DARLINGTON, S.C. — Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Cliff Daniels has been down this pit-or-don‘t-pit road more times than he can count. It‘s often the most important call that can be made from the pit box, with computer crunching often taking a back seat to knowledge gained over years of being at the point of decision.
As the Cook Out Southern 500‘s closing laps loomed Sunday night and Daniels‘ driver, Kyle Larson, held both the lead and the baggage associated with a 50-race winless streak, Daniels again had the choice. With 27 laps to go, he decided to leave Larson on the track, knowing several other victory challengers — notably the fast Toyotas of Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs — probably would pit for tires.
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On a Darlington Raceway surface known for eating tires, Larson held off the charge of ultimate winner Bell for a dozen laps before dropping back to fifth at the finish.
Was the gamble worth it?
“If you look historically, there‘s been that move made several times with only 20 or so laps to go,” Daniels said. “So, with this new package, I had a feeling it would be a little tougher than with the big downforce package where it‘s a little easier to aero-block. With this, you don‘t quite have that element playing that heavily.
“I felt like our best option to try to beat the Toyotas was to go ahead and start ahead of them. And Kyle did a great job. He held them off for 10 or 12 laps. Otherwise, if we pit with them and we line up fourth, you‘re going to have a hard time winning from fourth. It just made sense to be up front. So we gave ourselves a shot to win after we had a big hole to dig out of from early in the day.
“Either you‘re going to fight with them and come out fourth or fifth or stay out and keep the lead,” Daniels said. “To put ourselves on the front row and be in front of the Toyotas, we figure that kind of makes sense.”
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Larson, who led a race-high 99 laps, stayed seventh in the Chase standings and gained six points on leader Denny Hamlin, who had a long night, finishing 18th.
Larson said he agreed with the decision to stay on track and keep the lead.
“I thought more would stay out and give me a better shot,” he said. “Then I saw those guys lined up on the third row. I thought having an extra row or two would help me. I thought just jamming up the field for a couple laps would allow me to kind of take care of my tires for just a bit, knowing that they would catch me. I was surprised to actually hold them off as long as I did. I mean, it was a risk but worth it.”
Larson hasn‘t won since a victory at Kansas Speedway in May last year.