“It’s a big deal,” Daniels said. “I think Mr. H (Hendrick) looked at where our pit crews were the last couple years and he kind of tasked all of us with improving over-the-wall performance. Of course, we needed to improve car performance, needed to improve in every area. And the crew chiefs, Chad Knaus, a lot of guys, we all spent time really trying to refine our pit crews and keep pushing them the way we practice.
“Big credit to the coaches, the staff back at the shop. I want to say there are six or eight people that are really in charge of our pit crew department,” Daniels noted. “They have done a great job all year long of pushing our guys every week. And I know that sounds basic and simple, but it is that simplicity of the reps, the routine, the pushing, the workout days, the practice days that made the difference for us at the end of the championship, which we all know if the 5 car didn’t win the race off pit road, we probably don’t win the race, we probably don’t win the championship.”
Hendrick and Daniels both realize the game will change because of the Next Gen race car. It will also dramatically change the structure of race teams. With many of the parts designed by Dallara and pre-manufactured by Technique Inc., teams have dramatically trimmed their number of employees.
Instead of each team building each race car from scratch, or other smaller race teams purchasing race cars through engineering alliances, the new car will be pre-packaged as NASCAR hopes to shed a tremendous amount of money from a race team’s budget.
“I think it’s a big deal,” Daniels said. “It kind of hit home for me on championship week. A lot of the guys that normally you see in their specific department for chassis construction, body construction, finish fab, whatever it may be, I see them maybe weekly, bi-weekly, for how they operate and how they work. We had a lot of those folks that came up to the race shop floor to be there with the cars on the setup plate, to be with the teams.
“We had a lot of those guys, a lot of the craftsmen, the fabricators, the guys that really put their heart and soul and their craft into building these cars. We had a lot of them around Monday and Tuesday until we loaded.
“That was a really bittersweet moment because those guys had such a hand not only in building our cars this year, but I know we as a company were really proud that we have a lot of guys that have been at our company for over 15 or 20 years,” Daniels continued. “There are so many of those guys, those folks that have been around for so long. They’ve contributed to all the success of Hendrick Motorsports.
“To have them around to see the look on their face that they were sending their best out the door but also knowing that life is going to be different next year, I think we’re all excited in the anticipation for what next year is, but it’s definitely different.
“That moment kind of hit home for me, and I think it did for a lot of folks, to see those guys on the shop floor kind of saying their goodbyes, sending their best wishes to their final true piece of art that is a NASCAR race car Gen-6, the way we’ve known it.”
NASCAR has already held one race with the Next Gen car, the Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Feb. 6.
The season officially begins with the Daytona 500 on Feb. 20.
Do Larson and Hendrick Motorsports believe the success they experienced in 2021 can carry over to 2022?
“I don’t know,” Larson said. “Thankfully, I’m young, I’m still in my 20s and who knows? Who knows what’s out there, what other opportunities I might get, what other big races or something I could run?
“I’m up for anything.
“I’m just very fortunate to have all the opportunities I’ve ever been given, and it’s hard to think about what else I would like to accomplish, but I love winning races, and I love driving all sorts of vehicles.”
In a year where the entire series has the same starting point in terms of understanding of the new car, the bigger teams such as Hendrick Motorsports always have an edge through resources.
The other key to Hendrick’s return to dominance is youth. None of its four drivers are older than the 29-year-old Larson. Alex Bowman is 28, Elliott is 26 and Byron 24.
Hendrick Motorsports is built to win now and built for the future of NASCAR.