Cliff Daniels pulled out a familiar phrase this week ahead of the final race in the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs and then grinned when called on it.
Daniels, the crew chief on the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for Kyle Larson, was participating in a media availability when expressing that his team has been battle-tested in the postseason. It’s the exact phrase and feeling Daniels used one year ago in the same media availability.
“Welcome to life on the No. 5 team,” Daniels replied when told of the déjà vu. “Anybody who watches the highlight reel of the No. 5 team since we’ve been this incarnation of the team, that’s just kind of who we are.”
There is no exaggeration or dramatics when it comes to Daniels. One of the most straightforward and controlled crew chiefs in the Cup Series garage, he can dig into the minute details about his race team and how they stack up in the bigger picture.
Regarding this year’s postseason run, Larson and Daniels have indeed been battled tested and will be again Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. The group is in a seven-point deficit to begin the elimination race after finishing 11th in Las Vegas, suffering damage early in the race and a later pit road miscue, and then a 13th place finish at Homestead-Miami after a tire puncture and separate solo spin.
But the tale of the tape goes back deeper.
Larson crashed in the first race of the playoffs at Atlanta but won the last race of the first round in dominating fashion at Bristol. Then came a tire issue in Kansas and another strong victory when closing out the second round at the Charlotte Roval.
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“It’s kind of been what our identity has become,” Daniels said about riding the highs and lows. “Eventually you get enough seat time experiencing those things that I can think of races two, three, four years ago that I rode the highs and the lows too much as the leader of the team and on down the line of all of our teammates and everybody as part of the team, probably Kyle included. Now we know that, hey, there’s going to be races that we’re just flat out going to wreck or have something crazy happen from the lead or when we’re in contention. Don’t get too low in those moments.”
“Then you have races like Bristol and the Roval where afterward everybody talks about how dominating the day was. For us, we don’t walk away beating our chest saying, ‘Wow, we just dominated that race.’ OK, we did our job that day, and now we know going into the next week, it could all flip-flop on its head again.”
The journey, as Daniel also described it, provides maturing and growth opportunities for the team. He can also appreciate those moments more than ever before because he believes it’s made the group tougher and more resilient.
“Who knows what the outcome of all of this will be, but I think our commitment to our process and each other outweighs anything [else],” Daniels said. “That’s what our priority is — being true to ourselves and the process and the outcome is what it is.”
Larson praised his team this weekend for the perseverance they’ve shown to be in the hunt to advance. The 2021 series champion doesn’t believe there is a team that is still left in the round that’s gone through more.
The No. 5 team’s recent track record speaks for itself, too — they won at Martinsville Speedway in the spring of 2023 and finished second at the track earlier this year.