"More of a fuel race than a tire race" - Kyle Larson's crew chief describes strategy at NASCAR Watkins Glen race

The Watkins Glen International marked another historic moment for defending Cup Series champion Kyle Larson over the weekend. The 30-year-old California native sealed the Watkins Glen racing weekend with a back-to-back victory, becoming the first driver to do so at the venue since 2015.

Before winning the Xfinity race, Kyle Larson had claimed P2 in the Cup Series qualifying race, which meant he was in a good place to take home the win. Larson began the day in the front row alongside his teammate Chase Elliot on Sunday.

The two drivers had the same goal of winning this race. Elliot was hoping to reclaim it after he lost it in 2021, while Larson was on the defending side after winning it in 2021. After a long battle, Larson eventually emerged as the 2022 Go Bowling race winner after leading five laps.

The race encountered a delay due to rain, and most thought Larson’s team changed their strategy after the rain came. Larson’s crew chief, Cliff Daniels, however, cited that that was not the case since they had looked at the race on both sides, rain and dry before the race started. According to him, this race was more about fuel than the tire.

While speaking to the media about the strategy change after the rains, Daniels said:

“We had kind of looked at it two different ways with rain mileage or in the dry. You could really two-stop the race. It was more of a fuel race than a tire race. We kind of had a fuel number we wanted to hit either way.”

The Hendrick Motorsports driver was among the drivers who had double duties at The Glen, driving the #88 Camaro ZL1 for JR Motorsports on Saturday in the Xfinity Series and the #5 Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports in the Cup Series on Sunday.

The California-born driver claimed his first win of the weekend on Saturday. Larson ran third during the event, while William Byron and Ty Gibbs were in the front position. Gibbs ended up spinning and tagged Byron, giving Larson a good chance to take the lead that he went on to hold to the victory lane.

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Kyle Larson’s aggressive move against Chase Elliott at Watkins Glen

Despite winning the race, Kyle Larson didn’t walk out of the track without controversy. Like his first win at the Auto Club Speedway earlier this year, he pulled an aggressive move against Chase Elliott to win the race; this time around, the situation didn’t change much.

The only thing that has changed in this scenario is that Elliott didn’t end up on the wall like in the first race. During the event, Larson went hard on Elliot in Turn 1 on the final restart, taking the lead and holding it for the next five laps before eventually claiming his 18th career win.

Following Watkins Glen's win, Larson now jumps to second place in the drivers’ standing with 788 points, 134 points behind leader Elliot.