A championship campaign rarely follows a straight line, and Kyle Larson’s 2026 season has been proof of that. For months, the defending champion struggled to turn promising performances into victories, leaving the No. 5 Chevrolet short of the results expected from Hendrick Motorsports. Yet when the Chase began, Larson found another gear. What looked like a difficult title defense has become a campaign in which he has put considerable distance between himself and his closest rivals.

For former Hendrick Motorsports crew chief and current vice president of competition Chad Knaus, the explanation goes beyond Larson’s driving ability. Having watched the No. 5 operation through its difficult weeks and strongest performances, Knaus believes its approach to the season has made a crucial difference when the championship pressure has intensified.

“I think that what sets them up is that they do that every single week. And when the playoffs show up, they don’t deviate,” Knaus said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. They don’t change. The same level of pressure has been put on that team from the moment they roll down to the Daytona 500 in February to where they are today.”

Larson’s Chase results provide the strongest evidence for Knaus’ assessment. The No. 5 team entered the postseason as the seventh seed after going winless through the opening 26 races. The drought stretched back to Kansas in May 2025, while nine finishes outside the top 30 exposed the inconsistency that had affected Larson’s campaign. He had even dropped to 10th in the standings during August before recovering to secure his Chase position.

“I think that’s the strength of that team. They’re very consistent,” he continued. “Jesse Saunders is an amazing car chief, Cliff is a great crew chief, Kyle is an amazing driver. That whole team, all the way through and through, has been doing the same thing all year with the same level of expectation, regardless of the performance. I think that’s a pretty impressive thing. We see it time and time again as teams roll into the Chase. People tend to take themselves out, and they’ve been able to not do that because they have had consistent pressure all year long, and as we know, pressure makes diamonds.”

Larson wasted little time making up for lost ground after his recovery. He finished sixth or better in each of the first six Chase races, winning at Gateway and Kansas to end a 51-race winless streak. His 2.83 average finish over that stretch ranked as the second-best six-race run in Cup Series postseason history. The consistency kept him in the fight, with valuable points coming his way week after week.

Phoenix briefly threatened to undo that progress. An ill-handling Chevrolet and a tire failure left Larson 34th, allowing his closest challengers to close the gap. But he responded at Talladega with a victory that had previously eluded him in 58 attempts at drafting tracks. He led 23 laps and made the decisive move in overtime. The victory turned his five-point advantage over Christopher Bell into a 73-point lead over Denny Hamlin.

That response is central to Knaus’ argument. The No. 5 team did not need to overhaul its approach after Phoenix or chase an entirely different setup. Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels returned to work, maintaining the same expectations that had carried them through the earlier races. Even when the performance was not there, the process remained intact.

Knaus also understands how easily championship pressure can push rival teams away from that approach. As the points deficit grows, the temptation to force results becomes stronger. He believes competitors can end up demanding more from their cars and teams than their capabilities allow.

“It is easy to overthink. And yes, it is easy to try to outreach what your capabilities are,” Knaus added. “The thing that I’m super impressed with, with the five when I look at them right now, but they have raced the same way all year, and they have put the same amount of effort in every event all year.”

Denny Hamlin’s championship situation offers a clear example. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver entered the Chase as the top seed after winning four regular-season races. However, his postseason campaign has been interrupted by problems. Contact at Darlington, a spin at Las Vegas, and a tire failure at Phoenix all cost him valuable points.

More importantly, Larson’s run has changed what Hamlin needs from the remaining races. With 73 points separating them and only Martinsville and Homestead remaining, Hamlin needs a major turnaround while also relying on Larson to surrender ground.

His comments after Talladega reflected that change in perspective. Despite finishing eighth, Hamlin lost another 42 points to Larson and acknowledged how much the championship now depended on the No. 5 team’s fortunes.

“Truthfully, they’ve done a lot of things right, and a lot of things have really gone right, and we’ve not done that,” Hamlin said. “So, we’ve got a big old gap, and I think as long as he can keep his four tires on it the next two weeks, he’ll be champion again.”

That is the predicament Knaus is talking about. Hamlin still has the ability to win at Martinsville, but even a victory may not be enough if Larson continues collecting points. The No. 11 team must execute while also hoping its championship rival encounters trouble.

Larson, meanwhile, does not need to concern himself with what happens in the other garages. His 73-point advantage puts him in position to clinch the championship at Martinsville, provided he scores the necessary points. The No. 5 team’s consistency has brought him within reach of a third Cup Series title, without requiring a change in approach when the stakes became the highest.

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