Friday 5: Kyle Larson ready for challenge of Martinsville in his roller coaster season

It has been a dizzying season of highs and lows for Kyle Larson, his team and his fans.

So why not one more rollercoaster?

Larson enters Sunday's elimination race at Martinsville Speedway seven points below the cutline.

Consider what he's gone through this year and the playoffs:

• Larson has won a series-high six races, including the closest finish in series history, and a series-best 12 stages.
• Larson has finished 30th or worse six times.
• Larson has not had more than two consecutive top-10 finishes this season.
• Larson sought to be the first driver since 2014 to run the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 in the same day only to have rain keep him from racing at Charlotte.
• Larson lost the regular season championship by one point despite not competing in the Coca-Cola 600.
• Larson has had woes in the first race of each round of the playoffs, only to come back and win in dominating fashion the final race in the first two rounds.

"I'm proud of our team for how we've rebounded through so much adversity throughout these playoffs," Larson said this week. "I think there probably hasn't been a team that's dealt with as much as we have, I feel like, and been able to still be in the hunt to make the final four."

The highs and lows continued last weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

A tire went down early in the race and sent his car into the wall. He rallied and was challenging for the lead late in the event when he spun. He finished 13th.

Larson said he was proud of how he stayed in the race mentally after the tire issue in the first stage.

"I feel like I took a 25th-place car and, with the help of my team and pit stops and some adjustments, was able to get back to having a great opportunity to win," Larson said. "I was happy with all that because I still feel we finished better than we should have."

Crew chief Cliff Daniels says he's "almost thankful for some of the highs and some of the lows (this season) because it's really battled tested our team. I've had to learn a lot as a leader of the team and the maturity of handling both sides of the coin and keeping our team together and connected and our faith and trust in each other in our process.

"That matters so much when you're battling for wins and you wreck out of an opportunity for a win. That's very disheartening and then you come back the next week and you dominate. It's easy to get almost too caught up in the emotional roller coaster of that and the human nature that is natural for what that could be and stay more focused on just the operation of the team, the process of the team and keeping the team connected.

"That's how we've learned to navigate through the journey. Win, lose or draw over the next two weeks, I think that is a very valuable principle that we're going to learn and carry with us moving forward."

Larson says that even though he's below the cutline, he doesn't feel as much pressure as he did last year when he entered the Round of 12 cutoff race at the Charlotte Roval 15 points above the cutline.

"I remember feeling a lot of pressure … when I've only been plus 15," he said. "You're not wanting to give up that gap, where now, I think, when you're below it could be a little less pressure because you're on constant push mode, maybe. … I look forward to the challenge. It will be fun to see what we can do."

2. Seeking another Champ 4 appearance

Crew chief Adam Stevens seeks to return to the Championship 4 for an eighth time this weekend.

Stevens won two championships and made five consecutive Champ 4 appearances with Kyle Busch. Stevens has made it to the title race the past two seasons with Christopher Bell, who enters Sunday's race 29 points above the cutline.

If Bell reaches the title race for a third year in a row, it will give Stevens eight championship race appearances in 10 years.

"The first goal when we sit down in the offseason is to win the championship," Stevens said. "Everything else feeds into that goal."

Stevens and Bell were paired in 2021, Bell's second full season in Cup. It came after Stevens had spent six seasons with Busch and won 28 races together.

"They're both elite, elite race car drivers with immense God-given talent," Stevens said of Busch and Bell. "They express their frustrations in different ways, but we don't we all? So, there's a lot of differences but a striking amount of similarities."

Since being paired, Bell and Stevens have won nine races, including at Phoenix in March and the Coca-Cola 600 in May.

3. Can two tires work again?

With NASCAR bringing a different set of tires intended to wear more this weekend to Martinsville, it raises the question of if a two-tire strategy will still work there.

In the spring race, Joey Logano took two tires after the first stage, putting him in the lead. He led most of the second stage before finishing fifth. That was still a gain over where he had run in the first stage.

Also in that race, Ryan Blaney had to pit a second time after the end of the first stage, dropping him from 12th to 26th. He only made it to 20th by the end of the second stage. The team changed only two tires when they stopped after the end of the second stage. That allowed him to pass many who changed four tires. He restarted eighth and used the track position to finish the race fifth.

"In the spring, I felt like I was pretty good, but I just got stuck where I was running and couldn't pass anybody," Blaney said. "So it was like, 'Alright, let's just throw two (tires on) and see what it does,' and we were able to hold on and that set us up for the end of the race."

The right-side tires this weekend at Martinsville are the option tires that were run at the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro and at Richmond in August. The left-side tires feature a new compound. The combination is intended to create more tire wear.

As the sport seeks tires that wear more, will the option of using two tires in some instances to gain track position no longer become viable for crew chiefs?

"As the tires change, you know you're going to have to continue to be creative to find ways, maybe, to get track position or to get performance that you hadn't found before," said Jonathan Hassler, crew chief for Blaney. "We're just going to have to continue to leave no stone left unturned to make sure we're up front at the end of the race."

Teams will have an extended practice session Saturday to get some extra time with the new tires. Teams will have 45 minutes instead of their typical 20 minutes of practice this weekend.

4. Big change

23XI Racing's announcement this week that Charles Denike will move from the Truck Series to be Bubba Wallace's crew chief next year marks one of the few times in recent years that a new crew chief has not had previous Cup experience.

Rudy Fugle can relate. He went from the Truck Series to be William Byron's crew chief in Cup in 2021. Byron reached the Championship 4 for the first time last year and holds the final transfer spot for the title race entering Sunday's event at Martinsville Speedway.

Fugle understands the transition of going from the Truck Series to Cup and having more resources and people to work with.

"Definitely, it's an adjustment," Fugle said. "It's about managing and managing people. It's really creating the culture in the team to be able to create speed and make decisions.

"When you're used to doing things on your own, sometimes you micromanage or you try to do things too much on your own. So that's definitely an adjustment that you have to be able to use all those people the right way.

"If you under-use people or misuse people, then they don't feel like they're being appreciated. So, if you can (manage people) well, then you're going to get the most out of your people and you're going to be successful. So definitely a different challenge, but team leaders are team leaders and I expect (Denike) to do well."

5. Numbers to know

2 — Times in the last four years that the driver who won the final race in the Round of 8 at Martinsville went on to win the championship the following week: Ryan Blaney in 2023 and Chase Elliott in 2020.

4 — Consecutive Martinsville races have been won by a driver starting outside the top 10. That is tied for the longest streak at the track.

5 — Consecutive Martinsville races won by current Round of 8 playoff drivers who have yet to secure a spot in this year's championship race: William Byron (April 2024), Ryan Blaney (October 2023), Kyle Larson (April 2023), Christopher Bell (October 2022) and Byron (April 2022).

6 — Cup races this season have ended with the winning pass made on the last lap, the most in any season.

10 — Consecutive top-10 finishes at Martinsville by Joey Logano.