Kyle Larson's crew chief critiques Bristol tire drama - "Chaos is not what our sport needs"

Kyle Larson's crew chief Cliff Daniels has given his opinion on the fallout from the Bass Pro Shops Night Race. He has claimed that the spring race during the regular season was not good because of the tire drama, and the lack of reliable tires created "chaos."

The Bristol race ended with a dominant performance from the #5 Chevrolet who led for 462 of the 500 laps. While the race might have been a display of Larson's skills, some fans termed it to be a boring race. Many called out the lack of tire wear that made it easy for the car to keep leading for the most part. While this lack of wear was "baffling," as NASCAR's Elton Sawyer explained, it was also a completely different story from the race held on the circuit earlier this season.

The first Bristol race of the 2024 Cup Series season witnessed major tire failures which made the race a game of strategy for the teams and tire management for the drivers. The result remained uncertain for a long time. As much as fans seemed to enjoy that, however, Kyle Larson's crew chief Cliff Daniels claimed that it was not a good race.

Speaking to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, he explained that a lack of tire reliability creates chaos which is "not the type" the sport needs.

"The Bristol race, everyone wants to say was so amazing in the spring because of the tire coming apart," he said. "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 like that. That type of chaos is not what our sport needs on a weekly basis. We don't, we don't need chaos and calamity, you know, we need good, pure racing."

Larson, too, replied to the criticism after the race. He made a long social media post, and then later explained that spectators should not be blaming Goodyear for the lack of action in the race.

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Kyle Larson on lack of tire wear at Bristol: "Nobody has the answers"

In his social media post, the #5 Chevy driver explained that Bristol was never a track that witnessed major tire wear other than the race earlier this season. Claiming that Bristol has always been tough to attempt overtakes at, he wrote that Goodyear is not to be blamed for the issue.

He later reacted to his post while talking to SiriusXM. He claimed that no one has the answers to the issues of tire wear that the next-gen cars faced at Bristol.

"So like, everybody wants to blame Goodyear and everybody's got the answers and whatnot, and it's just nobody has the answers," Kyle Larson claimed. "Goodyear doesn't have the answer. NASCAR doesn't have the answer about their car and why it doesn't run good in traffic. You know, us, the drivers and the teams and engineers, we don't have the answers either."

After his dominant victory, Kyle Larson extended his lead at the top of the playoffs standings. He is chasing his second Cup Series championship this season.