Kyle Larson, a former NASCAR Cup champion, won Sunday’s 400-lap race at Richmond Raceway, showcasing the strength of his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet over the closing miles of the race. This win marks his first victory of the season and came in a race that saw a variety of tire strategies.
Larson was able to overcome an incident on pit road during lap 160 where he bumped into Daniel Suarez, causing minor damage to his car. “I was really, really bad, really lacking traction that run. I was just shocked that the damage did that much to me. But thankfully it was in an area where they could pop it back out, and our car drove fine after that,” Larson said.
This win was particularly emotional for the Hendrick team as it came on the anniversary of the birthday of Ricky Hendrick, son of team owner Rick Hendrick, who died in a plane crash in 2004 along with several members of the team. Larson’s No. 5 car also carried a paint scheme similar to the one used by Ricky Hendrick when he raced.
The victory was a grand conclusion to a positive week for Hendrick Motorsports, which regained points it had been penalized by NASCAR when an appeals panel adjusted the penalties. Second on Sunday was Josh Berry, Larson’s Hendrick teammate and the fill-in driver for injured Chase Elliott, who is still recovering from a leg injury suffered in a snowboarding accident. Following in the top five were Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, and Kevin Harvick.
The race to the finish was set up by a caution flag with 30 laps to go, bunching the field with teams rolling along on different tire strategies. Larson won the race off pit road and led Berry, Martin Truex Jr., and William Byron to the green. Truex had held the lead but lost a shot at the win because of the caution. When he and the other leaders pitted, Truex had only a set of used tires for the final laps, putting him at a significant disadvantage.
The green was barely in the air when Bell popped Byron in the front pack, sending him into a spin and causing another caution. Truex took the lead after a round of green-flag pit stops around lap 290. Denny Hamlin had the lead when the sequence began, but a slow stop by his team allowed Truex, who had been second, to inherit the lead. Hamlin took the lead from Bell with two laps to go in the second stage and led Bell, Byron, Truex, and Chastain to the stage finish. Through two stages, Byron had led 108 laps and Larson 67.
Despite the ups and downs throughout the race, Larson managed to rally and take the win. His victory was the first for interim crew chief Kevin Meendering. The Cup Series will now move on to Bristol Motor Speedway for its annual dirt race on April 9th at 7 p.m. ET.
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NASCAR, Racing, Hendrick Motosports, Sport, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, Richmond Raceway, Nascar Cup Series
