DARLINGTON, S.C. — Despite four consecutive top-10 finishes, including a win two weeks ago, Kyle Larson will have a nearly new pit crew at Darlington Raceway this weekend.
Jafar Hall replaces Blaine Anderson as front tire changer. Mike Moss replaces Calvin Teague as rear tire changer. Allen Stallings replaces RJ Barnette as tire carrier. Eric Ludwig replaces Brandon Johnson as jackman.
Teague and Barnette were both on Larson’s pit crew when he won the 2021 championship.
Only fueler Brandon Harder remains the same for the No. 5 team from last week’s race at Martinsville.
Hall and Ludwig were with Larson’s team at Phoenix and Las Vegas when Anderson and Johnson served NASCAR-mandated two-race suspensions for a tire coming off the No. 5 car on the course at COTA.
Hall and Ludwig have been with Justin Haley’s team in the other races this season. Moss and Stallings have been with Haley’s team all season. Hendrick Motorsports supplies pit crews to Spire Motorsports.
Hall, Ludwig, Moss and Stallings were a part of a crew with Haley that has turned in some of the quicker pit times among those in the Hendrick camp in recent weeks.
“We’ve looked at a lot of different factors of really not what the old (No.) 5 group was doing wrong, but what this other group was doing right,” crew chief Cliff Daniels said Saturday morning at Darlington Raceway about the change. “We’ve been working really hard within our pit department of just pushing, pushing the edge of performance and whatever that takes to keep moving the needle Certainly a lot of teams are performing at a very high level on pit road.”
Daniels said that the previous No. 5 pit crew had been “solid” in recent races, which has seen Larson finish third at Phoenix, ninth at Las Vegas, first at Homestead and fifth at Martinsville.
“Solid is certainly a great word to use,” Daniels said of the crew’s performance lately. “But we weren’t outstanding over-the-top of times. … Over the course of this season and over the course of the end of last season, the incoming group has really been putting up really fast times, very consistent, performing at a high level.”
