Kyle Larson’s crew chief admits they failed to meet the expectations in 2023, asserts it wasn’t due to ‘a lack of effort’
Kyle Larson had a strong 2023 season but failed to match Ryan Blaney in the season finale.
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Kyle Larson and Cliff Daniels (Via IMAGO)
The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season finale witnessed two Hendrick Motorsports drivers, Kyle Larson and Willaim Byron, going in all out to chase down Team Penske Racing’s Ryan Blaney, who took home the title. It was the second straight time in the Next-Gen era that Penske car has taken the title from HMS, as in 2022, Joey Logano won the Cup with Chase Elliott in the Champinoship-4.
Kyle Larson was the driver who came close to winning the title from the team after yet another impressive year. If he could take the lead on the final restart, he could win the race and title, as Ross Chastain could’ve held the pack behind him. Cliff Daniels, the crew chief of Larson, has opened up about the team’s failure to meet expectations.
He admitted that they failed to get to the pre-determined goals but added that their lack of effort didn’t have anything to do with it. He confirmed that HMS did everything possible for the day, but the No:12 team did a better job at prepping the car, and that led to Ford drivers sweeping the driver’s championships in all three surprises.
"We did not meet our expectations for what our goals were. It certainly wasn’t for a lack of effort from the team and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. A lot of prep went into the weekend. A lot of prep went into the race car, and we just got beat. As disappointing as that is, we got beat by a car that turned a little bit better than ours and did a few things just a little bit better than ours.Daniels said a report by HendrickMotorsports.com.
There are many wins and good races ahead of the No:5 Chevy team
Larson had been a consistent front-runner in the 2023 season and, with four race wins, proved his prowess once again after a disappointing 2022 title defense. He scored 18 top-10s this year, with 15 of them being top-5. Larson led 1127 laps and had an average finish of 14.6.
Daniel, inspired by this success, is confident that the team will have a lot more success to accomplish in the coming years. The team will focus on a significant review of the year in the 2023 post-season and will plot plans to make a comeback.
We’re taking the opportunity to reflect on the race, our season and make the notes that we need to make to learn all the things that we need to do just to get better. That will be our focus this offseason. A lot of strength in our team. A lot of good years and a lot of good races ahead of us. We’ll take this in stride and keep moving.
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Justin P Joy
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