Sunday it was Kyle Larson’s turn. Larson took the lead during a final round of pit stops Sunday at Richmond Raceway with 21 laps to go, then kept it after one final restart to score his first NASCAR Cup win of 2023.
“It’s really cool,” Larson said. “We’ve been close to winning a couple. William has been extremely good this year.”
His triumph came after tragedy for William Byron, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate who has won two of the first six races coming into Richmond and who looked to be the car to beat for much of the afternoon.
Byron would lead a race high 117 laps, win Stage 1 and was leading until the final round of stops which came during the race’s seventh of eight cautions for a Tyler Reddick spin. While Larson took the lead out of the pits, Byron came out fourth. On the restart however, Christopher Bell slipped up the track crossing the start-finish line and got into Byron, spinning his Chevy and bringing out the final caution of the day.
“It looked like the 1 was inside the 20 (Bell) and the 20 just overcooked the corner and had the fronts locked up and nailed us in the left rear,” Byron said. “So I was just kind of restarting fourth there and trying to stay tight to the 9 and get a good restart. I just got tagged in the left rear. So, yeah, just a dive bomb move on the inside on his part and it is what it is. I had a great race car. The Raptor Chevrolet was awesome all day and we will just keep bringing fast race cars like that and we will get a lot more wins. It was looking like it could be another win before the caution. That’s the way it goes.”
Restarting outside the top 20, Byron never had a chance to rally and had to settle for 24th place.
The win for Larson was his first since Homestead last fall. It was also the first for crew chief Kevin Meendering who is in an interim role while Larson’s fulltime crew chief Cliff Daniels – along with the Hendrick team’s other three crew chiefs – serve out suspension penalties from NASCAR.
“So just things worked out,” Larson said. “My pit crew had a great stop. So shout out to Brandon Johnson. He is our jackman. He just turned 30 today. Our spotter, Tyler Monn, he turned 30 today. Great day for them guys.”
Denny Hamlin, a four-time Richmond winner looked to be the Byron spoiler in the second half of the race. After overcoming a pit road speeding penalty early in the going, Hamlin was able to grab the lead for the first time on lap 161, win Stage 2 and went on to lead 71 laps.
Hamlin’s teammate Martin Truex Jr. came on strong late in the going taking the lead from Hamlin at one point and would go on lead 56 laps on the day.
In the end, however, both Joe Gibbs Racing drivers lost the chance to win in the pits. Hamlin would be penalized once again for speeding on the final round of stops, while Truex’s pit strategy came back to haunt him. To gain track position, Truex’s crew pitted him for his last set of fresh tires. Had the race gone green to its conclusion it might have been a winning strategy. But on the final caution the leaders all had new tires, while the JGR for Truex only had scuffs, which were used.
With those scuffs, Truex quickly faded, finishing the day 11th. Hamlin was 20th.
Meanwhile Josh Berry’s Hendrick crew played their strategy to perfection, leaving their driver out longer before making the final round of green flag pit stops; then giving him second place out of the pits for the final round. In the end Berry subbing for Chase Elliott overcame an earlier spin and finished a career best second 1.53 seconds behind Larson.
“When we got some clean track, we weren’t running bad lap times,” Berry said. “I’m so glad they tried something different to get us there at the end.”
Bell was 4th with Kevin Harvick fifth.
“It was pretty disappointing,” Bell said. “I felt like we had enough speed in our Rheem Camry to be up there all day, but I had a couple of restarts that put us in the back. We would lose spots when the yellow flags would come out, so it was just an uphill battle all day.”
As for the contact Byron:
“I don’t know,” he said. “It was a pretty standard restart with the 1 (Ross Chastain) behind. I tried to protect from him going to the inside and he still made it three-wide there at the last minute and there wasn’t enough room.”
In all Sunday the race had 22 lead changes today, the most since 2016 victory and the most cautions (8) since 2017.
Using a similar strategy to Berry, Michael McDowell finished sixth, Joey Logano was seventh with Alex Bowman ninth and Brad Keselowski rounding out the top 10.
The win for Larson and the team was a bit more emotional than some. The paint scheme Larson ran, and won with, on his Chevrolet mirrored one raced by Ricky Hendrick son of team owner Rick Hendrick. Ricky died in a plane crash along with 9 others in October of 2004.
Sunday would have been Ricky Hendrick’s 43 birthday.
“I think days like today makes you wonder, you know, what Ricky’s presence would do for us if he was here with us today and what his leadership,” Jeff Gordon said. “You know, he was so passionate about Hendrick Motorsports and racing. So it’s nice, days like today, you know, when you do something special on his birthday. And I was talking to Rick, and he was emotional and excited, and so his presence is still here.
“I think that, you know, certainly our folks try to do everything they can to make Rick Hendrick proud. But when you know what Ricky’s impact could have been on our company and the people and the 5 car and that paint scheme and what that means to the whole company, it’s very rewarding to know that we’re still kind of thinking of him and paying tribute to him as often as we can. Maybe he is looking down on us as well.”
NASCAR next heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for the Food City Dirt Race next Sunday night. Kyle Busch is the defending winner.
NASCAR Cup Series Race Results Toyota Owners 400
Richmond Raceway
Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, April 2, 2023
1. (9) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 400.
2. (30) Josh Berry(i), Chevrolet, 400.
3. (4) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 400.
4. (21) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 400.
5. (10) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 400.
6. (15) Michael McDowell, Ford, 400.
7. (18) Joey Logano, Ford, 400.
8. (1) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 400.
9. (14) Ty Gibbs #, Toyota, 400.
10. (24) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 400.
11. (12) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 400.
12. (19) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 400.
13. (32) Aric Almirola, Ford, 400.
14. (2) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 400.
15. (13) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 400.
16. (5) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 400.
17. (37) Chandler Smith(i), Chevrolet, 400.
18. (33) Ryan Preece, Ford, 400.
19. (26) Harrison Burton, Ford, 400.
20. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 400.
21. (16) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 400.
22. (28) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 400.
23. (20) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 400.
24. (3) William Byron, Chevrolet, 400.
25. (27) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 399.
26. (17) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 399.
27. (25) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 399.
28. (6) Austin Cindric, Ford, 399.
29. (29) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 399.
30. (7) Chris Buescher, Ford, 398.
31. (22) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 398.
32. (36) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 398.
33. (35) Anthony Alfredo(i), Chevrolet, 396.
34. (31) Cody Ware, Ford, 395.
35. (8) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 384.
36. (34) JJ Yeley(i), Ford, 383.
37. (23) Noah Gragson #, Chevrolet, Accident, 303.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 91.085 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 17 Mins, 37 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.535 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 8 for 54 laps.
Lead Changes: 22 among 11 drivers.
Lap Leaders: A. Bowman 0;K. Busch 1;A. Bowman 2-9;W. Byron 10-33;R. Chastain 34-49;W. Byron 50-123;K. Larson 124-160;D. Hamlin 161-166;K. Larson 167-196;W. Byron 197-206;C. Bell 207-227;D. Hamlin 228-234;C. Bell 235;D. Hamlin 236-293;B. Wallace 294;M. Truex Jr. 295-307;K. Larson 308;M. Truex Jr. 309-351;C. Bell 352-355;B. Keselowski 356;J. Berry(i) 357-366;W. Byron 367-375;K. Larson 376-400.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): William Byron 4 times for 117 laps; Kyle Larson 4 times for 93 laps; Denny Hamlin 3 times for 71 laps; Martin Truex Jr. 2 times for 56 laps; Christopher Bell 3 times for 26 laps; Ross Chastain 1 time for 16 laps; Josh Berry(i) 1 time for 10 laps; Alex Bowman 1 time for 8 laps; Brad Keselowski 1 time for 1 lap; Kyle Busch 1 time for 1 lap; Bubba Wallace 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 24,5,1,4,22,45,48,20,6,14
Stage #2 Top Ten: 11,20,24,19,1,6,48,5,4,54
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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