CONCORD, N.C. - While NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 week brings a lot to the table for Hendrick Motorsports drivers Kyle Larson and William Byron, it's not anything the two haven't been through before.
And that's the case for several members of their respective teams as well.
Certainly, that includes crew chiefs Rudy Fugle (Byron, No. 24 team) and Cliff Daniels (Larson, No. 5 team). And it also includes members of the over-the-wall crews which have become ever more vital in the single-lug-nut, Next Gen era.
Not even a week ago, that importance was illustrated yet again. After snatching the lead from Ryan Blaney in the late going, a caution waved with Byron coming in for service with under 20 laps to go in a must-win scenario.
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And with everything hanging in the balance, the crew came through with the 24 car exiting pit road with the lead, never to relinquish it again. For the team, making its third straight Championship Race appearance, it was yet another defining moment in a long line of them in recent seasons. As rear-tire changer Orane Ossowski told HendrickMotorsports.com, it was also representative of the steady mentality excellence on pit road requires.
"You're always watching and scenario-wise, you're not just assuming, 'OK, we passed (Blaney). The race is over, we won,'" Ossowski said. "I think we've all done it on the pit crew long enough to realize it just takes one caution. One little spin or something that can flip the entire race over.
"You're assuming it's going to come. That's the way I view it. I assume there's going to be a caution, so the whole time, you're not already celebrating in your head, you're focused on, 'I'm going to do a pit stop in the next 20 minutes.' That way, when it pops up, you're ready. You're already locked in. So, that's the whole thing, staying locked in the whole time. You can relax when you take the white (flag). That's how I view it."
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Clutch stops such as Sunday's come with the heady territory both remaining Hendrick Motorsports teams find themselves in this weekend.
For No. 5 team fueler Brandon Harder, that was never more evident than during his team's run to a championship in 2021. With a title riding on the line at Phoenix, a caution waved with 30 laps to go with Larson coming down pit road for service. The No. 5 crew turned in a stop of 11.8 seconds, their fastest of the season, and it gave Larson the lead for good as he cruised to a championship.
"They all matter. That one really mattered," Harder said of the stop. "It was a great deal we had. But it's totally different now. We're in a totally different ball game now with the single lug and things are so much faster and the guys are great. It's just evolved and I've been fortunate to be a part of some special moments."
Both hope to be part of another special moment this weekend.
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For Ossowski and the 24 team, it would come as the culmination of a steady march toward the top of the sport over the last handful of years. The team has certainly won big races - back-to-back DAYTONA 500s, Hendrick Motorsports' 300th victory in 2023 and a win at Martinsville in 2024 on the 40th anniversary of the organization, to name a few.
That progression can be measured in points finishes as well. Byron was 14th in 2020, 10th the following year and sixth in 2022. Since have come back-to-back Championship 4 berths and ultimately, third-place finishes.
"It's all leading up to one thing, right?" Ossowski acknowledged. "We've won a lot of big races. So, hopefully, it's the next step. You want to be there for the big races and luckily, we have that opportunity this year."
For Larson, Daniels, Harder and the No. 5 team, a second title obviously boosts the squad onto a different platform in the sport's history. And after narrowly missing the Championship 4 a year ago, Harder said the team has a new appreciation for the moment.
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"You learn from winning, you learn from losing," Harder said. "Last year (we didn't make the Championship 4), so we had to sit back and reflect on that and take that in and it's only going to make you better. When you have that low, it only makes you better moving forward because you've gone through that. You can't win every weekend. You can't win every year. We sure try. That's the goal. But sometimes you need the downs to escalate to greater highs."
And yet, each are also aware of the volatility and finality of a one-race, winner-take-all format. With that comes an appreciation for the journey already traversed.
"The hardest part is getting there," Ossowski observed. "It's the nine weeks before. The ups and downs of, 'So-and-so is locked in with a win and you're so far above the cutline, now you're below.'
"I don't want to say the hard part is over because there's still a big race, but you can't win it unless you're in it and we're here now. Car wise and pit crew wise, you've got what you've got. So, all you can do is go out and play to the best of your ability and luckily, we're in a position where we're in the Championship 4."
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Now, how to best execute.
For one, both agree that experience will help, at least in some ways on Sunday. Ossowski said one advantage is an intimate knowledge of what to expect in the circumstances that surround the team this weekend.
But once the cameras and the questions fade into the blur of the background on Sunday, it's business as usual.
"The first time, you definitely sensed that there's pressure," Ossowski said. "You're going to feel some nerves and that's OK but embrace it. There's 30 or whatever drivers, they don't have a shot to win a championship, and you do and that's a good thing. You've got to be there. So, going into this one, I feel like you know what to expect. There's going to be cameras and people around the pit box, to not get overwhelmed by that when you step up on the wall. It's just another pit stop. The car is going to come down, we're going to pit it, we're going to send it off and it's all the same."
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No matter how the events of Sunday unfold, Ossowski, Harder and the rest of the crew members on the Championship 4 teams will have an opportunity to impact the race at numerous points. Larson and Byron will each have to leave pit stops in the hands of their crews, but on the flipside, crew members will watch on from pit road as their respective drivers dig each corner in search of tenths, even hundredths of seconds.
And therein lies the eternal crux of team sports. And the heart of competition lies a group of people; each dependent on each other for the execution of individual tasks.
If the No. 5 team returns to Phoenix victory lane on Sunday, it will be as a team. Just as it was in 2021. And Harder is as confident now as he was then in the parts that comprise the whole.
"We know he's going to give his best every lap," Harder said of Larson. "That's what he does. He's a bad ass. And we can control what we can control, and he can control what he can control and as a team, we all do our parts and do our jobs, and the outcome will speak for itself.
"For me, I'm very optimistic for the weekend. We've got a great group of guys and road crew, pit crew, the whole team is really a great team."