the end, Blaney one of them,” Earnhardt Jr. prefaced. “I don’t know, I mean, where was your confidence level, that you could just drive up there without the yellows and take this lead and win this race?”

Evidently, Daniels believes the late cautions directly contributed to their Brickyard 400 win, and without them, the No. 5 would’ve been in danger.

“One out of 10. Just being honest,” Daniels said, regarding his confidence level in winning the race without the cautions. “I think we, and maybe I’ll just speak for myself, I think I underestimated how much those guys were going to have to save fuel, you know, knowing that they were going to be more than just a lap short.

“One thing that I thought was really interesting, and I’m sure you saw this play out, when they were all saving fuel, they were keeping their gaps to the cars around them pretty tight, which almost allowed for this little bit of accordion effect, and the accordion is what helps Kyle do such a good job of building runs. Of course, at the time, we had fresh tires, we had the fuel, so we didn’t need to take anything into consideration, as far as our level of aggression. And so, when guys that were saving fuel were blocking us, like they should, in doing that, they were actually further tightening the gaps, you know, to the cars around them, which would create more of an accordion, and it just kept giving us a window. You know, like Kyle described it, to kind of throw some bombs on entry, and get spotters to call out the spot for us.

“So, that was really interesting to me, and we had to make a couple adjustments to our car leading up to that point, so it could turn good enough in traffic. The NextGen car, you know, typically the aero effects, somebody gets really tight in traffic. So, I was glad we had a good enough adjustment in the car, that Kyle can really kind of arc out and turn to build a run, and it was pretty wild to see the way he got through there so quickly.”

Alas, it all worked out in Kyle Larson and Cliff Daniels’ favor in Indianapolis, and the No. 5 team was able to kiss the bricks last weekend. That’s a memory they’ll have for the rest of their lives, and they can thank some timely yellow flags for helping them get the win.