Friday 5: Kyle Larson, crew chief Cliff Daniels defend Bristol race and Goodyear

Each of the last three Cup races at Kansas Speedway has had a lead change within the final two laps, including May's thriller that saw Kyle Larson beat Chris Buescher in the closest finish in series history.

As NASCAR returns to this 1.5-mile track, the talk this week hasn't been as much about the beginning of the second round of the Cup playoffs but the type of racing that took place last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway and declarations about the future of racing on short tracks.

Amid sharp criticism of last Saturday's Bristol race, Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels have been outspoken this week, stating that expectations were unrealistic for the event they dominated.

Expectations were raised when Goodyear brought the same tire for last weekend's event at Bristol that was used in the spring race. That race featured excessive tire wear and 54 lead changes — the most in Cup history on a short track. The unexpected chaos turned the spring race upside down.

It was not repeated last weekend.

Larson led 462 of 500 laps in a race that had eight lead changes and no excessive tire wear. The race was more like the previous year's night race (10 lead changes) than the spring race.

Larson tried to curtail any frustrations with the event at the end of his press conference late Saturday night, but it was mostly overlooked.

"I know you guys probably think that the race in the spring was better, but as a driver, I would way rather run 100 percent all night long for 500 laps than run 50 percent," Larson said. "I don't think that's much of a race. I grew up racing different stuff where you do push the whole race, but I think that version of Bristol is way more exciting."

Larson followed up on Tuesday with a lengthy social media post, reminding fans of the challenges of Bristol.

"Bristol's ALWAYS been tough to pass," Larson wrote. "Speed on pit road and most likely there's a good chance you're going a lap down on the next run. That's the way it is and has been for a very long time.

"We had more natural cautions from wrecks because cars could run closer and we never quite made it a full fuel run because eventually someone's (right front) tire would explode from overheating.

"I'm not saying I want tires to explode again but we're trying to crutch this race car on short tracks with the tire and then blame Goodyear every week cause cars can't pass.

"I don't have the answer to fix what we currently have and neither do you but please stop blaming Goodyear. It's not a tire problem. … Temper your expectations. We're driving spec race cars."

Daniels said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio this week that he was not surprised that last weekend's race didn't have the same tire wear as the spring race. He noted that the temperature for the race was similar to last year's night race. Both of those were around 10 degrees more than the temperature during the spring race.

"I'm just so surprised at everyone in the industry completely ignoring the fall race," Daniels said. " … There were very long green-flag runs, a lot of side-by-side racing. It was a pretty genuine Bristol night race. That's how I would categorize this one.

"I'm just very surprised that people are unwilling to look at the fall race in comparison with this fall race. Everyone wants to go back to the spring race. The spring race had the element of surprise, sure. It had the big tire wear and big tire fall-off. … The spring race is the anomaly."

When asked on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio if Goodyear was going in the right direction with the tire, Daniels turned his comments to the Next Gen car, which debuted in 2022.

"Part of the point of the Next Gen era was to provide all of the owners and all the teams with the same car platform, and we're getting closer and closer to spec racing," Daniels said. "Really, it is. With that in mind, I just wonder what are our expectations as a sport and as an industry and why does all of the heat just have to be on Goodyear right now.

"The competition is as close as ever. If you look at the qualifying lap time sheets in Bristol, the field is separated by almost nothing. So what is the expectation if the field is separated by almost no margin? How do you pass?

"Yes, that's a combination of all the things and tires are a factor in that, but I just don't know that we're going to stall what is an overall, overarching philosophy of having cars that are, you know, it's the same chassis, it's the same body, it's the same everything. You have teams, yes, we can adjust shocks and springs and sway bar and have our own pit crews and have our own drivers, but, there's just no margin between the cars.

"I just don't know that we're going to create this world of a lot of passing and a good race. Look, let's be honest with ourselves, the Bristol race, everyone wants to say was so amazing in the spring because of the tire coming apart.

"Well, no. It was the tire coming apart that created chaos. It wasn't a good race. The chaos was fun for the moment, but that's not sustainable. That type of chaos is not what our sport needs on a weekly basis. We don't need chaos and calamity.

"We need good pure racing. To me when I look at the Bristol night race that we just had, even guys we were racing, maybe trying to put them a lap down, they were fighting so hard and we would be side-by-side with guys for 20 laps because they're fighting for their spot in the playoffs. So, they're fighting for their team and their position. And of course, we have our own race going on.

"That makes for a really good race. There were multiple lanes, high, low, middle, on the bottom. To me, that's a really good expectation for a good race of this car where there's just not much margin in the car. To walk away and say that Goodyear needs to give us something that's just going to create pure chaos, as a competitor, I couldn't disagree more."

2. Extra special helmet

For much of the last decade, Justin Allgaier's helmet for the playoffs has been designed by his daughter Harper.

This year's helmet, though, is extra special. Harper, 11, got help from 3-year-old sister Willow.

"What's really cool about this one is, Harper, this has been kind of her thing," Allgaier said. "She started when she was three, same as my youngest daughter Willow. And I really expected there to be this big divide. That Harper would not want Willow to be a part of it. This was kind of Harper's thing and she'd want to separate the two of them. And she was all about getting Willow to paint on this one this year."

A special element on Allgaier's helmet this year is a horseshoe. It has a deep family connection.

"My grandfather, my dad's dad, Grandpa Bud, he always carried a horseshoe in his pocket," Allgaier said. "He would carry my autograph cards. He would have me sign a handful of autograph cards even as a younger kid and he would carry them in his back pocket. He never met a stranger. If he was at a restaurant, if he was at a race, wherever he was at, he would pull those autograph cards out and he would give those to whoever he was sitting near and try to make as many Justin Allgaier fans as he possibly could.

"We've talked about the horseshoe. When my grandfather passed away, we actually did kind of a little memorial sticker for my grandfather and it was literally that horseshoe, and I ran that on all my race cars. … (Harper) knows my relationship with my grandfather, how much he meant to me and my racing career and how much I miss him.

"That was her kind of her piece for me this year. She wanted to bring back some of that memory and know that he'd be proud of what we were accomplishing. So to have that and to see that on a helmet really makes it special."

Allgaier, who seeks his first Xfinity championship, enters the playoffs this weekend at Kansas as the points leader. He has reached the championship race four of the last five years.

3. What if …

The return to Kansas Speedway brings back memories of that fantastic finish between Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher in May that saw Larson win by .001 seconds.

For Buescher, the memory features all sorts of questions of what he could have done differently.

"I think about 100 different things that could have created a thousandth of a second," Buescher said recently. "Trust me, that one has been replayed a lot and will continue to be no matter what."

What would he do differently?

"It's line decisions, knowing that if you would have gotten back to the throttle three inches earlier that it probably makes the difference," he said. "That's an incredibly small number as well.

"I just think about all that. Being ready for the contact down the front straightaway. If I would have been more prepared for that, I wouldn't have been caught off-guard and been sideways scrubbing speed out of it. A lot of different things in that moment that we'll be more prepared for that next go-around."

4. Big test for Team Penske

Sunday's playoff race at Kansas (3 p.m. ET on USA Network) begins a five-week stretch that features three races on 1.5-mile tracks.

Discounting Atlanta — due to the speedway style of racing at that track — the series hasn't run on a 1.5-mile track since the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend. Four of the first 14 points races were at such tracks.

Team Penske — which has won the past two Cup titles — had only two top-10 finishes in those four races earlier in the season. Both of those top 10s came at Las Vegas in March when Ryan Blaney was third and Joey Logano was ninth.

Some of the issues can be tied to Ford teams getting used to the new car. It wasn't until May that a Ford won a points race.

"I think whatever progress we've made and whatever we've learned throughout the year, yeah, I wouldn't necessarily say it was a strength to start the year for us, but certainly a lot learned since then," Austin Cindric said this week.

The organization has shown progress on bigger tracks throughout the season. Blaney won at Pocono, a 2.5-mile track, in July, while Logano was fifth. The following weekend, Blaney was third at Indianapolis, a 2.5-mile track, and Cindric was seventh. While not the same size, downforce and horsepower matter at those tracks, as they do at 1.5-mile tracks.

Logano enters Kansas holding the final transfer spot. Cindric is the first driver below the cutline. He's four points behind Logano. Blaney is 11 points ahead of Cindric.

5. Numbers to know

2 — Of the last 3 Kansas Cup races had a last-lap pass for the lead.

4 — Cup wins at Kansas by Denny Hamlin, most all-time.

7 — Of the last 10 Cup races at Kansas have been won by a Toyota team.

9 — Of the 12 remaining playoff drivers are from either Hendrick Motorsports, Team Penske or Joe Gibbs Racing.

36 — Percent of drivers outside a transfer spot entering the second round since 2017 who moved on to the next round. Austin Cindric (-4 points), Daniel Suarez (-6), Alex Bowman (-7) and Chase Briscoe (-7) enter this round below the cutline.

41 — Stage points by Alex Bowman, the most scored in the first round of the playoffs.