Even despite scrapping the Turn 2 wall in the second stage, Kyle Larson still swept the day on Sunday at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in leading a race-high 133 of 267 laps en route to not only winning both stages, but the South Point 400 as well.

“I think I would summarize it as an all-around good team day,” said Larson’s crew chief, Cliff Daniels after the 4th win of the 2023 season. “Contrary to some of the races we’ve had this year, I think today was about the things that actually worked out and went our way versus things that didn’t go our way.

“Certainly after Kyle had the really loose moment off of two, we did get a little bit of damage from that, and the caution came out right away, which really saved that run for us. It let us get to work on the car again later in the race when we pitted from third.

“Our pit crew did an amazing job, got us out with the lead, then Kyle did a great job at the end of the race managing tires, leading in the Next Gen car is really tough. Even (Christopher) Bell when he was out front wasn’t amazing. Bell, when he was second through fifth, was really good. A tough spot to be in. I thought Kyle did a great job managing that.

“All in all, a really solid all-around team day.”

As a result, Larson and the 5 team are now championship bound next month. 3 of the last 5 winners of the Round of 8 opener have gone on to win the title in the season finale too including Larson and Daniels back in 2021.

Despite that, Daniels cautions that 2023 is a different scenario than it was in 2021 though too.

“I don’t know that it’s a lot different just because of the new car,” he nots. “To me, just from the team exercise dynamic of things, if we say we’re just going to cruise for the next two weeks, then you’re not operating with the edge that I think you’re going to need to win it in Phoenix.

“There’s two more races to win. So now the way I see it is this. Now that we’re in the position that we’re in, we get to play those races to win, a late call, flipping a stage, if a caution comes out, whatever it may be, versus having to play the race for points. I think that’s the position it puts us in the next two weeks.

“From a team exercise, all those other guys are so good, they’re going to be pushing hard to win the next two weeks. I think we have to match that intensity so we’re going into Phoenix with the right level of intensity ourselves, get there with strength.”

Next up is Homestead. Larson is the defending race winner there. On a like track at Darlington, he just won the Southern 500 last month. Then, Martinsville closes the round. Larson was 2nd last year and won this past spring.

So you don’t want to get complacent and halt this momentum either.

In saying that, Daniels also admits that this season is arguably better than that 2021 championship winning one. Yes, Larson led 2,581 laps in a 10 win 2021 season compared to just 4 wins this year. But, he’s led 1,033 laps this season too which means he’s not too far behind still.

“I think as a team, we are significantly stronger,” he says. “Results don’t show it at all. If you look at the results chart, which I have in my office of the 5 team all year, it’s just up and down.

“But the reason that I say that it is of course we’ve had two more years to gel together, to work together. The chemistry has only gotten stronger. But also because of what we’ve been through this year where what I alluded to with the up-and-down finishes. Let’s be honest, some of those up-and-down finishes we created, both the good and the bad.

“It’s a really good team growth exercise to go through some of the tough times and learn how to communicate and lean on each other and find the core strength that you need to come out on the backside of a weekend, where maybe we screwed up or didn’t get the result that we needed. There’s just been a lot of learning and a lot of growth through that.

“I think the two years under our belt mixed with such a volatile season that we’ve had, we’ve had to learn how to play tough and be resilient. I think our team is in a very, very strong position right now.”

He’s not wrong. 2021 was their first year together. In the second year together masked a new car. This year is Year 2 of this Next Gen and one could say Larson when finishing, is among the best there is out there.

“Yeah, I mean, my faith. My faith in Jesus Christ as a person this year has had to grow a lot because of what we’ve been through,” said Daniels. “I’ve had to learn how to be humble and smart and lean on the faith to get through a lot of situations.

“I fully acknowledge that while we have complained some weekends that they haven’t gone the 5 team’s way, yesterday in practice we made it either 14 or 15 laps, and a chunk came out of our right rear tire as the tire was separating, but it never lost air and never crashed.

“That is an instant away from us going to a backup car like the 9 car unfortunately had to. It starts with yesterday of that tire not completely failing.

“Today, like I just mentioned a few moments ago, the caution kind of saved our day after we had the big moment off of two, and the adjustments we made in the car kind of helped the car throughout the day. Restarts worked out for us. Then the money stopper, we came down pit road third, came out with a lead. All of those things in my mind were a lot of blessings and went our way.

“We’re not saying that things don’t happen for a reason in the past, but we certainly had some difficult days where we’ve walked away pretty sad and dejected. The big man upstairs was certainly looking out for us this weekend.”