AVONDALE, Ariz. – “No big deal,” said crew chief Cliff Daniels after Kyle Larson brushed the wall lightly during Friday’s NASCAR Cup Series practice at Phoenix Raceway, where the series title will be decided in Sunday’s championship race (3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“We have a small paint mark, which I think happened on the straightaway,” Daniels said. “Didn’t even happen like going off a corner. That’s no big deal, thankfully.”
Larson was 11th fastest in the 50-minute Cup practice session and fourth among the Championship 4 competitors behind Ryan Blaney (third overall), Christopher Bell (fourth) and William Byron (seventh).
Daniel’s took Larson’s slight mishap with a sense of humor.
“I want to say there’s maybe been 10 times this year we’ve re-vinyled a right rear quarter panel,” Daniels said. “This is perfect. We will be re-vinyling our right rear quarter panel tomorrow morning—right in line where we need to be.”
In all seriousness, Daniels doesn’t mind Larson’s penchant for finding the limits of his race car.
“I’ve got no problem with him pushing hard again,” Daniels said. “I genuinely think this happened on the straightaway. This isn’t exactly an overstepping the edge type of situation.
“Yeah, he always pushes the car really hard, especially in practice, which is great for us, right? It lets us know what kind of speed he can extract out of it, what kind of adjustments we need to make. Today was certainly the case.”
Source: Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service
