Cliff Daniels: Kyle Larson, No. 5 crew ‘significantly stronger’ than ’21 title team
No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Cliff Daniels explains why his driver and team have only grown stronger over the past two years since claiming the 2021 crown.
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00:00 Hey, Cliff.
00:00 Adam Carabine from racingrefresh.com.
00:03 How do you compare where your team is at this year
00:06 compared to where you were at this stage a couple of years
00:10 ago when you won the championship?
00:11 I think as a team, we are significantly stronger.
00:16 Results don't show it at all.
00:17 And if you look at the results chart,
00:19 which I have in my office of the five team all year,
00:21 it's just up and down.
00:24 But the reason that I say that is, of course,
00:26 we've had two more years to gel together, to work together.
00:28 The chemistry has only gotten stronger.
00:31 But also because of what we've been through this year,
00:34 where what I alluded to with the up and down finishes,
00:38 let's be honest, some of those up and down finishes we created,
00:41 both the good and the bad.
00:42 So it's a really good team growth exercise
00:47 to go through some of the tough times
00:49 and learn how to communicate and lean on each other
00:53 and find the core strength that you
00:57 need to come out on the backside of a weekend
01:00 where maybe we screwed up or didn't get the result
01:03 that we needed.
01:04 And there's just been a lot of learning and a lot of growth
01:06 through that.
01:07 And so I think the two years under our belt,
01:09 mixed with such a volatile season that we've had,
01:13 we've had to learn how to play tough and be resilient.
01:17 I think our team is in a very, very strong position right now.