How Hendrick Motorsports hijacked potential Team Penske hiring for Kyle Larson’s team

Tyler Monn, the current spotter of Kyle Larson, recently revealed how Hendrick Motorsports signed him. The spotter recalled the series of events that took place in less than a week in which he went from being on the verge of joining Team Penske, to joining HMS.

In an interview with Davey Segal, Monn claimed that before the start of the 2021 season, he thought he'd be going back to Rick Ware Racing. But then he got a call from Jefferson Hodges, the team manager of Team Penske, on a Monday.

"It was just Austin Cindric was going to run 8 races or so, so he talked to me a little bit and I was going to do Austin Cindric in the Cup car and fill in and maybe do some IndyCar stuff and just be at Penske full time and work with him," he recalled.

That was on a Monday that he got that call. On Tuesday, while everything sounded right and he was going to be hired by Penske, Monn got another call.

This time from Cliff Daniels, the crew chief of Kyle Larson.

"He said, 'Hey, the #5's open and we're interested in you.' And I was straight up honest with him and I told him, 'If I got an offer at Penske, how long can you wait? How long can you make it happen?'" the spotter said.

Daniels asked for time till Thursday and on Thursday, Monn called Hodges and told him that Hendrick's calling him about spotting for Kyle Larson.

Interestingly, the reaction of the Penske manager was "super laid back and cool." Hodges suggested to Monn that if he's been given an opportunity by HMS, he better "take it and run."

Tyler Monn is living his dream spotting for Kyle Larson at Hendrick Motorsports

During the same interview with Segal, Tyler Monn revealed how his time at Hendrick has been so far and what he feels about it.

Since he's been hired, Monn claimed he has tried to give his best and wants people to look at him as someone who works hard to win and be competitive. He mentioned that spotting for the #5 car is something he "always dreamed about."

"I love what I do and I'm super excited that I get to do it every single week," Monn added.

It's also worth mentioning that Tyler Monn did end up going to IndyCar, something Team Penske mentioned in their offer when they approached him before he joined HMS.

Monn was announced as the spotter for Kyle Larson's Double run, which would've meant he spotted for the 2021 Cup champion, not just in the Indy 500 but also in the Coca Cola 600.

But that's not how it all turned out, as Larson's hopes of running in the Coke 600 were washed out by the rain.