Hendrick No. 5 crew chief Cliff Daniels on Kyle Larson All-Star Race: ‘Either he makes it in time or he doesn’t’

“We had quite a few [backup plans] and I think it’s gotten a bit simpler now,” Daniels told Matt Weaver of Sportsnaut. “We were gonna try to work the [Justin] Allgaier angle and really try to abide by the fine print of the rule of having an eligible driver to even be able to start the All-Star Race if Kyle was gonna sub in. But basically, that isn’t really on the table anymore. So, our plans have gone from two or three layers really to one pretty simple layer. We’re an All-Star car, we’re gonna start in the back of the All-Star Race no matter what and Kyle is our driver and either he makes it in time, or he doesn’t.

“It’s a pretty simple one-step plan. We’re gonna do everything we can here to make sure our ducks are in a row. We’ll have the car ready for him. We have a helicopter waiting for him at the airport when he lands, so he’ll chop over from the airport over to here and do our job and make sure we’re ready and see how it goes.”

The plan remains for Larson to catch a plane ride from Indianapolis to a North Wilkesboro airport and then helicopter over to the racetrack for the All-Star Race, which is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET. Jeff Gluck of The Athletic said the belief is that Larson will have to leave pit road at Indianapolis for his helicopter by 6:05 p.m. in order to make it to North Wilkesboro in time.

Kyle Larson breaks down his Indy 500 qualifying run: ‘I’ll definitely take that’

Larson officially qualified for next Sunday’s 108th Running of the Indy 500 following a P7 finish in Saturday’s initial qualifying session. Not only did he qualify for the Indy 500, but he made his way into the Fast 12 with a shot at winning the pole. 

“Yeah, I’ll definitely take that,” Larson told NBC after the run. “Hopefully, it’s enough to make the Fast 12 for tomorrow, that’d be really cool. Happy with the balance of the car and proud of the team for all of us not freaking out after not getting to complete that first run. Just great to be in the show. Huge thank you to Arrow McLaren, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, especially Rick Hendrick. I know he’s watching probably back at home and just an awesome opportunity and having a blast so far, too.

“Staying in tune with things that are going on at North Wilkesboro as well. So, it’s been fun watching from a distance. Happy to get a good run in there.”

Fast 12 qualifying takes place from 3:05-4:05 p.m. Sunday. The top six advance to Indy 500 pole qualifying, slated for 5:25-5:55 p.m.