MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Cliff Daniels is aware of the chatter about his team's struggles in middle of the season. And while he did not particularly enjoy being the center of these conversations, he appreciates the character building his team had to do to get back into championship contention.
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Now, they are only one race away from reaching the Championship 4 for the third time since Kyle Larson took over the No. 5 Chevrolet. They just need a solid afternoon at Martinsville Speedway, something they are quite capable of delivering.
"I would argue we are as strong or stronger now than we have ever been," Daniels told media members on Saturday morning at Martinsville Speedway. "And it's a very simple cliche statement, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
"And we've been through a lot of ups and downs this year, again, on the racing side and then just behind the scenes where a lot of that has shown us our own weaknesses, which is great.
"And sometimes in life you need to be shown that so you can find ways to build back and show resilience and to be stronger, to have a little bit of grace and humility along the way, which we've certainly built into how we operate as a team."
Larson and the No. 5 team came out of the gate strong this season. They scored three wins in the first 12 weeks of the season, as well as top-three finishes at EchoPark Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.
Once Memorial Day weekend arrived, however, the season took a turn. Larson crashed in the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 while attempting to complete The Double. He had on-track issues in Mexico City and at Sonoma Raceway, Watkins Glen International, and Iowa Speedway.
"Mexico, we had a great qualifying effort," he said. "We had a really strong car and we get taken out in the rain on Lap 2. And I can think of a few other examples where our day just never really had a chance to materialize and we were kind of playing from our heels.
"So I don't know that we ever felt nearly as weak as maybe what the storyline would suggest. But certainly we knew that we had ground to cover and we were balancing a lot of challenges outside of racing, in addition to traveling, the fact that we weren't getting the finishes and we were hemorrhaging some points and weren't where we needed to be."
As Daniels explained, the team experimenting with some things during the season played a role in this "slump." They found some things that worked, as well as many others that didn't. Sometimes, they just didn't have the speed they needed.
The reasons for the lack of wins varied throughout the summer, but ultimately, they mattered less to Daniels than how he and his team responded. What he saw is that they rose to the occasion.
They didn't get disheartened. They had tough conversations, they figured out the best path forward, and they put themselves in position to challenge for the championship.
They also took part in some team-bonding, which included reading some books. Daniels learned from Ray Evernham and Chad Knaus the importance of building up a team culture and chemistry. This strategy helped the team pursue this goal.
"We read three books together as a 5 team over the course of this summer," Daniels said. "'Extreme Ownership' by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. We read 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu, and we read 'Acres of Diamonds by Russell Conwell.'
"Did that collectively as a team, shop crew, road crew, pit crew, Kyle, Tyler (Monn), our spotter, everyone all in, and that was a lot of fun to do."
Will this character-building year end with Daniels, Larson, and the No. 5 team celebrating their second championship together? The veteran crew chief does not have this answer.
What he knows is that his group is stronger and better built for any challenges that may arise in the coming years. This will only lead to sustained success.
Of course, the focus right now is just surviving Martinsville and getting back to Phoenix to compete for a championship.
"So it's been — when I look at it now — it's been very challenging, but it's also been very fun to see it holistically as we've moved along," Daniels said.
"Some individual situations weren't fun at the time, but with the growth mindset, there's always ways to improve, there's always things to learn, and that's been on our mind really for the whole season."
